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Extinguishing Inappropriate Chewing Behavior (Long Version)
 To most effectively and most humanely address any dog training or behavioral problem, we wish first to diagnose the origin of the behavior. Undesirable chewing is most commonly caused by:
Optimally, to best modify your dog’s inappropriate chewing behavior, we need to consider the preceding causal factors as the primary behavioral problem while concurrently addressing the inappropriate chewing behavior as a secondary symptom. In addition, until the behavior is modified, we need to prevent the continuation of the behavior by establishing management procedures that may include supervision and/or confinement, we need to consistently divert or punish inappropriate behavior immediately when it occurs, and we need to encourage acceptable chewing behavior as a replacement for the existing destructive behavior. By taking a properly designed four-pronged approach (origins, prevention, punishment, and encouraging replacement chewing activity), we should effectively modify the behavior. I. Origins Lack of knowledge Dogs are not born knowing which potential chew items are encouraged for use by humans and which items are verboten. Therefore, you need to actively teach your dog which items you wish him/her to chew and which items are prohibited. Moreover, when you are not able to closely supervise your dog, you need to crate him or confine him via closed doors or baby gates to an area where he will act responsibly. Premature freedom allows an untrained dog to passively teach himself which items are most orally satisfying. While supervising, encourage your dog to chew appropriate items by handing him the items, interactively using the items during play sessions, placing the items in a designated toy box, and selecting items that your dog finds innately intriguing and satisfying. Praise him lavishly whenever he selects a desired item. Excellent chew items include knuckle bones, sterilized bones, antlers, compressed rawhide, nylabones, gumabones, stuffed animals for dogs, squeaky toys, kong toys, dental kongs, rope toys, soccer balls, and hard plastic balls for dogs. Please be aware that hard chew items can cause fractured teeth, especially if your dog is a hard biter and chews the items principally with his molars or pre-molars. In addition, certain consumable chew items may prompt diarrhea, rawhides can cause intestinal blockages if they are not well chewed before they are swallowed, squeakies can cause blockages if your dog removes the squeaker from the inside of the toy, rope toys can cause intestinal blockages if large portions are ingested, and small toys can cause esophageal or intestinal blockages if they are swallowed whole. Consequently, you should initially monitor your dog’s chewing habits if you are uncertain whether he will safely manage a specific chew or play toy. Select about 10 appropriate items. Then, leave only 4 out at a time. Preferably place the 4 play/chew items in a designated toy box. Rotate the items as your dog becomes bored with a particular item from the available four. An excess amount of items available at any one time can create confusion in some dogs, whereby they have difficulty discerning appropriate from inappropriate items, especially if the chew items consist of a similar material, texture, or dimension to items in the house that they are not supposed to chew. Curiosity Curiosity and exploration are traits common to many adventurous, confident dogs, especially young puppies. Moreover, just like young children, dogs tend to often explore with their mouths. Consequently, if your dog is young, curious, and/or exploratory, you need to closely supervise him whenever he is unconfined, so that you can consistently teach him which items are acceptable for chewing and which items are inappropriate. A desire for self-rewarding oral stimulation Chewing is a normal behavior. Oral stimulation provides comfort and activity to both young and adult dogs. Resultantly, most dogs enjoy chewing activity. In particular, young dogs, teething dogs, bored dogs, under-stimulated dogs, possessive dogs, and anxious dogs tend to enjoy finding items to chew. Since chewing is a normal behavior and we wish your dog to receive the pleasant stimulation provided by chewing, the major solution when addressing the causation of satisfying the quest for oral stimulation is by setting your dog up for success. By interacting and praising, teach him which items are appropriate. Moreover, purchase desirable items that your dog will prefer to woodwork, the sofa, the remote control and other inappropriate items. In addition, confine him to a responsible area when you are unable to supervise, at least until he is mature enough and stable enough to act responsibly without supervision. Teething Puppies are born without teeth. Between the ages of 4 to 8 weeks puppies will develop a full set of 28 deciduous teeth. At approximately 4 months of age, but possibly one month earlier or later, puppies will begin shedding their deciduous dentition and a set of 42 permanent adult teeth will erupt in their place. The process will usually persist until about 7 months of age, but may take until the eighth month of life to complete. During this teething stage, your dog’s gums may be uncomfortable and inflamed. Chewing serves to psychologically divert and to physically alleviate the discomfort. To further minimize aches from sore gums, try wetting and freezing a rope toy or a long, thin vegetable, such as a carrot. The cold from the ice will further help to reduce pain and misery. In addition, during the teething stage, be careful not to play tug games with your dog, as they can cause him to dislodge a tooth and the associated pain may condition him to permanently dislike the toy involved in the tugging game.  Attention seeking Many dogs learn that grabbing an inappropriate item is a reliable method of obtaining owner attention. Consequently, if your dog grabs or chews inappropriate items in your presence and you believe your dog’s objective is attention-seeking, then discipline your dog via a method other than a verbal reprimand and certainly do not chase your dog. Instead, use an aversive, such as a shake can or air horn, as soon as he picks up the disallowed object. Then, provide him praise, attention, and/or play a few seconds after he has dropped the object. In addition, preempt attention-seeking behavior by providing sufficient regularly scheduled daily walks, exercise, obedience training sessions, and play periods. Lastly, reward him with play and affection when he is calm and acting appropriately. Teach him that calm behavior is effective in attracting your attention, whereas grabbing inappropriate items is ineffective. Boredom Bored dogs tend to chew inappropriately either in an exploratory effort to find something fun to do or to obtain physiological relaxation via a dopamine and endorphin release that counters the stressful effects of a mundane environment. If boredom is the reason your dog chews, proactively stimulate your dog with regularly scheduled walks, exercise, play, and obedience sessions. In addition, construct his indoor and/or outdoor environments so that they are more stimulating. Provide intriguing chew and play toys indoors. In addition to chew and play toys, provide a shaded area, a sandbox for digging, some jumps, and an agility tunnel in his outdoor environment. General under-stimulation General under-stimulation is similar to boredom, but is a more prevailing and omnipresent problem than momentary or sporadic boredom. Lack of adequate visual, auditory, olfactory, tactile, physical, and cerebral stimulation can prompt undesirable exploratory, attention-seeking, and anxious chewing behaviors. To combat general under-stimulation provide regular walks, exercise, obedience training, and play sessions. In addition, provide a view to the outdoors, where your dog can view and hear wildlife, relax your dog with lavender aromatherapy, stimulate him with an open screened window where he can smell what is happening outdoors, and provide him intriguing chew and play toys. Barrier frustration Barrier frustration occurs when a dog becomes frustrated at confinement or restraint, especially when a target of his desire, such as another dog, a person, or wildlife, has unrestricted freedom. Dogs that chew from barrier frustration often chew shutters, curtains, or windowsills adjoining a window that provides exposure to an attractive visual target. Solutions include proactive stimulation along with mechanisms that keep the dog away from the window when he is unsupervised. Separation anxiety Separation anxiety/distress is a probable cause when inappropriate chewing occurs exclusively when you are not home or are inaccessible or when the behavior becomes more pronounced when you are not home. Separation anxiety is a complex problem that has its own article. To properly treat the chewing problem for the long-term, you need to first successfully treat your dog’s separation distress. Nevertheless, if your dog manifests his separation distress by destructively chewing parts of the house or loose personal items, then in the interim, until his separation distress is resolved, you need to confine him to a crate or a room where he will be responsible, so that you prevent continuation of the chewing habit as a coping mechanism for his anxiety and minimize the risk of further damage to property. General anxiety or stress Dogs that are generally anxious or stressed will often seek physiological relaxation via the dopamine and endorphin release provided by chewing. To resolve the problem, your dog’s general anxiety needs to be treated separately. Primary sources of stress need to be identified and their exposure limited or prevented, and a proactive stimulation, impulse control training, and leadership training program needs to be commenced. A counterconditioning/desensitization program geared toward relaxing your dog amidst primary sources of stress is also advised. In addition, severely anxious dogs may benefit from homeopathic remedies or pharmaceutical anti-anxiety medication. Obsessive-compulsive behavior Some dogs will exhibit obsessive-compulsive behavior by incessantly chewing a particular object. A chewing behavior can be classified as obsessive-compulsive when it is extreme in frequency or duration, occurs out of context, interferes with normal activities or functions, and/or its prevention or absence causes an increase in anxious arousal. For instance, a dog that becomes inordinately restless or distraught when a certain toy or item is removed or that regularly chews or carries an item without interruption to the point of foregoing bathroom activities, meals, or social contact may be classified as obsessive-compulsive. To eliminate obsessive-compulsive behavior, remove access to the item, divert behavior to a more productive in-context activity, increase walking, exercise, training, and play time, and consider homeopathic or pharmaceutical anti-anxiety remedies. II. Prevention While addressing the cause of your dog’s inappropriate chewing behavior, regardless of what the cause may be, you must prevent the continuation of his bad habits by consistently supervising when you are home and crating or confining when you are not home or are home and are unable to closely monitor his activities. Dogs typically perform behaviors because the behaviors are self-rewarding, they satisfy a need, and/or they resolve a problem. For your dog to develop a new method of providing intrinsic rewards, satisfying needs, or coping with or resolving problems, we need to first prevent the continuation of the present activity. By making the present activity unavailable, we can better prompt adoption of a mutually acceptable replacement behavior. III. Punishment To affect permanent behavior modification, in addition to addressing the cause(s) and preventing continued unsupervised access to inappropriate items, we may need to implement a system of punishment when we catch your dog chewing inappropriately along with a system that prompts a replacement behavior by encouraging your dog to willingly chew desirable objects. When you are supervising your dog and you observe him chewing an inappropriate object you may punish with a harsh verbal “No” followed by praise when he ceases the chewing activity. When you verbally reprimand him, do not use his name and do not call him to you. Alternatively to growling a verbal reprimand, you may use a semi-active aversive punisher, such as a shake can, air horn, clanging pots, or a squirt gun that creates a fear-startle response that effectively diverts or disrupts the behavior. We prefer semi-active punishment if your dog ignores verbal reprimands, you have relationship issues with your dog, or your dog is overly frightened by verbal admonishment. Moreover, do not reprimand him or semi-actively punish him if you do not catch him in the act. Punishment must occur while the infraction occurs and cease immediately upon the cessation of the infraction. When the infraction ceases, offer him an appropriate chew or play item from his toy box, then praise him for converting to the appropriate object. In addition, since there may be occasions when you cannot adequately supervise and you miss catching your dog in the act, even if your dog is tethered or otherwise closely supervised, we also recommend establishing a system of passive punishment. Passive punishment is especially effective when a dog repeatedly returns to chew the same inappropriate object. Passive punishers include bitter lime gel, bitter apple spray, hot paste, dog repellent, and electronic mats. Passive punishers consistently prevent and/or reprimand the continuation of infractions at times when you are unable to effectively supervise. Simply apply the passive punisher on or about the area or object where the dog commits the infraction. When your dog returns to the site, instead of achieving a pleasant outcome, your dog will achieve an unpleasant outcome, which should deter your dog from repeating the behavior and instead prompt him to seek an alternative chewing behavior, which enables us to better prompt the adoption of a desirable replacement behavior. IV. Encouraging a Replacement Behavior Punishment works better at indelibly modifying chewing behavior when combined with a system that effectively teaches your dog how to immediately escape the punishment and eventually how to permanently avoid the punishment entirely. The best way to instruct your dog how to escape and avoid punishment is by immediately following the punishment with a physical and/or verbal prompt that encourages your dog to begin chewing an appropriate item. You can say the item’s name, move the object with your hand, place the object in or toward your dog’s mouth, begin playing with the object alone, or solicit your dog to play along with you to better attract your dog’s attention and obtain his interest in the item. Once he begins chewing the item, praise him so that he understands you are pleased with his behavior, while being careful not to praise so effusively to the point where he becomes distracted from the object.  V. Conclusion If all goes according to plan, by addressing the cause of your dog’s chewing behavior, preventing the continuation of undesirable behavior via active supervision and passive confinement, punishing or diverting inappropriate behavior actively, semi-actively, and/or passively, and prompting him to chew appropriate items, he should permanently replace undesirable chewing behavior with desirable chewing activities that satisfy his needs for oral stimulation. Nevertheless, destructive chewing is often a complex behavior that is difficult to resolve without the services of a professional trainer or behaviorist. Therefore, we recommend the inclusion of a CPT in-home private lesson to raise the probability of a proper diagnosis of the origin of your dog’s behavior and to more effectively instruct solution techniques. To schedule a CPT in-home private lesson, please contact the CPT office by phone at 770-396-6433 or contact us by e-mail at info@cpt-training.com. © Copyright Mark Spivak and Comprehensive Pet Therapy, Inc., May 2010, All rights reserved. Dog Training Brochure | Agility Training | DayCare | Locations | Newsroom | Grooming | Retail | Dog Training Resources Copyright ©2002 (Rev May 2009) Comprehensive Pet Therapy, Inc. All rights reserved. |
