Things You'll Need:
- Chuckit
- Lots of Dog Toys
- Food Rewards For Your Dog
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Step 1
Make sure your puppy gets lots of exercise. Bored puppies get into trouble, and it’s often said that “tired puppies are good puppies”, so make sure your puppies get’s LOTS of exercise and play. There are many simple ways to play with your puppy that don’t wear YOU out too. One of my favorite tools is the “Chuckit”. The “Chuckit” is a ball throwing devise that allows you to easily play fetch with your dog without throwing out your shoulder and without covering your hands in dog slobber. A few minutes a day of fetch with this toy and your puppy’s behavior will be much less intense to manage.
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Step 2
Teach your puppy how to self-entertain. This is most easily done by using puzzle toys like “the cube” or “tug-a-jug”. The beauty of these toys is that they allow you to hide food inside them, and keep your puppy mentally stimulated as he tries to figure out how to get the food out. When using these toys, start off simple. Don’t make it too hard for your puppy to get the treats out of these toys. If it takes a new puppy 15 minutes to get a tiny treat the first time, he’ll probably give up and start ignoring the toys all together. Instead start with easy toys like a ‘Stuffed Kong’, that immediately allow the dog to receive a treat, but also make it harder to get the treats out the longer they dig into it. When you set up these toys correctly, you can get your dog to self-entertain for up to an hour at a time.
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Step 3
Stock up on toys! It’s important for you to have TONS of toys. You should have several toys for every type of texture your dog likes to chew on. If your dog likes to chew on soft things like pillows or sofa cushions, you need to stock up on plush dog toys. Or if your dog likes to chew on harder things like table legs and rocks, then you need to pick up harder plastic toys.
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Step 4
Put Replacement Toys next to things your puppy chews up. By making sure that you place hard plastic toys next to the table legs your puppy likes to chew on, and plush toys next to the pillows and cushions you create an environment that increases the likelihood of helping your puppy make the RIGHT choice of what is acceptable to chew on.
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Step 5
Teach your puppy the Leave-it command. The Leave-it command is simple to teach and crucial for teaching your dog to exercise some emotional self control. Teaching your puppy this command makes him more likely to obey you as his training progresses, even when he really wants to chew on something. To teach the leave-it it is helpful to start with your puppies food. Take a piece of his food, and let your puppy see you drop it on the floor, then cover it with your foot. Choose a type of food that your puppy lies enough that he’ll then try to dig the food out from under your foot. When the puppy gives up, tell him “good boy”, and let him have the food under your foot. This teaches your puppy that the best way to get something he wants is to “resist the emotional urge”… and the more Urge Control your puppy has the easier he’ll be to live with.
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Step 6
Teach your puppy the Drop It command. The Drop It command is very similar to the Leave-it command. Both behaviors require your puppy to have some emotional self control. But the drop it command is more emotionally demanding from a dog then the Leave it because it is harder for most dogs to give up things they already have. For many dogs you can start to teach this command by playing fetch and requiring your dog to drop the ball before you throw it again, instead of prying it out of his mouth. The key to training the drop it, is to teach your puppy that dropping the item for you means he get’s something he wants MORE then the item he’s holding. When teaching a puppy to retrieve a dropped ball and drop it at your feet, don’t chase your dog. Instead offer him a tasty treat for coming to you. When your dog goes to take the treat, he’ll have to drop the ball first. When he drops the ball tell him “good boy”, feed him the treat, and then give him an extra bonus by throwing the ball again! By double stacking your dog’s reward like this, your dog realizes the easiest way to get you to throw a ball is by dropping it in front of you. Just be prepared to have lots of balls dropped in your lap from now on.
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Step 7
Teach your dog the difference between items he can & cannot chew. This is done by confining your dog to an area you can supervise and “catching” him in the act of chewing on bad things. When you see your puppy chewing on something he shouldn’t, quickly rush over to him without giving him any positive attention, give him a firm “leave it” or “drop it” command. When the dog obeys, praise him and give him back a Replacement Toy that has a similar texture to the item he was chewing on. See the resources section below for more in depth tips on teaching this technique.
