Get your dog to chew on
the RIGHT stuff!

by Emily
(South Carolina)

Chi poo when baby

Soo.. You probably either have a pain of a dog that loves to chew on anything it desires, or you're about to get a dog and you're scared of what its going to do.

Well.. Here's some training tips for you that have worked on my dog and other dogs too.

I have a chi-poo. It is a chihuahua-poodle mix. I have NEVER had a chewing problem with her when she was a puppy.

She only chewed on her toys. You're probably thinking.. Yeah Right! Impossible! But listen here to my story.

I trained my puppy quick! I would set her in a room that had nothing too important in it that I wouldn't be agonized to have ruined.

For example: a laundry room. I would put about 10 things scattered all around the room. 5 of the things would be the puppy's toys that were OK to chew on.

The other 5 were things it wasn't allowed to chew on. For example: sock, washcloth, closed marker, stuffed animal, shoe, scarf.

Then I would leave the puppy alone in the room for 30 seconds. Then open the door. If I find her chewing on a NO toy then I would take the toy from her and say firmly, "no chew."

Then I would hand her a YES toy and say, "here chew on this." I would repeat this training process about 5 times a day and soon, it worked.

Make sure you keep a close eye on what the puppy plays with when it is still not fully trained.

Do not hit the puppy or nudge its nose because then it will just be scared to get near you and will still chew on what it wants in private because it doesn't know why you're hitting it.

Good Luck!