How to Control Your Dog's Chewing and Destructive Behavior

After a long day at work, there is nothing worse than coming home to find your house destroyed by your dog. With the long hours that people are spending at work, and their busy lifestyles, this scenario is becoming all too common.

Destructive behavior is most common with younger dogs, but it may affect a dog at any age. The dogs at the highest risk of destructive behavior are rescued dogs, puppies and high energy dogs.

Dogs may also begin displaying destructive behavior if they are fearful or anxious which may occur in times such as divorce, moving to a new home, the death of a family member or pet, being left at a kennel for any length of time, or when a new baby is introduced into the family. These behaviors are not motivated by revenge, but by anxiety. Spending more quality time with an anxious dog will often solve the dog's destructive behavior.

Without realizing it, we often pay more attention to a dog when it is misbehaving. If you are preoccupied with other issues in your life, the dog may misbehave because it's the only way it knows how to get your attention. From a dog's point of view, negative attention is better than no attention at all. Punishment will only make the problem worse since a dog can't make the connection between the punishment and their earlier behavior. They will only feel rejected and could even act out in other inappropriate ways.

The act of chewing on objects is a natural dog behavior . Teething, anxiety, boredom, and insufficient exercise may increase your dog's need to chew or engage in destructive behavior. To avoid inappropriate chewing, purchase safe chew objects for your dog such as Nylabones, Kong toys, or sterilized bones. Kong toys and sterilized bones can be stuffed with peanut butter or treats to give your dog an extra challenge.

You can keep your dog occupied while you are away by giving him one of the new sustained-release food devices such as the Buster Cube or the Activity Ball. These are hard plastic toys that you fill with a portion of your dog's daily ration of food. The food is gradually released as your dog manipulates the toy. The new Goodie Grippers are also based on this same principle.