How to stop your dog from chewing the carpet, curtains, slippers, etc
Probably, if yours is a normal, healthy puppy of one of the more active breeds, at the age of nine or ten weeks he will show a tendency to worry, to tear and chew curtains, shoelaces, and anything else soft and dangling. This means that the “handshake” is one of the most easily learned tricks you can pull off. It is only the awakening of that instinct which in its natural state makes the jaws and teeth of the dog its most valuable asset, so do not lose patience.
On the principle that “out of sight is out of mind”, remove either the temptation or the dog. If this is not enough and the habit worsens, catch the puppy in the act and, tapping the side of the jaw hard enough to make him look startled, give him a snappy “Stop!” A few repetitions of this will do the trick. the young man with the meaning of the words.
When the puppy grows up, ninety-nine times out of a hundred, it loses interest in the game of tearing. Until then, just curb the urge instead of trying to push it out of him; for it has its bright side, inasmuch as it is an indication of the spirit which the old dog will possess. It’s an old saying among Bird-Dog men that the more a puppy tries to tear things up, the more lively, ambitious and valuable he will become when he matures, a principle that struggles with other breeds.
With the exception of the one command above mentioned, and another lesson to be mentioned presently, do not undertake any real and consistent discipline until your dog is at least four months old. The brain of a puppy ten or twelve weeks old is too immature to understand the whys and wherefores of regular training and should not be taxed with memorizing more than a very few things.
But even if the dog does not have to be kept regularly in the house, it is very important to deal at an early age with the issue of forming habits of cleanliness in the house is a matter that cannot be ignored and to achieve it many homeopathic doses of prevention worth more than a few allopathic doses of dogwhip. Sometimes the latter is necessary, but before resorting to it, be absolutely sure that the guilty person fully understands why he is being punished and what he should have done to avoid it, and then make the punishment adequate.
The first step in housebreaking can be done as soon as your puppy arrives. If you must keep him in the house, make sure you or someone else takes him outside for a while at reasonable intervals. This will go a long way in forming good habits, but when (as it is sure to happen sooner or later) the puppy misbehaves, drag him to the place where the misbehavior happened, scold him sharply, and at once make him go outside, leaving him there for about five minutes before welcoming him back into the house.
#stop #dog #chewing #carpet #curtains #slippers
