There is one behaviour that sees puppy owners take their beloved little bundles of fur to puppy school for more than most, and that is destructive chewing. There are countless stories of puppies chewing through almost anything, often to destruction. Unfortunately, many of those items were irreplaceable or extremely valuable, so it is safe to say destructive puppy chewing is not welcome.

If you have a puppy and fear that it is starting to chew items it should not, then you need to take action. Let us state right away that we are not talking about punishing your puppy. Teaching any dog, no matter how young, how to behave should always be done based on praise and rewards for good behaviour rather than punishment for bad behaviour.

At worst, it would be best if you used the tone of your voice to indicate to a puppy that what they are about to do is wrong. That does not mean shouting at the top of your voice, tempting as that might be when a puppy has just destroyed the TV remote. A better way is taking action that teaches your puppy proper behaviour, and below you will see some ideas of what we mean when it comes to training your puppy not to chew things. It should not be destruction.

Pay Attention: Just as you would keep a close eye on a baby, the same applies to your puppy. The more attentive you are, the more likely you are to prevent them from chewing something they shouldn’t.

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