Sampson wasn’t much of a chewer when he was a puppy, mostly he chewed on his own toys. If I CAUGHT him chewing something he shouldn’t, I would tell him “No” and give him a toy that he was allowed to chew.
One time I caught him plucking at the loveseat, but he stopped when I refocused his attention on a toy. He never touched that loveseat again, except to lie on it.
He did have a tendency however to chew wood. I had to use bitter apple on my antique coat rack in order to deter him, though truth be told I didn’t really care that he had chewed it, because it needed to be refinished anyway.
There was one time though that I came home to find he had chewed the end of the foot rest on the breakfast bar. I was scared to death to tell Hubby, because I was afraid he would want to punish Sampson. Imagine my surprise when I told Hubby and he laughed and said, “I didn’t like it anyway.” 🙂 We took that foot rest off and threw it away.
Sampson was never much of a counter surfer either. If memory serves me he only went on the counter once when there was some steak up there, but we were going to give it to him anyway.
Oh and butter, he would go up on the counter for butter as often as he had the chance. In fact, he loves butter so much, that my sister calls him, “Butter.” And he answers to it.
It’s fairly easy to puppy proof your house when the puppy stands about 10 inches tall and is easily redirected.
It is quite another when the ‘puppy’ is 75 pounds and her head just about comes to your waist.
Delilah is not so much a chewer as she is a tearer upper.
I’ve been giving lots of thoughts to why she tears things up, and I don’t believe she’s stressed. Nor do I think she’s suffering from separation anxiety. And she’s certainly not doing it out of spite.
I think she MAY be bored, but it is more likely she is looking for food. Most of the items she has chewed have or had food in them. I was reminded of this when I used my 1/3 measuring cup this evening and saw all her bite marks.
She certainly keeps me on my toes about putting things away, because I can be quite lazy at housekeeping sometimes, then there are times when I think I have picked everything up and lo and behold she finds something.
What do you do? Do you have a chewer, or a tearer upper? How do you handle this issue? What creative methods have you used to deter your little tearer?
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