Chewing

Hi
Moley is still chewing things he should'nt. This morning he chewed up John's glasses. Fortunately they were old ones but that is beside the point. He does this every now and again. This morning I was so cross with him I put him outside in his kennel. I've tried taking the thing off him and giving him one of his toys instead.
In the garden he digs, digs up plants and chews branches of shrubs etc so I feel I have to watch him all the time - I caught him eating tulip bulbs he'd dug up.
He's 15 months old now and is quite well behaved on the whole but this destructive behaviour is getting me down, can anyone think of anything we can try. He has 2 good walks a day with time off lead so he can run (he's a whippet) and in between I play with him and we do training in the house and when we're out.

Do you praise him when he's chewing the right things? How's he supposed to know the difference between what is allowed and not. Keep repeating "What a good boy" when he is chewing on his bone etc.

Re the digging, you won't stop it so give him his own area to dig in. Half bury a smoked bone and tell him to find it. Praise him and half bury something else. Redirect him to something better in his own area if he digs where you don't want him to. He'll get the hang of it soon.

Nicky

This is a common problem which I hear lots.
You need to manage the situation much better by keeping things he isn't allowed out of reach and having lots of things around that he can have and chew.
It's a good idea to have loads of chew toys so you can rotate them and keep his interest.
You can add interest by smearing peanut butter on them too

+1

My puppy bible was Gwen Bailey's Perfect Puppy book. She recommends having 21 chewable toys. (Costly yes but much cheaper than furniture) That's 3 new and interesting chewy toys per day, every day for a week.

You could always have a little chewy twisted raw hide ready to distract your pup when he starts on something he shouldn't. Say "OooooooooH, look what I've got here!!!!" and praise, praise, praise him for chewing on the right thing. He really doesn't know what he can and cannot chew. You can't expect him to know a chair leg costs £200 and sticks cost nothing! Putting him outside will not cure it. He will learn not to chew when you are not around, giving you an even worse problem. If you have to reprimand a dog, you need to catch him in the act and that rarely happens. He will not associate the punishment with the crime. Just work on the +ve

Nicky

I agree, I loved that book. Try looking at it from his point of view. He can't read a good book, or listen to an interesting debate on the radio...all his stimulation comes from you, smelling, tasting, looking at things or exploring them with his mouth and chewing them. ...and he obviously really enjoys chewing! You just have to make sure he doesn't get the opportunity to chew anything he shouldn't...keep them out the way, spray bitter apple on anything you can't move and make sure he has loads of really interesting and tasty things to explore and chew. Find out what he really likes to chew and try to find lots of things similar to that. He will get through it.

I often tell people who let their new dog chew on their old house slippers that they can't expect the dog to tell the difference between those and their brand new shoes!

So keep your brand new shoes up where he can't reach them!

He doesn't realise the cost of stuff!

Oh dear I really do sympathise Mine fortunately no longer chew items around the house .... well apart from the loo roll if people leave the door open. But I do make sure that everything chewable i.e. shoes are out of reach.

The problem with mine is they love eating things in the garden. Their latest thing is eating the bark off the fir tree which makes them really sick ..... if one dog does something, guarantee the other one will copy. I've now got chicken wire round the tree trunk and around various bushes

My Chi, has never chewed anything but if I leave a tissue around he'll spy it out and make confetti I tell him off but I've been doing that for over 4 years now.