Question about chewing and rawhides..

[beylhi]

I adopted a pom/dachshund mix pup off craigslist about 4 months ago. He is an absolute gem of a dog. No potty problems, aggression, barking or really any negative traits other than one. He is a chewer. I know this is most likely because of his age (he's about a year old now), and I'm working on him with it. He's got plenty of toys to chew on, yet still I find him getting himself into trouble. I buy rawhide chews, bones and several other synthetic chew toys. He enjoys these toys immensely (he can chew a large dog sized rawhide in less than 2 hours), but it doesn't seem to be enough. He goes outside and chews branches off of trees, he chews up his plush toys and destroys them. He doesn't chew on furniture, just small things that he can destroy. He use to pull garbage out of the trash cans (kleenex, toilet paper, wrappers, etc) but I caught him in the act, sternly told him No and he's never done it since. He's ridiculously smart and catches on remarkably fast. It only takes once for me to tell him No and he'll stop whatever the disliked behavior was. Like I said he's a great dog.

But recently I was told that rawhides are bad for dogs teeth/mouth. His teeth and mouth are really clean and there is no damage caused by the rawhides but I would like to know if it's true. Are they bad for dogs? I keep him fully stocked with chewable toys. When I catch him chewing on something he's not supposed to be chewing on, I tell him No and hand him his chew toy. He never goes back to the same thing twice, which is where my problem lies.

How can I get him to stop chewing on MY things, and have him only chew on HIS things? He knows which toys are his, he has a ton of chew toys, and does chew on them. But if I'm not paying attention to him for long periods of time, it's like he chews on things out of boredom and attention seeking... This isn't a real regular thing. I'm out of work right now so he's with me day and night. He's never left alone. He's very devoted to me and follows me around. If I'm on the couch, so is he. If I'm in bed, so is he. If I go to the bathroom he's trying to come in too.

So my two questions are these:

How can I get him to stop chewing on my stuff? and Are rawhides bad for dogs? He refuses to play/chew on things like Kongs. He doesn't much care for synthetic toys. He likes bones and rawhides.

[Nettle]

Rawhides aren't the best, because they are cured with chemicals, and also there is danger of the dog chewing off a lump and swallowing it, so getting an internal blockage.

Antlers are very good chew toys (saw off the big pointy bits) raw vegetables like cabbages and cfauliflower, cardboard boxes (without staples), and best of all, fresh raw meaty bones. Only raw bones are safe: the pet shop ones are dangerous.

You won't get him to stop chewing your stuff because dogs have no concept of it being your property: it is all fun stuff to chew. Put everything away that you don't want chewed, including the garbage because he WILL come back to it one day and he might make himself really ill.

How long are these 'long periods of time' you leave him for? What is his average day? Might he need more walking/interaction?

[beylhi]

Well, lol long periods of time for him to be away or ignored by me is a really short amount of time to anyone else as we've been literally inseparable for the entire time we've had him. The longest I've been away from him is tops 4 hours. But that was at the beginning of when I first had him. I was a long haul truck driver and he was on the truck with me, so we were together all day long. Nowadays, the longest I'm away from him is an hour or two. I'm not afraid to leave him by himself, he does just fine. He does show some separation anxiety though. My husband and I have been working on that with him too and he's gotten significantly better. He's not a howler, barker or anything like that and the destructive chewing started as part of his separation anxiety. But like I said, he's not doing that anymore. We did put the garbage cans up, or put them behind cupboards, or closed doors, but I live with other people and none of us want to change our daily routine to accommodate the dog. And like I said, I caught him in the act of getting into the garbage (when he did this, he'd pulled out toilet paper or a kleenex, chew it up and leave the pieces. He didn't actually eat anything) told him NO and he hasn't done it since. He's very smart.

He knows which toys are his. I keep them all in a specific place, and I can tell him "go get your toy", and he'll go to his basket and pick something out (usually a chew toy), bring it back to where I'm at. He'll sit at my feet or next to me and happily chew on whatever toy he's chosen. He's very playful so we spend time each day playing fetch, or my husband and I chasing him which he absolutely LOVES. It's quite funny. We'll chase him around the house and if we stop, he'll try to get us to continue, by chasing us. Never aggressive he even "smiles" and will jump up on us and lick us or bark once or twice to goad us to continue. As I'm typing this he's trying to get my husband to chase him.

I watch him closely with his rawhides and I've never noticed him eating it. He chews it up into small pieces and then usually just leaves the small pieces scattered around. He also loves stuffed animal toys (which is ok because we don't have any small children in the house).

He gets walks, but I'm still perfecting his leash training. He pulls, so I'm working on that with him. No biggie there. But yes, he gets regular walks (not as many now as we've had steady rain/downpours as of recently and his raincoat only protects so much). He gets plenty of play time. Him chewing on my things only happens once every few weeks. I don't much care about my stuff, as it's all replaceable, my dog however is not. I worry about his safety.

[runlikethewind]

Is anyone else thinking what I'm thinking? 'He even smiles' - dogs don't smile. They bare their teeth. Anyway, that's not what you've come here for but I think it's quite interesting that little snippet of info

[runlikethewind]

How can I get him to stop chewing on my stuff? Put your stuff away. You and your housemates might not want to change to accommodate the pup, but that's not really being fair to the pup, really. By leaving your interesteing stuff out, you're setting him up to fail. Try some hemp tug rope. Give him plenty of natural stuff he can chew on - as listed by Nettle. He will grow out of seeking out our stuff to chew, I'm sure. Of course, he knows his toys when you point them out (smart boy!), but when there's something else, maybe slightly different lying around, maybe that smells of you, when you're away and he's a bit anxious, then he's going to have a go with that.

Are rawhides bad for dogs? Yes at Nettle says some are treated with chemicals... bleach I think. There are two countries of origin, China and S America. I think the S American ones are better but do your own research on this. Contact the brand you buy and ask them for the manufacturing process.

He refuses to play/chew on things like Kongs. What do you stuff them with? Kongs are to be stuffed full of good, yummy stuff, and can be frozen.

He doesn't much care for synthetic toys. He likes bones and rawhides. You don't want him to chew synthetic toys anyway - so that is a good thing. As Nettle suggests, try your antler brands over there. There is one brand I wouldn't go for. PM me and I'll give my reason why.

[runlikethewind]

There's a similar post here about stealing and chewing belongings under behaviour.

viewtopic.php?f=4&t=9105

[beylhi]

He doesn't chew on my things when I'm away. He chews on my things when I haven't paid attention to him in a while. I do put my things away, but he's ridiculously smart, and VERY fast. It can be difficult sometimes because he sneaks in and grabs things when you're not look and will take off with them. By the time you realize he's got it, it's destroyed. Like I said, I don't care about my stuff, it's all replaceable. I worry about my dog chewing things up that could be harmful. If I'm so lucky to catch him before he chews whatever it is he's stolen (now that it's the christmas season, we've put the tree up. One of the ornaments is a pine cone. He took it off the tree once, and began chewing on it. I took it away and told him no. he hasn't been near the tree since).

The kongs- we put dog treats, peanut butter or this paste stuff I got from the pet store in there. He just licked out the stuffed but never chewed on the kong itself. After about a minute he got bored with it and would leave it on the floor.

I wish I had a picture of him, he DOES smile. It's quite funny really. He smiles when he's playing or excited.

I'll try the antlers and will see if he likes them. I'm also going to pick up some more stuffless stuffed animals, he absolutely loves though. Thanks for all of your help