House Training Puppies Not To Chew On The Furniture
House training your puppy not to chew the furniture or for that matter any of your possessions should be an important part of your puppy obedience training plan. Puppies love to chew and at some point you may find your puppy is chewing on your furniture or other things that they shouldn’t be chewing. Of course puppies need to chew to exercise their jaws and help with the teething so the best way to prevent your puppy from chewing up your possessions is to give him lots of suitable puppy chews and toys to play with.
If you do find your puppy is chewing up your possessions or chewing on your furniture, instead of shouting at him, make a loud noise to distract him and then offer him something suitable instead like a puppy chew or rawhide bone. When he takes the chew or bone in his mouth, give him lots of praise. This will reinforce his good behaviour instead of focusing on his bad behaviour.
You should take responsibility for your possessions now that you have a puppy in the house, so make sure you don’t leave your things laying around that would tempt your puppy. Puppies love to explore with the mouths, so remove clothing, books, remote controls etc out of your puppy’s reach.
If you have to leave your puppy at home unsupervised it is advisable to put him in his crate if you are crate training him or else put him in the kitchen or laundry room where there is nothing he can chew up. Make sure he has some suitable toys and chews to keep him occupied while you are away.
If you do find that your puppy has chewed something up, like your best shoes for example, don’t yell at him and tell him off because he won’t know why you are yelling and shouting at him. If you think he knows he has done wrong because he looks guilty, it is really because you are shouting at him and looking angry. Your puppy won’t realise you are angry because he has chewed something up. So the best thing to do is to ignore what he has done wrong and in the future be sure not to leave things laying around that may tempt your puppy.
Remember puppies get bored easily so make sure you give him lots of exercise by taking him for regular walks. Play games with him and get him to fetch the ball, this will give your puppy mental as well as physical exercise.
If you would like some more information on house training your puppy, you can find out some more Puppy Obedience Training Tips here
