How to Stop Your Dog from Chewing Up Your Stuff

If you have ever had your shoes eaten by your dog like I have then you probably know how important it is to make sure your dog knows not to chew your possessions. And don't even get me started on the time my dog ate my girlfriend's 200 dollar jeans! That happened three years ago and she still brings it up every other day.

Luckily there are some ways that I've learned from dog training expert Daniel Stevens Sit Stay Fetch program that can help keep your dog from chewing your stuff!

Chewing is a natural part of a dog's instinctual behavior. It's not that you want to try and stop your dog from chewing but that you want to teach your dog which items are ok to chew. Your dog should have specific toys or bones that are he or she uses for chewing and your dog should know that all other items are completely off limits for chewing.

Like human babies, puppies go through a teething stage which is very painful for them. During this stage puppies start to want to chew on things in order to decrease their teething pain. This is the best time to train your dog to chew on only his or her chew toys and on nothing else. If you are just getting your dog as a young puppy then this is the way to go, training your puppy during this growing stage should bring you very good results.

Dogs may also start chewing your possessions when they are suffering from feelings of loneliness. Keeping your dog in a healthy mental and physical state should help keep your dog from starting a new habit of chewing on your stuff.

Perhaps the most important thing in keeping your dog from chewing your possessions is to have cool things around for them to chew on. By this I mean you need to make sure your dog has a habit of chewing on specific chew toy items so that they are busy chewing on these toys and not on your shoes.

The two best known brands of dog chew toys that I can recommend are Nylabones and Kong dog chew toys.