Why Do Dogs Chew

Imagine this common situation: After a day's work, you come home and find the newspaper shredded into tiny pieces for the tenth time. Your pooch is probably chewing the newspaper even after you have said no to him. And if you think that his hiding in the corner is due to his feeling of guilty conscience, then you are mistaken.

Your dog is probably shaking with fear because he knows you are going to scold him. He doesn't have any idea that you're annoyed because of his chewing habit.

You cannot stop a dog from chewing on things. It is his way of understanding an object's feel, taste and satisfying his curiosity. Chewing being a part of your dog's nature, you can't stop him from doing it. Instead what you can do is, initiate him to different flavored healthy doggie chews.

However, excessive chewing is certainly an unwanted behavior that you don't want to experience. You need to understand what is motivating your dog to excessive chewing.

Discourage Your Dog From Destructive Chewing

Chewing promotes dog health when he is heartily chewing on Doggie Chews. It becomes destructive chewing when your dog is chewing on your furniture legs, upholstery, pillows, door jams, shoes, pieces of clothing, books, electric cords, etc.

You should also keep this in mind that for a dog his mouth is equivalent to human hands. As we humans use our hands to pick up things to examine them, dogs use their mouths.

Chewing helps a dog understand the object's feel, taste and satisfy his curiosity. It's a natural part of doggie behavior: You can no more tutor a dog to stop chewing completely than you can train him to stop breathing. Instead what you can do is, initiate him to different flavored healthy doggie chews.

Here are a few factors:

Teething Puppies:

All puppies chew. It is part of their teething process. It normally begins about three months of age when the permanent teeth begin to push up through the gums underneath the puppy teeth.

It usually lasts about 6-8 months until the puppy has lost all of his puppy (milk) teeth and his adult teeth are completely in and set solidly in his jaw. He chews during this teething process because his gums are sore and because it helps the teeth to come through the gums.

Give your puppy some puppy-chews to gnaw on and sooth his gums. These chews are healthy and nutritious that will:

Boredom:

Many puppies and dogs chew when they are bored. Lack of activity will make him resort to chewing to release his pent-up energy. Different dogs have different ways of taking out their frustration and chewing is one of them.

You may need to have someone take him for a walk (or two) while you are at work. Make sure he is getting plenty of exercise because a tired dog is a good dog. A content dog will rarely take up chewing as a habit.

Separation Anxiety

Your dog might be feeling left out, neglected or lonely while you are away at work. Since your busy schedule does not allow you to spend more quality time with your dog, your pet is feeling lonesome.

Leaving him alone for long periods will be an encouragement to chew on furniture legs or pieces of clothing. Try not to leave your dog alone for more than a couple of hours at a time for a few weeks. Especially if your dog is still a little puppy. Increase the hours slowly with time.

The best way to handle this situation is to remove you shoes from the place and initiate him to a healthy doggie chews that will keep him occupied for hours. If you are away for long hours, then give him chews that are long-lasting, so that he can spend time more on it. Rawhide chews or filled chews are quite interesting. Your dog would love to gnaw on them for hours.