Puppy destroys shoes,how to train not to?
 

Hello,

I have recently buy a puppy, a jack russell, he is very energetic and a little 'mad' sometimes. But yesterday late at night I caught him chewing my shoes. :mad: My point is, how to train him not to destroy my shoes?

Hi JG,

Welcome to the forum!
I'm sure others can provide additional info on this topic as I'm mostly a cat guy ( with dog experience )but a few things come to mind.

Simplest solution is always put shoes away in the exact same way as when dogs sniff/chew socks and panties. Training takes longer and it works - but the fastest solve is remove the temptation.

That deals with the temptation but what about those secret desires? :)
If the dog can't chew your shoe, what CAN the dog chew when he wants a good chew? Chewing is a normal activity for dogs, especially puppies. So u want the dog to chew, just not your shoes.
BTW - how old is dooger?

Saying "NO"! while catching dooger chewing might teach him that chewing shoes is bad. This "no" is a mild form of punishment. Punishing your dog in any way at any time other than 'in the act' is a complete waste of time as they cannot put the cause and effect together after a few seconds, let alone minutes or hours later.

But then dooger SHOULD be rewarded (especially at the beginning) as he's chewing something good...so make sure he has chew toys available.

Years ago I think I saw Dr. Stanley (noted psychologist and dog expert) Coren advise people to scent the "no" objects with repellent smells (perhaps even eucalyptus if memory serves ) and the yes objects with pleasant smells.. Just a thought.

Be curious to read what other members advise and good luck!

It's impossible to train this if you aren't watching him every second. I imagine you were sleeping? Even if you thought you trained him if shoes are his "thing" personally I would never leave him alone with them. I still hide mine as they have mega expensive orthoses in them and my 6 year old hasn't chewed anything in years.

First, in dog training we have the sure thing remedy for this. It's called Puppy Proofing. LOL, put away out of reach anything that is precious to you or possibly dangerous to him if you cannot actively supervise. I am not a fan of crating if it means puppy is stuck in one all day but a crate might help.

Teach LEAVE IT. In my experience this still only works when you are there to get the words out. Many if not most dogs never learn to self impose training in your absence. They do not tell themselves LEAVE IT, they do not sit before crossing the road, they do not ignore the cat food or the litter box when you are not there.

How old is puppy? Is he teething? Chewing often ramps up around 4 to 6 months. My dogs did outgrow chewing and they are a mouth oriented breed, Labs. But JR, oh my, they are high energy, clever little devils and they can be a lot of work. Are you going to obedience classes? JR really benefit from training that makes them think and thinking helps tire them out. I really believe it might be impossible for a human to tire a JR out with exercise alone. I do not believe that saying, "a tired dog is a good dog." Your dog should learn how to control and compose himself and training classes will help you to show him how and that will eventually help with household destruction. Good luck.

[url]http://www.sheknows.com/pets-and-animals/articles/971815/how-to-stop-your-puppy-from-chewing-and-more[/url]


Jack Russell are very high energy dogs and will need a lot of exercise or they'll get bored . Apple Bitter can be sprayed on some things but like marko said you should put all your shoes up . If your puppy is teething he will find something else to chew on and that could be a table leg or chair leg or a desk drawer . My dog chewed on my desk drawer when I first brought him home and he was two years old. You should buy good toys to chew on but made sure they're not from China . We would love to see a photo of puppy .

Oh the JR terrier, the live wire.

If it's still a puppy, you deflect to chewing something else. We use frozen raw meaty bones like ribs, big enough that smaller dogs can't chew through them. But yes, do put things you don't want chewed out of his reach.

Exercise, exercise, exercise and training. Train them while they are young or can end up with a firecracker when they are older. The GF's previous neighbor has 2 of them, and they are nuts/psychotic but they never got out of the yard and tended to destroy everything they could get their teeth into.


GF has a pure minpin that can be a live wire too, and like the JRT, they were bred to hunt. Once he was allowed off leash and gained our trust, he goes hunting in fields for rodents and what not, great mouser - and I know some people don't like that. If we walk 5 km, he's surely doing 15 and he's a good tired pup at the end of it. Give him a frozen meat bone at the end of it and he'll spend a few hours on it.