Parkway Animal Hospital's
PET OWNER'S GUIDE TO
Chewing
Puppies are CHEWING machines!!!
The inherited tendency to investigate the surroundings is very strong in the young dog. Your success preventing chewing problems depends on how effectively you can channel your pup's tendency toward acceptable chews, rather than unacceptable items. Between the ages of three and six months, your puppy will begin to teethe. Just like babies, puppies chew to relieve some of the discomfort associated with the eruption of the permanent teeth. Puppies also chew to explore their environment as a form of play. It makes little difference to a puppy whether he chews on a toy or on a pair of your favorite shoes. He needs your help and direction in chewing on what is appropriate and what is not.
The two distinct periods when excessive chewing is likely to occur are during the teething period at three months of age, and during the time when the permanent teeth become set in the jaw between 6-12 months. Regardless of these times, the young puppy will continually attempt to investigate objects with his mouth. It is at this age that he or she must be taught what is acceptable to chew and what is not!
A common mistake people make frequently is to provide chewable objects that, in texture, resemble valued objects. The puppy cannot distinguish between rawhide chews, an old shoe, and a good shoe! If he or she learns that chewing any time leather product is acceptable, then all leather products become fair game.
Another concern often overlooked concerns the pup's ingestion of harmful objects. We periodically have to surgically remove needles, bones, and small toys from the stomach of puppies.
Follow These Tips to Help Train Your Pup Properly:
- Never leave a puppy unattended unless he's RESTRICTED to a damage-proof area. We highly suggest airline-shipping crates for confinement during the first 4-8 weeks. This also helps greatly with housetraining. See CRATING YOUR PUPPY for more information
- Purchase NYLA-BONE. Never allow products that can be swallowed or chewed into splinters. We do not recommend rawhide chew toys, other than C.E.T chews which help keep the teeth clean.
- When the pup begins to chew something he shouldn't, don’t correct him with a raised voice, just remove the object. IMMEDIATELY offer him one of his chews, but do not force it into his mouth. Simply place it before him and praise.
- Bitter Apple can also be used to spray directly onto the item that you do not wish the puppy to chew. For most pups this is a strong enough deterrent to make them want to put the object down.
