Getting Your Scottie Out Of The Chewing Habit
Like barking, chewing is a natural instinct in a Scottish terrier. Besides fulfilling their need to sharpen the teeth, chewing anything he can lay his paws on may become an exciting and entertaining game for him.
Unless they are trained and their chewing habit corrected, they will not realize that everything cannot be chewed.
Puppies have a tendency to chew everything when they go through the teething process, because it helps in alleviating the pain in their gums. This normally lasts for a few months, but if the chewing habit persists beyond one year your Scottie may be suffering from boredom, anxiety or depression.
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A chewing habit may develop for many different reasons so it is advisable to first try to find out the causes. However, whatever the reason may be, proper training is the right way of controlling it. After all it is a lot cheaper to invest in training and in suitable toys that the dog can chew than to replace expensive furniture in your house. |
Here are four tips that will help in controlling your Scottie's chewing habit:
1. Keep things you wish not to be chewed out of reach.
Understand that
anything on the floor or within his reach is fair game, do not expect
him to be able to judge what is valuable to you or not.
2. Restrict your Scottie's freedom of wandering throughout the entire house by keeping him in a confined place while you are sleeping or not around. Make sure you provide him with chewing toys while he is confined.
3. Give him enough attention and physical activity to fight boredom and loneliness. Along with giving your Scottie training for obedience and good behavior, play with him to teach him simple fetching the stick tricks. These activities may help in getting over loneliness and boredom problems.
4. Firmly reprehend him when you catch him chewing and immediately present him with a chew toy. Once he starts chewing on the toy praise him and offer a positive reinforcement. That's the way for him to learn the difference between what he is allowed to chew and what he cannot chew.
Also to prevent both, chewing and accidents, maintain dangerous things like electric cables, chemicals and sharp items out of the reach of your Scottie. An exposed electrical cord he suddenly decides to chew can burn his mouth and even cause death. Some deterrents like cayenne pepper or bitter spray can be used on carpets, furniture and table legs to prevent or reduce chewing.
As with all training, consistently and patiently applying the above instructions will definitely help in curbing bad chewing habits in puppies as well as in adult Scottish terriers.