Teach Your Dog What to Chew (and What Not to Chew)

Dogs chew.  It is what they do.  Chewing can ease teething pain in puppies and help to relieve stress and anxiety in adult dogs.  What’s important for us to remember as human beings is that dogs need to be encouraged to chew the right things.  They don’t instinctively know the difference between a dog toy and your favorite dress shoe. In fact, chewing your favorite shoe is often more fun than chewing a toy since we give the dogs so much more attention when they grab a shoe (Hey you!  Give that back right now!). 

To get the training process started off on the right paw; pick up all tempting, non-chewable items.  Then, whenever your dog pays any attention to a proper dog chew toy, flood him with attention.  Talk to him, play with him, even chase him (as if he actually has a shoe!) so he learns that awesome things happen to him when he chews on a dog toy.  Make chewing good for your dog - and you!