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How to Keep Your
Puppy
From Chewing Up Your
Shoes
By
Larry Parr
First
let me start by saying that nothing
will prevent puppies from chewing on shoes 100% of the time. Chewing on things is an inbred trait
for most dogs, and the trait is especially strong in puppies.
Puppies,
like small children, are naturally curious and, even more so than for
small children, everything goes
into a puppy’s mouth.
Unfortunately that can
include a pair of your favorite shoes.
There
are some things you can do to lessen your puppy’s desire to chew on your
shoes, and I’ll get to those in just a moment, but probably one of the
best things you can do to stop your puppy from chewing on your shoes is
to not let your puppy get a hold of your shoes in the first place.
There’s
an easy way to do this. Get a
small to medium-sized plastic or rubberized box for each room of the
house where shoes are normally tossed onto the floor. These boxes are available
at stationary stores and even a lot of general merchandise stores, such
as WalMart and Target.
Every
time anyone kicks off their shoes they open the box, put the shoes
inside, and snap the lid. It is
very unlikely your puppy will open one of these boxes to get to your
shoes.
We have
successfully gone through a couple of puppies using this technique
without losing even one pair of shoes.
There
are other things you can do. The
main reason that puppies chew shoes is because they are looking for prey
to catch and kill and shoes (possibly because of their distinctive odor)
seem to trigger the prey response in many puppies.
If you
can create the prey response for other objects besides shoes, then your
puppy will be too busy with them to worry about chewing your shoes.
One
trick that has worked well for us and for many other people involves
tying a piece of string or fishing line to a ball or a chew toy that you
would rather the puppy gnawed on.
Dangle the toy or the ball in front of the puppy and then let the
object lie on the floor close to your puppy.
When
your puppy investigates the object, gently
tug the string to make the object “run” a foot or two. Don’t yank too hard on the string. You want
the object to stay close to your puppy so that your puppy will remain
interested in it.
By
pulling the object just out of
your puppy’s reach a few times you will trigger the puppy’s instinct to
jump on and to catch moving prey. Keep the object just out of your
puppy’s reach for no more than one minute, perhaps even thirty seconds to
begin with or you risk your puppy losing interest.
Then
allow your puppy to “catch” its prey and to chew on it for several
seconds. Then start the game
again, tugging the object just out of your puppy’s reach for several
seconds before once again allowing your puppy to catch the item.
Very
soon your puppy will come to recognize this item as the thing it wants to
play with and not your shoes.
I
recommend that you do the string trick with two or three items, such as a
toy, a ball, and perhaps a Kong Chew Bone that you can fill with peanut
butter or dry dog food when you plan to leave your puppy alone for any
length of time. In this way your
puppy will develop a fondness for playing with up to three different
toys, which helps prevent boredom, which is a big problem with puppies
and one reason they chew on shoes.
By
creating three different “prey” toys, with one that can be filled with
peanut butter or dry food, you should be able to leave your puppy for
quite a while before it runs out of “prey” to catch and begins looking
for something new to do.
Keep in
mind that puppies will be puppies, and no trick such as this will work
100% of the time. So either get a
set of plastic bins that you can toss your shoes in when you’re not
wearing them, or resign yourself to the fact that you just may lose a
pair or two of shoes, even if you do create a herd of “prey” for your
puppy to catch and worry over while you’re away.
If your
puppy shows an unusually strong reaction every time you return home and
if your puppy has done considerable damage to items in the house while
you’ve been away, your puppy could be experiencing a condition known as
Separation Anxiety.
If you
suspect Separation Anxiety then read more about it HERE.
©2005 by Larry Parr
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
There are two excellent
dog training programs which I can personally recommend to you. One I have personally used, and the
other my sister-in-law used and both programs worked miracles.
You can read all about the program my wife and I used to train
our three dogs HERE.
Read about the program my sister-in-law used to train her old
hound dog HERE.
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