Reply #24: all puppies chew [View All]

[radfringe]

we go through this when we foster greyhounds - and these are adult dogs

first - puppy proof the house - move all things you don't want chewed out of range or blocked off or moved to a room that will be off limits to the puppy.

I agree that a firm NO will work -- sometimes -- but unless you catch the puppy in the act he doesn't understand what it means

Our airedale (now 10 yrs old) chewed on shoes, ripped up linoleum and trashed the wastepaper baskets as a pup. 99% of the time we didn't catch her in the act. So saying "NO" meant nothing to her.
We opted for the adversion therapy approach -- we took the shoe, magazine, pieces of linoleum or whatever and tied it to her collar. Then over the course of an hour we would shake it in her face and yell NO. After about an hour it would be removed. In about a week she left these things alone. There were a couple of relapses, but another hour of wearing the item soon set things right.

biting at your heels etc. -- he wants to play and is trying to entice you to join. Again we ran into this with our airedale - a snap on the nose and/or yelling NO did no good -- she thought it was part of the game. Back to adversion therapy: When she would bit we would put our hand in her mouth and hold it there until she whined, followed by firm NO. You want to hold it there long enough so it's uncomfortable -- they learn this real fast because it's an immediate reaction to their action.

not sure how big the pup will be - but if jumping is a problem and "NO" doesn't work........

two approaches: A. when the dog jumps - grab the paws and hold them in a standing position until they whine and give a few "NO"s
Dogs aren't built to stand for long periods of time - it gets uncomfortable for them to be in this position.

holding our airdale up didn't work well so we went to plan B: When I would come into the house - I'd immediately say "NO JUMPING" - when she would jump, I would grab her and force her to the floor in a laying position and hold her there until she whined and all the while saying NO JUMPING -- took about two weeks and we had no problems after that