Photo by Jarcosa.
The goal of training your pup is to teach him or her specific behaviors to help avoid developing annoying or dangerous behavior problems. More dogs are put to sleep annually in animal shelters than die from diseases. Most of these dogs are under one year old.
The reasons are many, but certainly a major contributor to this sad state of affairs is people’s expectations of what dogs are all about and people’s failure to successfully guide their pups into healthy adulthood. Many of these dogs have not learned even the most basic manners as described on our web page, and some have more serious behavior problems such as aggression. And there are families that live with dogs who have behavior problems that cause stress within the family and, in some cases, danger to others in their communities.
All puppies chew, dig, and bark. In most cases, this is the result of boredom. Many puppies outgrow some of their tendencies to dig, but others continue this habit because there is nothing else for them to do. Dogs are very bright as well as energetic animals. To avoid annoying behaviors such as destructiveness, barking and digging, they must be provided with activities that exercise both their minds and their bodies.
Daily exercise, play and training are critical. Provide your pup with safe, appropriate chew toys, and restrict his or her access to items you value, such as remote controls, shoes, clothing and purses. Use temporary fencing to block off areas of the yard you don’t want destroyed.
If your pup spends several hours alone while you’re gone during the day, leave him or her with “home-alone toys” such as Buster Cubes, activity balls, and stuffed Kong toys. Consider having a neighbor or a pet sitter drop by and play with the pup midway through the day.
With proper preventive measures, we can protect our belongings and provide adequate entertainment for our pups so that their teething and natural tendencies to chew are kept to a minimum.