Stop Chewing and Digging
82Nylabone
Dog Problem Behaviors
There are many problems that dogs and puppies succumb to in their lifetimes. Chewing and digging being two of the main problems many pet parents tend to have.
There are many reasons as to why you dog may have a problem with destructive chewing and digging, meaning there are many ways to correct it.
Using a 6 month old lab, as our example, we're going to try to correct your pups problem behaviors. Do take into account, that labs tend to be puppies until they are two years old, and chewing is a common destructive habit for most labs.
Puppy Chewing
Destructive Chewing
Puppies chew for a variety of reasons to include teething. Chewing irritates the gums, relieving the pain and pressure. At six months old, our lab puppy is still teething; his adult canines and back molars are still growing in.
Purchase safe, durable toys and chews for puppies to chew on while they are still teething. You can, also freeze certain fruits and vegetables to help alleviate the pain.
Make sure that the puppy gets enough exercise and social interaction.
Consider using a toy box to store chew toys and bones. This will help the puppy understand which items he is allowed to chew on.
Keep 'off limit' items away from the puppy and off the floor. Consider using a chew deterrent sold at most petstores. (Be careful with some sprays, as they may have the opposite affect that you want. When first bringing the deterrent home, spray a small area where the pup tends to chew, if he chows down, return the spray, and exchange it for a different brand. Sometimes individuals may like the taste of Bitter Apple, but hate Bitter End.)
If the puppy begins to chew on and 'off limit' item, give him something he can have.
Praise the puppy when he picks up and chews on an appropriate item.
Confine the puppy to a crate or puppy-safe room when you can't watch him appropriately.
Digging
Puppies and dogs dig for various reasons, to include boredom, mimicry, and to find a cool spot to lay. But, to really decipher why you're dog digs, you need to evaluate a few things.
We can determine why out 6 month old lab, is digging by where he chooses to dig.
- Flower bed: Our puppy is mimicking our gardening skills.
- Under a tree or bush: He is trying to find a cool spot to lay.
- By the fence: The pup is trying to break free, due to his freedom instinct or just plain hormones.
- All over: Our puppy is either bored or we have a rodent problem.
If our lab is digging in the flower bed, put him away when it's time to garden, so he cannot see you digging up the flowers.
Digging to find a cool spot to lay, is simple to correct. Provide our puppy with a dog house, cool water, or even a kiddy pool with a few inches of water.
Our pup may be getting a whiff of a dog in heat. It would be a good time to consider neutering the puppy.
And, the usual problem, of digging all over the yard... If you have a rodent problem, call an exterminator, to rid your yard of the rodents. Otherwise, provide your dog with plenty of exercise and attention to help aid the boredom. Possibly consider getting another puppy.
Other things to try include:
- Keep his nails trimmed.
- Consider using anti-digging outdoor repellents, such as 'Pet Organics No-Dig! Lawn & Yard Spray.'
- Provide the puppy with a place he can dig. Set aside a corner of the yard and either (1) add a child's sand box filled with the puppy's favorite toys, bones, and treats, letting him know it's safe to dig there. (2) You can section off the yard with lumbar, filling the section with play sand and again burying his favorite things.
Basic Obedience
Basic obedience training is a great way to start correcting problem behaviors with your dog. Teaching basic commands like, stay, wait, come, and leave it, can all save your dogs life one day.
Training your dog is a great way to build the bond that you truly want to have with man's best friend. It's, also, a great way to make a happier pet out of your dog. The less he's in trouble, the happier he is and the happier you are.
"Leave It" Command
Teaching the 'leave it' command will help our lab puppy with both his chewing and his digging problems. By giving the pup the command, he learns that he must leave that item alone or stop digging in that area.
You can teach you pup the 'leave it' command by taking his favorite 'off limit' item and offering it to him. When he goes after the, let's say, sock, tell him to 'leave it.' Continue saying 'leave it' until the puppy looks at you or away, even for just a brief second. Reward the puppy, telling him 'good leave it' and offer him a treat. Continue this process until your dog recognizes what you're asking of him.
Do not get ugly if the puppy does not respond to the command at first; he doesn't know what it means yet. At first, he will tug and tug trying to get at the 'off limit' item. Don't let him get to it, pull him back just enough. Do not cover the item, as it will teach the puppy that the item disappears, but what you want him to learn is to leave it alone.
Pictures can be found at flickr.com.
PrintShare it! — Rate it: up down [flag this hub]
Comments
Yes. It is proven that exercise is the best key to getting rid of unwanted behaviors. In the wild wolves walk miles a day, so walking our dogs will help eliminate uwanted behaviors.
Paul, would you like to know why your dog barks are the mailman? Same reason everyone else's dog barks at the poor man, or woman... Because he/she goes away. The dog is instantly rewarded for barking when the mailman leaves. Because the behavior is self rewarding it's a hard one to break.
LOL Whitney,
Looking at the title I though the hub is about human beings. And since I found it while searching for "safe" on hubpages, I came here thrilled to learn what is unsafe in chewing and digging simultaneously :D
Hi Whitney, I'm new to the hub and I'm a professional dog trainer and behaviorist. I've been reading over your advice and you are clearly extremely well educated in animal behavior. Hope you dont mind a little competition(just kidding). I also volunteer at a shelter and I think the more folks out there giving out educated and useful advice the better. Your doing a great job in educating folks!
My dog is chewing on our house siding! It is the most annoying thing ever!! If you have kids, let them run in the yard with the dog. There are squeaky tennis balls that my dog loves. Any thing around the house such as an old shoe is great! There are pig ears that my dog love. Take them on LOTS of walks or else they wiil get very wound up and forget about them.Good luck!!
Hello Help!!!
My dog has just got fixed and can't go for a walks.. But she is now chewing up my floors.
bialey, dogs can go on walks after being fixed. Just don't run the dog or allow for strenuous play. Walks are fine.
I found your website extremely useful and I want to thank you for posting this information. I have a pup digging all over our yard and it's a new habit after 10 years of no digging what so ever. We have other guests that aren't paying rent that she is trying to take care of for us. In the mean time I have been looking up ways to help train both my girls on various topics and I found that house training a dog is a fun and important step to building a relationship between owner and pup, no matter the age. I hope it's useful, too. Thank you again for your informative page.
I have adopted a well behaved 4 year old dobermann bitch, though she seems happy in herself and gets plenty of exercise daily (we live on a farm where she's rarely locked up and has lots of fun) she scratches her side raw. She apparently developed this anxiety habit from her previous owners who used to dote on her until their new baby arrived, when the attention came off her she started this self destructive scratching.
Now she's settled in with us she still does it. Is it habit or still anxiety? She tends to scratch then lick her paw, I wonder if there is any fowl tasting cream we can put on the wound to put her off? Or maybe something else we can do? She only does it if we are talking amoungst ourselves, and not showing her attention. Having said that, at night when she's on her own she won't do it!
Any advice???!!
You may want to consider a vet or a a behaviorist. I think at this point it may be a little habit, but a little anxiety still built up. Is the dog an inside dog or both. Have you had her skin checked out for an allergy perhaps?
We have tons of dog toys about the house and lil turd will still be laying in her chair chewing the sheet that covers the chair or sneak into the bedroom and chew on the comforter. One of the worst problems is that she destroys any dog bed or blanket etc that we put in her crate so she's not laying on hard plastic for hours (she has a nylabone and a kong full of pnut butter with her each day too) -- got any good ideas. I think she is just doomed to a hard tray for now - she's a lab/shep mix and will be 1 yr old in nov.... I so hope I don't have another year of this ahead of us. :(
The lab part of your dog is taking over. Labs are notorious chewers... I'm sorry... It can take some labs as long as 2 or more years to stop chewing, but if all your dog is chewing are sheets, then you didn't get the worst of it. Try training your dog the leave it command, and every time she goes to chew on the blanket, say leave it, and eventually she'll learn to leave it alone, but it will take time.
*Note: You'll want to start small, but it may be a good idea to use a blanket or sheet to help teach the command.
Great info so far!
I have a new small dog in the house she is 8 months old. (Chihuahua/Terrier Mix)
She only chews when no one is around or looking and she digs randomly throughout the back yard.
I have not gone to crate training cause she interacts really well with our 14 year old Australian Shepard and I want both our old lady and the puppy to get the daily excersise when we are not home.
Any idea's
P.S. we just started with some Bitter Apples spray to try and help.
Well I am certainly glad to know that my 9 mo old black lab mix is pretty normal about the destructive chewing. I continually bring home toys that if they have a squeaker inside he will tear it to shreads in a few days to get the plastic squeaker out. However, I do have one problem that I haven't heard anyone ask about. My dog just doesn't bark, he talks back. When I tell him to do something that he know he doesn't want to do he argues about it. If I say anything "shhh" him it just gets worse. I want to crack up laughing because it really is funny because he is so obviously defiant, but he gets worse when I do. Seriously, I can't carry on a conversation with another human with this going on. Any suggestions.
Thanks
Marty
I'd say train him to stop. I know it sounds silly, but it's possible. If you want him to stop talking, train him to hush on command, so that he knows that it isn't the time.
I have a three and a half month old Goldendoodle. I have had him for 6 days now. He gets 2 45 minute walks a day and goes out for pee about 6 other times. I take time to play with him in my home but for the last 2 nights - around 10pm he starts to get really really aggressive in his play. Last night after a long walk and a game of fetch with me and my three Godsons, I took him home to start to settle him down for the night. (It was 9pm and he had just had 30 minutes of constant running and fetching.) When I get him home I always allow him to roam around (I live in an open loft-like apartment) and find his toys. The first 4 nights he found them and placed them in his bed in the living area (he is crated at night in another room) and had a wonderful time chewing and rolling around. The night before last the play started to escalate until he was running from his crate to the other end of the apartment and then chewing and digging into his bed. I tried to distract him with is favorite squeeky toy but he continued to fixate on the bed, chewing and digging into it. Last night when I tried to intervene and get him to settle down he started rolling around like he was possessed and growling and snapping in the air. When I reached over to stop him he lunged toward my hand snapping at it with his teeth. UUUuuuhhhhh I need some help here!! Thanks........Lauren
Sounds like you need to work on basic obedience. the puppy is digging and playing in his kennel because it's a puppy. they have high energy. as for hte snapping, it's probably just playful but you need to consult a trainer in terms of getting basic obedience commands down pat or else you WILL have a problem on your hands.
Our 10 week old Golden Retriever scratches like crazy in the corner of our living room. We have hardwood floors so it is extremely loud and annoying. I am wondering why she is doing it. The corner has nothing in it and I cant smell any odor from it. How can we get her to stop? Any advice would be amazing!
Remember that just because you can't smell it, doesn't mean the dog can't. A dog's sense of smell is the first thing that develops and it's the strongest of the 5 senses for a dog. Try putting something over the spot. Also catch the pup every time it tries to dig and tell her 'no.' Do you have any other pets?
We have a 1 year old cat. But she has never had an accident in the house. Our puppy also does it to all corners in the living room not just one of them. and she will sometimes do it by the fireplace as well.
I'm really not sure. There must be something on the floor that's causing it. The only thing I can suggest is to train him 'leave it' and try to put something over the areas. If you can figure out why he's doing it, it'll be easier to train him not to do it.
My about 9 month old lab is chewing our couch. She has destroyed the whole back of it. We have rawhides through the whole house. We have had her almost 4 months and she just now started this. I tried the bitter apple and it hasn't stopped.
Labs are notorious chewers, destructively cheing throughout the first 2 years. Try a different chew deterant spray. Or start training 'leave it' commands.
Paul Edmondson says:
2 years ago
Exercise, exercise, and exercise. If I found one thing with my dog it's that I can run almost all bad behavior out of her. When our dog was a puppy, it was three hard runs a day, now it's one. With the one exception of barking at the mailman. No matter how tired she is, she feels obligated to bark at the mailman.