How can you stop a dog chewing houshold items?

Question

My friend is going nuts over her 2 1/2 year old female Staffordshire Bull Terrier chewing through cushions, duvets, arms of chairs, and to be the almost last straw - her brand new pair of leather boots. I said that it may come time to think "the dog's gotta go!!" but she said she still loves her and can't do that just yet. The dog is NOT left alone all day long, but clearly needs some special training to stop this distructive behaviour (to us humans - but probably playful to the dog). She can be this way after only an hour left alone. Any suggestions?

Answer 1

next item she chews up show her the item and smack a rolled up news paper on the ground next to her really loud, it may take 2-3 days to finally be effective but it works, as my freind had the same prob with his english staffordshire bull terrier

Answer 2

Dogs chew to release energy and stress - it's the equivalent of taking them out for a nice walk. When owners don't have the time to walk their pets, the dogs instead turn to chewing to use up all that extra energy. However, variety is the key when selecting your dogs' chew toys. If they're presented with too many, they will get tired of them extremely soon. Give them a few at a time, and keep the toys on rotation - each time you rotate the toys, it'll seem like they are new and the dogs will attack them with fervor. One solution for your dilemma is to try to keep an eye on the door and allow them to enter the living room or bedrooms less often. They tend to chew the things in there because they are "new" and completely different from what they're used to. Tease them with new chew toys and switch them around frequently, and your dog will be satisfied. Or, you could always take them on a few more walks. =) Good luck!

Answer 3

A few suggestions:
1 - Be sure that the dog has lots of chew-toys and rawhide bones - i.e. items that are intended for chewing.
2 - As much as possible, restrict the dog's access to items that he/she isn't supposed to chew. You can do this with crate-training and/or moving any potential contraband out of your dog's reach. Do not leave shoes, books, kids' toys, etc in places to which the dog has easy access. (I lost a brand new pair of soccer shoes to my Lab when he was a puppy!)
3 - Train your dog to leave alone any items that you cannot remove from his environment. This is a little easier than you may think. Spray the items with either vinegar, vinegar mixed with hot pepper, Bitter Apple, or Bitter Yuck. Your dog will associate the bad taste with the items and will stop chewing them - it only takes a couple of experiences with Bitter Yuck! My dog chewed the corners off the window sills and chewed some other woodwork in the house; after getting 'Yucked' a couple of times he stopped chewing the wood.

Answer 4

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Answer 5

Dog needs some firm lessons in normal behaviour. A firm hand and some strong verbal messages together with a tasty morsel when it does behave. Get some toys like a pulling rope and get the dog to have a game with that.

Answer 6

Dogs are most likely to go for the newest and most expensive item in the whole house to chew. Most possibly she should buy something cheap but new and expensive looking. Perhaps a chew toy, or, a whole load of chew toys. She should be enclosed in a small area. Possibly etiquette classes will shake his shaking lol ;)

Answer 7

This is such an easy problem to solve.

Does the dog have bones and kongs to chew on? I don't recommend rawhide bones, especially for bull breeds, as they can choke and gag on them easily. Bull breeds have extremely strong jaws and need heavy-duty bones to chew on. The grocery store sells those big cattle bones for about $10.00 that the dog can chew on. (Needs to be monitored, as slivers can get in their tummies and make them constipated)

I love nylabones for my Bulldog. They wear him out and aren't destroyed easily.

A kong is a GREAT investment. They're available at petco, petsmart, target, etc. I stuff my boy's with cheerios and peanut butter, which keeps him occupied for a while.

Answer 8

I cant remember what it is called but there is some sorta spray that you can from your pet store, humans cant smell it, but dogs can and they hate the smell an taste. So you could buy that, and when she is going out, put the dog in a dog cage in the kitchen so she doesn't have to get a dog sitter

Answer 9

We have an English bull terrier and a Staffie and we use Nylobones.

Answer 10

My dog was the same. I stopped it by getting the rawhide bones,that it can eat.Put out more than one and get the chicken flavor.