Teething Puppies
Although owning a puppy is an absolute joy most of the time,
it can come with a few headaches. We are often asked how to stop puppies from
chewing everything in sight. My top tips for minimising puppy destruction are:
·
Give the puppy toys it can chew. It may sound
obvious, but owners often fail to provide toys for puppies. Chewing is a
natural behaviour designed to strengthen jaws and help teething, so you need to
provide something to chew. If you don’t provide anything, your puppy will find
something itself
·
Remove things you don’t want chewed. Puppies
aren’t born with a sense of what they can and can’t chew. If it is valuable,
keep it out of the puppies reach
·
Avoid mixed messages. Don’t provide old shoes to
chew or other such objects as the puppy can’t tell the difference between an
old shoe it can chew and a new one it can’t
·
Training is essential. Puppies can be
intelligent creatures, and if you don’t provide adequate mental and physical
stimulation they can get bored, which can lead to destructive behaviour
·
Ensure they have food to chew. Make sure the
food you feed your puppy needs chewing. Tinned or “wet” food can be more
palatable than biscuits, but it is often higher in fat and bad for their teeth.
Biscuits and raw chicken wings and necks can provide good chewing
opportunities.
·
Only tell them off if you catch them chewing
inappropriately. It’s a golden rule of dog training that you can only tell them
off when you catch them performing the bad behaviour, including chewing the
wrong thing, toileting in the wrong place, barking inappropriately, etc. You
can’t tell them off if you get home and find things destroyed, as this can
create anxiety problems and may make the destructive behaviour worse
For all puppies, we recommend
Puppy Preschool. We run Puppy Preschool on Monday evenings, with the course
lasting 4 weeks. It is a great chance to pick up handy tips on training and
behaviour, as well as a chance to socialise your puppy in a safe and controlled
environment. By attending Puppy Preschool at a vet clinic, it has the added
advantage of teaching your dog that the vets is a fun place to come, so vet
visits aren’t a scary and unpleasant experience for your pet.
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