Chewing/Nipping
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| Sunset's Midnight Ruby |
Provide your puppy with an assortment of safe chew toys and teach the puppy which things are his toys. I recommend hard nylon bones (Nylabones), sturdy rope bones, and hard rubber toys if your puppy is an aggressive chewer. Watch your puppy carefully with rawhide bones, latex toys, vinyl toys, and soft cloth toys. These toys are okay when you are supervising your dog. Discard toys when they have coming apart or are small enough to get caught in your dog's throat. The puppy can rip off small pieces of these toys and swallow them. Rawhide chews are not an ideal toys. If you give your dog rawhide bones, only use rawhide from USA animals that has been processed in the USA. Be very careful with rawhide bones. Dogs can chew off pieces, swallow them, and get the rawhide stuck in their stomach. The rawhide pieces swell and will not pass through the dogs intestines. Surgery may be required.
If you don't catch the puppy in the act of chewing something of yours, don't scold him. Dogs associate scolding with the current action or behavior. The puppy will not understand that you are scolding him for something that he did hours ago.
Remember to use the crate when you are not watching the puppy. Labs will chew almost anything if given the chance.
Nipping is often a problem with puppies. Keep a chew toy handy while you play with your puppy. When the puppy nips you, say "NO BITE" or "STOP IT" in a firm voice. It usually takes several weeks to teach your puppy to stop nipping people. Children often need the help of an adult. Try different types of corrections until you find one that works with your puppy.
- Assertive verbal commands are sometimes enough.
- Offer the puppy a toy and praise your puppy for taking a toy.
- Some puppies respond to a spray of water in the face.
- The noise of a shake can sometimes distracts the puppy. Place a dozen pennies in an empty soda can and tape over the opening. Shake the can when the puppy starts nipping. Then give your puppy a toy to play with.
- Gentle but firm restraint is sometimes helpful. Gently hold your puppies mouth closed for a minute or less and give a verbal command. Do not allow children to do this. Children may easily hurt the puppy if too much pressure is applied. The restraint must be very gentle.
- Brief isolation will sometimes teach your puppy that you consider nipping to be antisocial behavior. Put the puppy in a brief "time out" in a crate with a chew toy.