Welcome to Pawprint Academy, your blueprint to
raising better dogs. My name is Ryan, and I'll
be your host for this journey. I've got my trusty
co -host here, Brianna. Hello. And together,
we're bringing you real -world training insights
built on leadership, structure, and proven methods.
We record this podcast with live clients on the
line in one take with live, unscripted questions
and answers. At the end of the day, this podcast
is a lot more than just teaching your dog to
sit or stay. creating calmness, and becoming
the kind of leader your dog truly needs. We do
that with our three pillar method of trust, obey,
and perform. Together, we'll show you how these
three pillars shape every step of training. Thanks
for being here. Let's get started. Hey, hey,
hey. It's episode 21. We made it past 20. Oh,
we did. I'm super excited about that. Chewing
and destructive behavior. Why dogs destroy things
and how to stop it. Tonight we are talking about
the mindless chewing and the destroying of the
house and the couches. Such a hard phase. It
is. And it plagues puppies. Primarily, but it's
not just puppies and they can be any dog and
it can develop later in life, too. So we're going
to talk about that tonight. Additionally, a couple
of news things. I should I should get some like
transition music and then do like a little like
newscast of like different statistics as they're
coming up or the little. I don't know what that
is, but it sounds cool. Yeah, I know, right?
It is cool. Sweet. So where I was going with
this was we are up to 500 downloads, which is
exciting. That is exciting. I mean, we're not
holding a candle next to very many people, but
you know what? We have more than three, and so
I'm excited about that. It's like my mom and
my dad. Right. And you. You. Yeah, exactly. Not
me, you. Right. I don't think you even listen
to it. I do not. I participate. All right. So
anyway, super excited. We're up to 500 downloads.
So I don't have a perfect metric of how many
people have actually listened or how many times
they've listened after downloading or how all
of those metrics play out. That is an encouraging
number. And additionally to that, we have a really
cool announcement that I intend to fully release
a Pawprint Academy app as early as 1st of May
for normal folks. But we are looking for beta
testers, basically. Yeah, basically. It's not
really a beta. I don't know anything about this
stuff, to be honest. We'll just throw that out
there. But put in a lot of work into creating
a kind of an atmosphere or a all -inclusive type
environment clarity to our clients and to uh
private lesson uh people clients that are um
that are local but also being able to reach out
a little further and help people out that that
aren't able to be local um through a bunch of
different avenues and we'll talk more about that
later but super excited about that um instead
of going down the um the school or patreon route
uh we're trying to reach some people in our own,
uh, pop run Academy way. And the podcast is integrated
into it. So you can listen to it inside. Um,
so we'll hit that where more. as the time gets
closer. But if you are interested in testing
it out or helping us work through the bugs and
develop the things, I am very certain that if
I were to just throw it out there on the app
store, everything would crash immediately. I
have no faith in what I've built. So always looking
for people to help out and always looking for
constructive criticism. I'll even take regular
criticism. If there's anything that we're doing
with the app or in more accuracy, if there's
anything we're doing on the podcast that we can
do better or you know some equipment that we
can use that like fixes a problem or maybe the
volumes aren't like leveled out or something
like that, I don't know what I'm doing. So I
am open to suggestions. So as you have those.
Please, by all means, I try my hardest. I'm the
hardest trier. But I don't always nail it. So
please let me know what I can do better. And
what we can do better. And we will absolutely
give it our best shot. Okay. Those are the announcements
for tonight. That was it. That's it. Now, let's
get into the core idea for the night. Chewing
and destructive behaviors are not spite and revenge.
I'm going to say it one more time. Rule number
one. When your dog is acting up, it is not because
they're trying to get revenge on you. Right.
They are not upset at you. That's not why dogs
do what they do. That is a human based emotion
slash behavior. And we put that on the dogs all
the time. I get calls about it. I have, and I
don't know why recently, spite has come up multiple
times. And it's like, well, there's spite peeing
over there in the corner. What is, can you explain
that to me? What is the spite peeing? Well, it's
because they just went out and then they go over
there and they're like, well, you didn't let
me out fast enough or you didn't, you put me
in my kennel or whatever. So I'm going to pee
over here. So then you have to clean it up. I'm
going to take quarrel with that because. The
science says, not Ryan says, but the science
says that that's not how dogs think. They don't
think second and third level like that. They
are opportunistic, yes, but manipulative, no.
Opportunistic is the door's open. I want to go
outside. I'm going to go outside. Manipulative
is I'm going to go outside so that then my. Mom
has to chase me around and she will, you know,
be next to me when this dog next door barks at
me. So now I've got backup. Right. And also it's
like they build patterns of knowing like how
to get what they want. So even if we if a dog
develops a pattern of something that's advantageous
for them, they've learned that because. It worked
for them at least one time. And so they're going
to do it again. It's not that they were like,
well, I'm going to do this because I know that
this is going to happen. They just tried it one
time most of the time. And they were like, it
worked. I'm going to keep doing that. They just
tie it to exactly. What happened following that
behavior? So I've said a lot in recent lessons,
I use the example that dogs are little scientists
and they're always running experiments all throughout
the day. And I feel like that's a really good
analogy because when you run an experiment, you
might get a result that even as a human, as a
scientist, you get a result and you attribute
that result. to one thing yeah but actually it
happened because of something else right and
that's why they tell you in science experiments
you have to change one thing at a time you can't
change multiple things because then you don't
know what developed that result yeah 100 and
dogs are are no different they're the scientists
though in this like analogy yeah and so they
do something and um you know they pee on the
floor and you freak out but at the same time
as you freak out their toy fell off of the couch
and landed next to them and they go oh well that
was cool right for for just as a crazy example
right and i i don't have a prepped example in
my head but whatever it is that they see in that
environment you might not have seen you might
not have seen the same thing and so you're like
Oh, they want me to freak out. They got pleasure
out of that. That's probably not, probably not
that. They probably saw something else, but they
attributed it, attributed that to the reason
or the result of what they did. Okay. I had to
get that out though. The spite thing, I hear
it more often than I would like. and it's just
not a, uh, an attribute of the canine species.
Right. And so chewing and destructive behaviors
like both come from what? Instead, not spite.
Right. Not spite. Not spite. Not spite. I'm going
to get there. I'm trying to stay in line here,
but yeah, it does not come from spite. You're
right. So the results of unmet needs, right?
Stress, lack of structure, poor management, or
uh dogs can destroy things because it relieves
pressure or it fills the time or it satisfies
some sort of instinct that they have or you know
something that they feel like they're supposed
to be doing or just because it was there and
they were curious they wanted to they're like
i don't know what that tastes like yeah oh this
isn't so bad and they didn't even know that they
were going to enjoy it but it was there and they're
like I'm going to try it. Yeah. Anyway, lasting
solutions, though, come from prevention, structure,
and providing appropriate outlets. Not just from
yelling, screaming your head off, and punishing
and correcting your dog. All right. Why dogs
chew and destroy. Here's our major point one.
Destructive behavior always serves a purpose
for the dog. Always. Dogs don't do anything without
purpose. Neither do humans. We say all the time,
oh, I don't know why I did that. Well, but there
was a reason. There was a reason lest you wouldn't
have decided that. Well, dogs are no different.
Everything they do serves a purpose. It's our
job to figure out what that purpose was, and
that's how we fix the problem. Bye. doing or
something that we're going to, you know, talk
about. So let's, let's first let's first zero
in on, on, on what we're talking about. Puppies
can chew to explore. They can chew out of a soothing
feeling, right? Before their teeth hurt, right?
We've all heard the, Oh, they're teething. Well,
what is that? When a puppy's teeth are coming
in or their mouth is hurting because their teeth
are moving and coming through the gums and all
of these things, that can be a painful process.
And chewing is something that relieves or soothing
to that dog. And so they find things to chew
on. And it relieves stress in the animal. So
that's puppies. Adolescent adult dogs can chew.
Sometimes for the same reasons, as far as exploring
or soothing some sort of discomfort, you'll find
that a dog that is in pain, they've got a torn
ACL or they've got a bad hip. You'll find that
those dogs have a higher propensity of chewing
than a healthy dog because it's soothing. And
then, of course, you have excessive energy. It's
like an anxious behavior. It's like tapping a
pen in a meeting because you're anxious and you've
got energy and you're nervous and you're just...
You find something to let that energy out. And
dogs are no different. All right. Next one. Anxiety
and frustration commonly show up as destruction
when dogs are left alone. And so... We talk to
owners all the time about dogs getting items
and things like that in a room when the owners
aren't watching them or aren't able to watch
them and the dog just has free reign. Well, then
we come down to, you know, unsupervised freedom.
It allows the dog just to rehearse over and over,
like grabbing things and taking them. destroying
them and just like we talk about dogs with reactivity
right the more they get to rehearse that behavior
on the front end before they know anything about
training the more likely they are to continue
that behavior and so it becomes a pattern and
what we try to always stop in any dog that we
don't want to see is a pattern that they start
to develop at the very beginning it's way easier
to stop a behavior that you see the dog going
oh I'm going to try this. Yeah, I'm going to
try this. Or this happened, now this happens.
This happened, now this happens. And it's a behavior.
And if it's a negative one, if you don't stop
it early, it's just going to grow. And it's going
to be way harder in the long run. And not giving
them those outlets will also just have them make
poor choices, to be honest with you. We hear
that all the time too from owners is, well, I
don't want to teach my dog to chew on things
or bite things. And so I don't want to give them
those items. But if we don't give them that outlet,
especially like bully breeds and things like
that, where they just are born to use their jaws.
If we don't give them that outlet in some way,
they're going to use it negatively. And so when
we talk about dogs with, you know, a propensity
to, you know, show aggression or bite things
and, you know, use their mouths in ways that
we don't want to, and we go, well, let's play
tug with them. Inevitably, owners that have never
played tug with their dog is like, well, I don't
want to teach them to bite or like to chew things.
Right, but they're going to do that anyways most
of the time. Yeah. I just added, that's a really
good point. I just added that into our, our,
how we're going to fix this. Right. Cause it's
like, if you don't, if you don't teach them the
good things, they'll just teach themselves the
bad things. Um, and so that is a really big one
also that owners are, are kind of concerned about.
Yeah. So if they don't have the outlet to do
whatever it is that like is in their brain, their
genetics to do. Then they're going to find other
things to do. Right. And even if your dog is
like, I want to run and they don't ever get to
run. Well, like. Right. This applies universally.
Yeah. It doesn't matter what. This doesn't even
just apply to chewing. Yeah. It's all things.
All of these dogs. This is a common universal
theme. Dogs were bred for a reason originally.
Yeah. And that's genetically they've been. they've
been selected and bred to genetically perform
certain actions. And then we take them and we
put them in a living room and we're like, all
right, just lay there. Sometimes you put them
in a purse. Some people put them in a purse.
You're right. You're right. But just in general,
it's like, I just want a family dog. And I bought,
it's like, Sorry, this is just a theme that it
sounds silly when you talk about it, but people
go and they find dogs and we ask them, we get
to see this all the time where we ask an owner,
why did you pick that dog? Yeah, that's my favorite
question. And they're like, well, because look
how cute he is. Yeah, that's the number one answer.
It's like if we were playing Family Feud, it's
like that would be up there. Is it the right
reason? No. No. But is it the number one reason
people give us? Yeah. Yes. Yeah, 100%. But we
pick the dog because of how they look, but not
because of like, what was this dog bred to do?
What is the statistically highest chance of activity
that this dog is going to feel fulfilled doing?
Did anyone ask that question? I'll also give
you a life hack right now. The cuter they are,
the harder the time you're probably going to
have. I'm going to just give you the ultimate
life hack you should follow. The cuter they are,
you should probably go. If we could go down in
downloads, we would. People are going to turn
this off immediately. No. I don't want to know
anymore. Because I'll work with the super cute
ones. But it's so true that. We try to adopt
a mountain lion and then we're like, just sit
on that place bed. Why won't you just chill?
And it's like, you got a mountain lion. That's
like the lady with the deer in her backyard locally
that was like, I'm going to keep this deer. Right.
And then it mauled someone. So you can't. Deer?
Yeah. I shouldn't laugh at that. Right. But you
can't go based on like cuteness. Gored someone?
Is that with antlers? I don't know what that's
called. It mauled someone? It seems like. I don't
know if that was the right word. Anyways, that's
not what I was going for there. The goal. It
hurt someone. I got it. Yeah, it's cute. Right,
because it was a wild deer. Yeah. Yeah, you can't
do that. You got to train it, I guess. You got
to get a deer trainer. that's obviously way off
the rails there right get back on track if you
know a deer trainer please please like and subscribe
i want you to come on the podcast i have right
i am very curious how how close to dog training
deer training yeah i'm like is there relation
there because like i know people talk about like
human psychology when we will start talking about
dog training they're like oh my gosh it's the
same like we've talked to a child psychologist
and she was like this is blowing my mind and
a lot of it does relay back to the same exact
like the the same exact behaviors and things
and so yeah so if you are a deer trainer or you
know a deer trainer please send them my way ryan
ryan at top dog training nc .com i we we can
set up a uh guest co -host situation virtually
uh through zoom it'll be great this entire thing
makes me want to start talking about koala bears
that i just found out about yesterday but i won't
that's next week's app episode yeah so on this
week's episode we are talking about uh dogs that
chew and so We're back on the train tracks. We're
back on the train tracks. Let's talk about why
punishment after the fact usually fails. So most
owners are going to respond to the chewing too
late. A lot of times, obviously, no one's going
to let their dog just chew on the legs of the
sofa. Right, while they're making eye contact.
Right, exactly. You're not going to sit there
and watch them do it and then be like, okay,
well, this is fine up until a point. That's not
right. You're like, okay. And it's been 30 seconds.
No more. Usually you immediately jump in. But
the problem is that most of the time when we're
talking about a dog that actually like destroyed
stuff, you weren't there at all. And so then
you come back to it later. And this is where
like the wheels fall off the train. Right. It
really goes back to like the same thing with
like potty training, right? You can't scold the
dog after the fact. They have no idea what you're
yelling about. Yeah. So when you start yelling
about something and it's not directed at a behavior
or better said, interrupting a behavior, you're
likely going to lack clarity. Yep. And when you
lack clarity, you're just not teaching the dog
anything. Dogs do not associate delayed punishment
with past behavior. It is widely accepted in
the dog training world that you have somewhere
in the ballpark of one to two seconds that you
can properly relate what the dog just did to
a reward or punishment. And the dog will understand.
After that window, now it's no longer generally
accepted. Now it's just a random shoot based
on your dog's genetics, how old they are, how
engaged they are to you, whether they're actually
getting the message or not. Some dogs will pay
attention for three seconds. Some dogs will pay
attention for five seconds. Some dogs, they never
made it past one and a half seconds. And so that's
why we say. One to two seconds, that's your window
to properly associate whatever the behavior was,
good or bad, to a consequence, good or bad. You
can have good consequences. Consequence for sitting
when asked is here's a treat. There's your consequence.
We usually talk about consequences with negative
connotation, but a consequence is just the result
of, that behavior so the next part is if we just
scold the dog after we return home we're talking
minutes if not hours later right you have no
hope of truly breaking through that dog's mind
and and and them being like uh yes the chewing
was what i wasn't supposed to do If a dog destroys
a pillow and you come home two hours later and
then you hold the pillow and you're yelling and
screaming at the dog, the dog might show like
that they're remorseful and be like, oh my gosh,
I'm so sorry. And they do the, you know, they
get real low to the ground and they flip over
on their back and all these things. And then
people go, ah, they learned their lesson. But
did they? Right. their action of chewing to all
of that screaming that you just did. Instead,
they have a hundred different variables and smells
and the sounds and all of these things that you
might not even pick up on that they're experiencing
all at once. And they may pick one of those other
variables and associate that for the reason why
you're being hysterical at that moment. Yeah.
So we can't do that. Removing freedom without
teaching structure leads to frustration. So if
we just, we roll back inside, we grab the dog
when we toss them into their crate and slam the
door. Ah, now they'll understand that they're
in the crate because of this. I'm going to tell
you highly unlikely, highly unlikely that you're
doing yourself. a service and explaining clearly
to your dog what they did wrong yeah deterrence
alone fail without management and training we've
got to be present for this training to actually
take place and finally the inconsistency of when
we respond and how we respond teaches a dog that
sometimes destruction is allowed Sometimes it's
not. And this comes into play when you have all
of the regular human style variables that come
into play. So you come home and you've had a
bad day and you're dealing with this and you're
dealing with that. And then you see the dog chewed
just a little tiny bit on the, on the couch.
And you're like, gosh, darn it. But you're just
too tired to deal with it. Or, um, Maybe you
didn't even find the accident that the dog has
until the next day. And it's like, well, what
did we reinforce there? That the whole situation,
because you weren't able to do it, at what point
is it bad and at what point is it acceptable?
When that is confusing to a dog, you have no
hope. Yeah, for sure. All right. We're trying
this new format here, so I'm going to try opening
it up if anybody has any of these types of experiences,
both the why and how. Let me say it a better
way. If anyone listening has an experience that
they have, with chewing, destructive behavior,
or just dogs doing something that they're not
supposed to do that you normally would not appreciate
in the home while you're gone, stuff like that.
I'm going to open up the floor here to anyone
who wants to jump in. I'll just give it just
a minute here, and then we'll move on to how
we're going to recommend you. Prevent and replace
the behaviors. Right, because I have one, but
mine goes back to how to prevent it. If nobody
has one, it's totally fine. We can move on to
yours. Right, well, I won't skip to mine. We'll
just wait until major point three, because if
so, I'll just spoil all of major point three.
You're going to spoil all of them. Yeah, I will.
All right, so we'll move forward with. This is
how we're going to recommend that we prevent
and replace these behaviors. Prevention and structure
is going to stop the destruction before it starts.
Obviously, the proactive way to deal with this
is to start it before it starts. I said start
it before it starts. Stop it before it starts.
So I've been waiting to talk about this. You
know what? Let me hit this one first. We can
manage the dog's freedom. We can manage the dog's
experience, their structure, what they're allowed
to do and what they're not allowed to do so that
we can provide one, clarity of expectations for
the dog. Two, we keep them out of trouble. Because
we prevent them from making bad choices in the
first place. And three, it reinforces our relationship
with the dog because it doesn't put us at odds
with the dog. If you were to have a child and
they were growing up and growing up, at what
age can you leave this child at home? There are
some states in the United States that have specific
laws that it's like this old. That's not even
what I'm talking about. I'm just talking about
from a parent's point of view. We're in the 90s.
Right, in the 90s. There was also an age where
you could leave kids at home. Yeah, but it didn't
matter. The concept is simply that if I was to
ask you a pointed question, what age can the
child stay at home? There's a lot of variables
that go into that. But one of the most major
variables, if it's your child, do you trust them
to make good decisions when you're not there?
And having a dog stay out at home is no different.
If they lack the maturity to make good choices
when you are not physically present and there
and watching them, no amount of training makes
them not. Or it makes them more mature or less
mature. Time and that training helps them to
mature. But you don't just take a dog and it's
like, well, after they're six months old, then
they can stay out. That's not going to make them
successful. Showing them, guiding them, and using
training in a systematic way leads the dog into
making more appropriate decisions. But while
that process is going on, you got to prevent
the problems from starting. And that means put
your dog in a crate. Put your dog on place. Tether
your dog. Give your dog something to do. Put
your dog outside in a fenced -in yard. Bring
your dog back in. Don't leave them anywhere for
an extended period of time. At the point where
you can't physically watch them, It doesn't matter
if it's 30 seconds, five minutes, or two hours.
If they don't possess the maturity to make appropriate
decisions, then they have to go into one of these
management strategies. Yeah, I think pet owners
a lot of times now, it's like they love the dog
to the equivalent of a human child. But they
are not willing or feel like they are able to
hold the dog accountable. And in a. I can't.
I lost the word I was thinking of in a. I lose
words all the time. I know mine's on the floor
now and I never lose my words usually in a. Gosh,
it was right there still. I don't know. In a
way that like you. Guide your children to yes
or no right and wrong I think a lot of it like
it comes down to like we love our dogs super
hard but we don't see like structure and Like
we see them as control rather than leadership
Yeah I don't know if that's what you're going
for but kind of One of the biggest things, and
we're not going to go all the way down the road
of crate training. We did a whole episode on
that. But the value of putting your dog in selective
temporary confinement will always resort back
to this concept of structure. Discipline was
the word I was looking for. We're willing to
love our dogs to the extent of human affection.
I feel like when we look at a dog, we have a
hard time disciplining them to the same extent.
Because we selected the dog because they were
so cute. Because they were cute and man. It's
like, oh. The number one wine. You're so soft.
Soft and cuddly. So crates, pens, leashes, and
place beds all come into play for selective confinement.
If, yeah. I'm not going to circle back to that.
I'll circle back to one thing. It's like if your
dog has one ounce of training, been through one
session, and your dog is not acting appropriately
in the home, strap a leash on for three days
in a row and tell me that your dog doesn't act
totally different. Yeah. Right, because you are
holding them accountable. Yeah, and they understand
that difference. Yeah, that was it. Okay. Go
ahead. The next thing, so that what we are talking
about is management strategies. It's like when
your dog barks at the front window and that's
the only place where they bark in the home, why
do you let them keep getting in the window? Right,
they've lost that privilege. Right. Prevent them
from getting in the window. You will never see
with your eyes the level of motivation that a
dog has to chew on the sofa. You'll never pick
up on that. But you leaving the dog out next
to the sofa is like, you know, it's just a huge
amount of temptation if you've already identified
that they really enjoy chewing on the sofa. But
people are like, well, I trained my dog not to.
And now I'm going to just leave the house, cross
my fingers, and hope. And that's insane. And
I'm not the only dog trainer that says that.
There's some really high -level, high -profile
dog trainers that literally call that out. It's
like expecting the dog to just make good decisions
because you told them to is crazy. don't put
your dog in a position where they can fail and
now you're mad at them. And now they're in a
position where they're like, well, why are you
mad at me? And now you've, you've like created
this little rift in your relationship. Why would
you, why would you do that? Just, just put them
in a crate. Yeah. But that takes time and effort
and, and other decisions like, well, I don't
want to put them in jail. Why does it have to
be jail? Yeah. So you can listen to the Cray
episode. We talk a lot more about that if that's
a big hang up. But selective confinement or just
general environmental management is the number
one way that we prevent bad choices in the house.
Yep. Next one. Rule out a veterinarian issue.
Right. A health issue. There are some dogs that
they have a bad tooth. They have bleeding gums.
They have pica. They have a health issue that
increases their desire to chew on something to
soothe them. Or, like we said before, they have
a bad hip. They have a splinter in their paw.
And they start licking that paw, trying to like
fix their paw. And then they end up licking the
carpet. And as they're licking the carpet, they
don't really realize it. And then they are like
kind of picking at it. And they're like, oh,
well, that's kind of fun. And then they chew
up your carpet. And you're like, what the heck?
Well, it started very innocently while they were
trying to, you know. self clean themselves yeah
anyway and then you can figuring out what is
going on is really important and sometimes all
we're saying is that sometimes there can be a
health issue that is involved yep and then also
like giving them something to chew on that they
are allowed to chew on providing appropriate
chewing items correct toys bones yep things like
that go ahead And then rotating them so that
your dog doesn't get bored because the concept
of a dog not getting bored with a toy or a chew
item is super common, right? If you have a basket
of toys and you dump them all over the living
room floor, within a couple of days, the dog
is going to be tired of all of those toys and
he's not going to care. Yeah. And it's as simple
as just getting bored with something. So keeping
items. And rotating them so that the dog has
access to one at a time is an important concept
as well. Yep. Next one is increase their exercise.
Increase their amount of structured exercise
and mental exhaustion. The more that you wear
your dog down mentally, the less they will find.
Because we named like three or four different
reasons why a dog chews. All, not every single
one, but the major three, they're all related
to a dog that is anxious with pent up energy
and no outlet. Yeah. A mentally stimulated dog
solves all of those. Yeah. So food puzzles and
scent games. And food scavenger hunts. And all
sorts of things. My new favorite is blowing bubbles
for your dog. And blowing bubbles. Some dogs
really love it. Right. And it is stimulating.
Like they have to jump. They have to catch them.
They have to do different things. Um, so it is
a stimulating game for dogs. I know it seems
silly, but non -toxic bubbles. Yeah. Non -toxic.
Obviously. I think I don't think they make toxic
bubbles. It's like kids eating crayons. It's
like, we're all fine. We're just going to, we
can eat the big selling point. These are non
-toxic. Yeah. Um, whatever you need to buy to
make you obviously don't put your dog in danger.
I'm sure they make dog specific bubbles. They
probably do. I'm sure. Um, if not. So finding
activities for your dog to do to wear them down
both mentally and physically will put you statistically
in a much higher likelihood of coming home to
a house that isn't one piece than not. And on
this, I've been waiting to talk about this, but
this concept of chewing, biting, tugging toys
and the fact that some people. Avoid them completely
because they're worried that it will increase
the dog's drive to bite and nip and chew on other
things. But I haven't really found that in my
experience. And my understanding of the science
behind it is that a dog, all dogs are like this
body that's built around this mouth. It's their
number one. way that they interact with the world
it's their number one way that they defend themselves
it's their number one tool that they use for
everything so the concept that well i'm just
not going to teach him how to use it so that
then he doesn't use it is is null and void yeah
instead show them and teach them and pattern
them on what they should use it for That's where
the tugging and chewing and biting toys come
into play by teaching my dog what to bite. And
inevitably, sometimes he gets real close to the
hands. That's an opportunity for me to be like,
whoa, no, don't do that. Do this. And I can move
the toy and give him room to bite that again.
And it feels very different to his mouth when
he bites my hand or he bites the toy. But when
it's in play and it's quick and it's all these
things, right? We pattern it and it's not the
same as a dog just like biting you. Where I was
going with that though is that if you never teach
your dog what to bite, then they may just make
their own choice of what to bite. If you never
teach your dog what to chew, They're probably
just going to make their own choice about what
to chew. I will always encourage all clients
and dog owners out there to teach their dog what
to do by showing them and by encouraging them.
Let them run the experiment and then show them
that they did a good job by choosing the right
thing. Yeah. All right. Also, side note, they
do make dog bubbles. They're peanut butter and
bacon flavor. That is. It's not an idea that
isn't real. I learned something new today. I
did not know that they had peanut butter flavored
dog bubbles. Me too. I was like, there's for
sure a way we could market peanut or dog bubbles
if there aren't any, but there are dog bubbles.
Yeah. Somebody's thought of everything. That's
crazy. I know, I'm telling you. Do you have something
to add on the chewing and the opportunistic chewing?
No, I don't think so. Okay. We want to teach
calm independence rather than constant stimulation.
That's the next one. Sometimes you need to, this
is where place comes into play. And we've done
a whole podcast on this as well. But place is
an opportunity to tell a dog, no, no, no. I want
you to go and lay right here or just stand here.
Just be in this little vicinity and just turn
off. If you don't, this is like the biting and
chewing and whatever toys. If you don't teach
your dog to do nothing, when are they going to
learn to do nothing? That's a learned skill of
chilling and turning off. You have to pattern
that. And then. We want to reward engagement
with the approved items. And we want to use it
consistently across the board. So when a dog
does the right thing, when a dog does a good
thing, give them those items that you can chew
and tear up or bite or whatever it is. Because
we have to meet the dog's genetic disposition
one way or another. Otherwise, the dog will find
things to meet that. Yeah, that's never what
we want. And so what also goes into this is that
you can't just replace one thing with another
in the same proximity either. We want to take,
so if we're using chews or treats or something
like that, we don't want to pattern these things
right next to each other. So where this comes
into play, if your dog is chewing on the sofa,
on the leg of the sofa, you're not going to take
your chew toy and put it right next to it so
that then the dog relates that chewing behavior
potentially to the sofa still. We want to remove
that and put it in a different location. So by
showing the dog with very clear, we want night
and day clear communication with our dogs. Instead,
I'm going to put that chew toy in their crate.
I'm going to put that chew toy on their place
bed. I'm going to put that chew toy in the places
where I want the dog to hang out, not in the
places where I want them to not go, if that makes
sense. So that's the last little tip I've got.
All right. So at this point, I'll open it up
for questions. And there we go. Got them on here.
Real quick. I was not prepared. I was like, where's
our Jeopardy? Right, I know. Where is it? Jeopardy
music or elevator? No, it's Jeopardy, right?
Right. I'll just start doing it. Here we go.
I found it. Thank goodness, because I didn't
know how long I could do that for. All right.
Probably not long. My tone was off. If anybody
has a question, now is the time to ask. Then
we will open it up for listener projects. I've
got a question. Got a question. I'm turning it
off. All right. Go ahead. So if you are giving
your dog something that you want them to do on
the place bed. And they keep taking it away and
off of the place bed. What do you do? I quietly
without any without any other real precursors
or any other variables. I just quietly remove
it from the dog and put it back on the place
bed. Yeah. Usually it only takes about three
times or so. Really like. average i'd say for
the dog to be like well they just keep putting
it back over here so i'm just gonna stay over
here right because you'll increase frustration
yeah with that and so i don't i don't correct
it i don't say no i don't uh anything other than
remove it from the dog um in a way that doesn't
create a game that's the other thing you can't
like rip it away and then run across the room
with it um That can be useful in some times where
we get the dog to chase us instead of us chasing
the dog. But either way, that can create a situation
where the dog then repeats the behavior because
they know you're going to engage to them. So
instead, just be real boring about it, but take
that thing away, put it back on the place bed,
and then walk away and observe from a distance.
Also, if the dog isn't really experienced in
extended place work, Using like a tether method
for place can also work in some instances like
for puppies and things like that where they haven't
stayed on place for a long time. Thank you. Yeah.
Yeah. No problem. All right. We will move on
very quickly here to listener projects. All right.
Listener project number one. Chew zone setup.
Select a couple of approved chew items, whatever
you're okay with. And then remove access to the
household items you're not okay with. And put
the dog in an area through selective confinement.
Use a gate or block off an area or something
like that. And show the dog that, hey, these
items can be chewed on in this area, but not
in that other area. Redirect calmly to the approved
chews and then praise the correct choices. Number
two, pre -departure routine. So one of the things
that we hear a lot is that, well, when I'm getting
ready to go. That's when my dog has a complete
change in behavior. Right. Because they're running
little experiments and you've shown them that
you have certain things that you do reliably
before you walk out that door. So what you're
going to do for this project is you're going
to add structured exercise or training before
you leave. So you're going to back up your schedule
just a little bit so that you can get. 10 or
15 minutes, even if it's just five minutes, that's
fine. But try to get that a couple of minutes
in where you can try, you can either wear the
dog out physically or you can wear the dog out
at least mentally. And as you do that, then you
provide a safe chew. at the end when you're about
to leave and you walk out the door. And what
you will find is that chew will be a lot more
satiating than the other exciting things that
the dog is finding that you would rather they
leave alone. That is also... that goes with you
have to condition them towards that if you get
a brand new chew your dog has never chewed on
anything before you get a brand new thing right
out of the package and you just give it to them
you walk off it's highly likely they they're
it's going to be boring right and that's why
they they make chew toys and and different toys
that like are scented right to to draw the dog's
attention to it um but it may take a little bit
of play This project is recommending you use
a chew that the dog already finds value in. Don't
just use a brand new thing. By then combining
those two projects and having the dog in an area
where there are chew safe items, you're going
to statistically lower the chance significantly
that they're going to make bad decisions. Oh
yeah, for sure. And then keep your departure
calm. That's the last step. Keep it calm. Keep
it predictable. You decide when to leave. This
is a leadership skill. We're not looking to the
dog. Okay, I'm out of here. Goodbye. No, you
just get your stuff. You walk out the door. You've
already said your goodbyes. You've already done
all your other things. At the point where you're
ready to leave, you leave. That's going to reduce
your dog's anxiety to the whole concept. All
right. That is all I've got for today. So we
will close it out with, there's our music. Thank
you for joining us today, tonight for Destructive
Chewing. Destructive. Episode 21. Super excited
to be into the 20s on episodes. We'll keep bringing
them to you each week. If you are listening to
this and you've got a comment, concern, something
that you think we can do better, please reach
out. Leave me a comment on whatever the app is
or the platform that you're listening to. Or
email me at ryan at topdogtrainingnc .com. All
right. Thanks guys. Have a good night. Good night.