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Why Do Puppies Eat? Everything?
Puppies use their mouths to learn about the world around them. When they discover something new, their mouth helps them decide whether to eat it or not.
It can be very painful when they are teething. Puppies chew to relieve pain when they lose their baby teeth.
Many puppies like to chew things that smell like us. Our socks and shoes make us feel better when we are away.
Ensuring that safe options are available for them to prevent damage or injury is our job.
If a dog learns to direct chewing to toys and bones, it can be a good thing. It helps dogs keep their teeth clean.
Many dogs continue to chew, even when they are older, to ease anxiety or relieve boredom, which is good when it is focused on a rope toy rather than your couch.
Puppy Proofing
To keep your puppy out of trouble, make sure he can’t get to anything he shouldn’t have.
Laundry, cleaning supplies, food, the TV remote, children’s toys, anything the puppy shouldn’t chew on or eat should not be within reach because it all looks like a fun new toy to him.
Pay attention to items that you wouldn’t want destroyed, but also to the ones that could harm your pup.
Keep your puppy out of the garage if you have poison in it. Don’t allow your puppy to chew on or play with small objects that could cause a choking hazard. Some puppies chew on sticks and rocks, which can be dangerous if swallowed.
Before you bring the little one home, you should puppy-proof your house. Puppies are fun to be around. He shredded the entire roll of toilet paper in your living room when he made it into the bathroom, so you don’t want to get distracted when playing with him.
Pick a place for your puppy to be confined when he is not being supervised, one that is free of anything that is not puppy approved.
If you don’t have a separate room that can be closed off, playpens and puppy gates are an excellent way to restrict access to certain areas of the house.
Many people choose to crate-train their puppy so that they can have a safe place to hang out on their own.
Teach Your Pup What is OK to Chew
While your puppy is teething, you can teach him what he can and cannot chew on.
Change the chew toys in the puppy’s area every couple of days to keep him from getting bored.
If your puppy gets a hold of something that he shouldn’t have, like your slipper, correct the behavior, and replace the bad item with a good one that he is allowed to chew on.
You can teach your puppy commands as he gets older. He should drop it and leave it when he is thinking about taking something.
A chewing deterrent spray can be used to teach your puppy to stop chewing. These are bad for training your dog to think that this item is not something he wants in his mouth.
It is difficult to take away your puppy from wood furniture that is sprayed.
Most puppies will learn to leave the object alone after a few weeks of spraying it. It’s a good idea to test it out with your dog first. You could discourage him from chewing.
Help Your Puppy Through the Chewing Phase
You can make your puppy’s chew toys work harder by training and limiting access to off-limit items.
It’s a good idea to put a chew toy in the freezer before giving it to your puppy. The cold toy numbs your puppy’s teeth.
You can get the same effect from ice cubes. Ice is a cheap way to give your puppy some teething pain relief.
Tire him out if all else fails. A tired puppy can be well-behaved. He is unlikely to get into trouble if he is so tired from playing that he can’t do much more than sleep.
Provide your puppy with lots of exercise to help him deal with teething, boredom, and anxiety related chewing. Try to get him to play with you before he is left alone. This is true for older dogs who might have a bad chewing habit.
The most important thing you can do for your puppy when he is teething is to be calm, firm, and consistent.
Don’t let him slide if he makes a mistake. Allowing him to chew on a certain pair of shoes will confuse him. You should not punish him when you come home to find that he destroyed the couch cushions. The only thing he will learn is to be afraid of you, because he won’t know what you’re mad about.
You can get through this chewing phase with minimal destruction if you keep a safe environment for your puppy and train him from the beginning.
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Updated Content
There is a significant addition to the original post.
Since we get a lot of traffic and comments to this post, we wanted to update it with research and a plan for helping dog owners find and treat the root causes for why their dog may be engaging in this activity.
The two broad areas we want to consider are related to this article.
There is a craving for nonfood substances.
The eating and ingestion of feces is called coprophagia.
We will explain later that coprophagia may be less of an issue than PICA.
This may not be an easy issue to solve for many dog owners. It can take persistent trial and error by the dog owner, followed by working with a dog health care provider if the issue is still not resolved.
The symptom of a deeper problem that could be coming from one or a number of different areas in a dog’s body is the reason why this may be a difficult issue to solve. It isn’t simple to have a dog limping on a back leg, which is usually related to issues in the foot, leg or back.
Let’s dive in.
