Do you want your dog to stop his annoying chewing habit? Just follow the tips below and you’ll have an obedient dog in no time.
1. Take your dog outside more frequently.
Dogs tend to chew on things because they’re bored or have nothing to do inside the house. The best solution then is to stimulate your pet and force him to be active. Give him some physically and mentally challenging exercises for your benefit.
2. Give your dog a toy to chew on.
If your dog’s chewing problem is really had to control, at least train him to use only his toy whenever he wants to chew on something. There are tasty chew toys in the market today. Get the one that you think your dog would enjoy the most.
3. Show your dog that you don’t approve of his chewing habit.
A simple but firm ‘No’ would show your dog that you are not happy with what he is doing. Take the object that your dog is chewing and replace it with his toy. Eventually, he’ll get the idea.
The simplest yet very important to command you have to teach your dog is to stay. This keeps your dog at bay while you are out doing a quick chore or something. The stay command is very applicable outdoors. But before you attempt to teach your dog to stay, you have to teach it how to sit and go first. Once you have that done, you can follow the steps below:
1. Make your dog sit or lie down.
This is the initial position of the stay command. Make sure that your dog understands these commands clearly. Otherwise, you can’t teach your dog to stay at all.
2. Tap your dog’s nose and say ‘Stay’.
Your dog has to associate the word ‘stay’ to the act of sitting or lying still. Say ‘stay’ and observe what your pet will do. Attempt to move away, just to know what your dog’s reaction is. Practice this outside. When your dog assumes the right behavior, don’t forget to say ‘Good’.
3. Give the release command or say ‘Go’.
You also have to train your dog to stay up until you want it to go. Don’t stop with stay. You have to complete the training with the release command. Keep some treats because whenever your dog does things correctly, you should reward him accordingly.
Digging is yet another bad habit that dogs tend to develop. Some dogs think that the activity is fun so they do it a lot. Digging is some kind of a challenge to dogs. For some reason, they want to find some loot underneath the earth. Psychologically though, your dog might simply want to get your attention. To stop your pet from this activity, here are useful tips to follow:
1. Fill the hole your dog has dug up with leaves, water, or any other junk.
This step would discourage your dog from digging further. Dogs don’t want junk in their holes. They want to find treats. So be sure that you don’t put anything that your dog may like in the hole.
2. Fill up all the holes created as fast as you can and lovingly reprimand your dog.
Tell your dog ‘No’ and proceed to clear the hole he has dug. This would show your dog that what he is doing isn’t right. Don’t punish your dog though. Hurting your dog won’t help much.
3. Give your dog a sandbox.
If you can’t ask your dog not to dig, at least lead him to the spot where he can do so for as much as he likes – in the sandbox. Here, you can put all the treats you have so your dog would go to the same spot all the time and not anywhere else to dig its heart out.