chewing puppies

[kl. Lipke]

Our 11 month old mini golden doodle is chewing on our carpets.  We've tried many things including not letting him out of sight!  Anyone have some ideas to try - he gets lots of exercise, has many chew toys, etc.

[nate]

I love it when people skim a posting. Admittedly, my sentences were short.

But I didn't say hit , i said  "smack" and "softly".  Somewhere between a tap and a playful smack.  Nothing that induces pain, and much less jarring than the spraybottle method.  We're not talking 1970s "beat your dog with a newspaper" style. It's much softer than how he plays , and way way way softer than when I'm helping to clear his chest.  Just a quick jarring moment that startles him and becomes associated with a bad behavior and punishment.  As humans we can be quick to yell "No!!!" a dozen different ways -- but often it's different each time , and not uniquely repeatable.   Following a Bad Action with a jolt + "some form of no!!!!" +  time-out resonated in his mind.   We had to use it , perhaps 5 times.  Now if he's being bad and we roll up a newspaper, he instantly stops what he's doing and apologizes.  That and the time-out for 30s came from the highest rated pet trainers in our city.  

Showing a dog something "appropriate" to chew works really well when they're eating your shoes, socks, books, pillows ( etc and all those other things ).  It also works well when they're about to chew something.  Walking into a room and finding a new 3" patch of carpet actively being eaten is a different story.

When it comes to situations where you can't correct with positive reinforcement and need to instantly stop -- like actively chewing on the environment itself (furniture , carpets) or when they're jumping on the tables or people -- startling them to stop , saying "time out" , and isolating them where they learn "oh crap , i did something wrong , now i can't be with people for 30 seconds" is one of the most effective and humane options there is.  And to be honest, as a human, I'm glad I'm personally trained to first react to him jumping on someone or doing whatever crazy random thing, by only softly smacking him with a newspaper.  That is way more humane than instantly grabbing him and pulling him away/off.  

They're ridiculously smart animals, but often need help in realizing what is the wrong activity.  Our guy didn't understand that chewing the carpet was wrong, or that was why he was getting a timeout.  We had to wait for him to fail, and help him mentally connect-the-dots.

[Amy, Cubbie & Ollie]

Dogs do not apologize.  He is afraid of the rolled up paper.  And "hit" is a synonym for "smack".

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

Exactly.

[Star and Goldie]

"No, officer, I was not hitting my children. I only softly smacked them." Yeahhhh....

[Kyoko]

My 7 months old standard poodle is also a chewer. But I believe that's what puppies do. Some more than the others. ( Charlie was not much of a chewer, but she did chew my daughter's passport! -  photo page only. lol)

Pinot Grigio ( The poodle) finds random things from random places and chew. I often ask him " What do you have now?"

But, I removed all of my shoes from the hall way and put them in my room where the door is kept shut.

I removed the area rug he loved to chew( loopy kind ). And make sure pencils and other items he prefer is out of his reach.

I also purchased elk burrs and antlers, and other chew items and toys.

When I see him with some random stuff in his mouth, I just give him an appropriate replacement. He takes it happily. 

Also when I cannot see him, like when I am in the shower, he will go inside the pen for his own safety, and for preventative measure, rather than punishing him after words. I would like to set him up for success and not for failure by not puppy proofig my house....As far as chewing, I am more concerned about him hurting himself by chewing inappropriate things. I am not so concerned about the items he is chewing. Items can be replaced. But not your beloved puppy. Chewing and eating carpet can be serious matter. If the dog eats the cord, it can get tangled up in ther intestines and become fatal.

[kl. Lipke]

Thank you to all of you who sent advise, web connections, etc.  All good stuff.  We've been working with a trainer on and off (probably more off because we're not in town all the time in the winter).  That said, I work with a clicker and Ziggy is very good with basic commands.  I am working on the "leave it" command - thank you for the connection to the utube videos, they were helpful.  He is doing well with the command in a very short time.  Someone said it, they are very smart dogs!  We're going to roll up the one area rug for now (realistically I'll be getting rid of it because of the hole that can't be disguised).  We've had other dogs and the training piece I think we have down - have used a clicker with 3 out of 4 and really liked how quickly they learned.  It's been 8.5 yrs since we did this - sort of like having a new baby - you forget how much work it is!  But, this guy is just the sweetest pup and has gotten our older doodle to actually play with him.  The older guy was much more of a people dog - would hang with the peeps when out and other dogs were around.  Just his preference.  Ziggy wouldn't let him do this - after about a month of Potter waking up and I'm sure thinking - "oyyyy, he's still here", he got on board and they are now buds.  It's so much fun.  So, onward and upward with the training.  Thank you all again.  Kathy, Ziggy, Potter and the other people in the family

[Traci -Bexter & Maggie]

I have heard of some people filling a can with pennies or something and shake it or throw it close to where the puppy is doing the unwanted behavior.  I personally never tried that with Bexter because loud noises don't really affect him that much.  But, you never know.  I'd try that or a squirt bottle.  Or handing them a toy.