Have you ever come home to find that while you were gone, your puppy or dog has been busy chewing up your shoes, your remote control, pillows, perhaps a book you were enjoying, or God knows what? If that’s what is happening to you, you surely will want to learn how to get him to stop.

It is easy to figure out why puppies and young dogs are potentially so destructive. Use this understanding for helping to control the puppy chewing.While the puppies are in their teething stage, they experience a lot of discomfort, and need to chew on things because of this. Puppies and young dogs up to age 3 are definitely going to have more chewing urges than an older dog. However, a dog of any age may chew just to be doing something to  pass the time. Your dog may be doing some chewing just because he is bored or lonely and under-exercised. Whichever reason is relevant to your dog or pup, you can learn some easy ways to control dog chewing.

Here are some tips on how to stop dog chewing problems at your house.

• The most obvious way to do some dog proofing of the house is to put the dog out in the yard during the times you are away from the house. If you do want to leave your dog inside while you are gone, make sure to put all those things he enjoys chewing (shoes, books, etc.) somewhere he can’t reach them. By just using a little common sense you can easily stop your dog from chewing the loose things in your bedrooms and other rooms- just close the doors to those rooms. An example would be to keep all your shoes or slippers inside a closed closet door. Likewise keep your remote controls, books, cell phones, etc., out of reach by putting up on a higher shelf. Likewise, be sure to put all your food away in a cabinet and not left on a shelf  he can reach. Obviously, if you have a big dog, you’ll need to be more careful where you leave stuff. Since your dog can stand up on his hind legs, make sure you consider that when putting something tempting away.

• Stop your dog from chewing your personal items by giving your dog some good alternative items for his chewing enjoyment.A great way to save slippers is to provide some chew toys for your pet to ravish. Among the various chew toys, I like the Kong best-it keeps my dogs occupied for a long time. the Kong is an odd shaped ball like toy with a hollow center that I like to put peanut butter into. Your dog will stay occupied for quite a while as he tries to get at the treat inside. Because of its odd shape,the Kong  also bounces like crazy when you throw it, and makes a great fetch toy. In addition to the Kong, provide him with some other chew toys, so he doesn’t get bored with just the one. If he’s chewing something like a chew toy, the chewing he’s doing is no longer a problem-instead it’s a fun way for him to spend some time.

• You should stop your puppy from chewing anything unapproved immediately whenever you catch him in the act. One way to do this is to make a loud clapping sound with your hands and say “no” in a firm (but not angry) voice. This should get your dog’s attention. This will surely let him know he is goofing up. You want his attention, but don’t make it negative-no hitting or yelling. You don’t want to scare him, just correct him. Be sure to stay calm, go to your dog and remove the item he’s chewing on and replace it with your approved alternative-the Kong or some other chew toy. Immediately after he puts that in his mouth praise him big time. He’ll start to get the idea that while some things are OK to chew on,  others aren’t. Dogs are smart, and it won’t take log before he recognizes that he gets praise and a reward for acting appropriately. Just like us. Don’t punish your dog for something that happened previously-for example, he chewed up your shoe while you were at work. Don’t correct your dog’s behavior unless you catch them in the act of digging something prohibited. Your dog doesn’t understand why you are correcting him, unless he can relate it to whatever he is doing at the present moment. By correcting him after he has already stopped the problem activity, you will only confuse your doggy, not help solve the problem.

Hopefully you have found this advice to be helpful with saving some of your possessions. To read  many more tips and good advice to help you with training your dog at home, please click here www.BehaveDoggy.com.

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