Dogs need to chew, it is good for them

It’s important to understand that chewing is a basic need; asking your dog to simply not chew is tantamount, almost, to asking him not to breathe. Chewing is relaxing and rewarding to dogs, it helps them to pass the time while waiting for you to come home, relieves stress, releases ‘feel good’ hormones into the system and also serves as an outlet for your dog’s predatory instincts.

How then to address the chewing issue?

Firstly, with management. Until your dog is chew-toy trained keep all items that you don’t wish to have dissected and digested out of your dog’s reach. This is also important to ensure your dog’s safety and save you on medical bills.

Secondly, provide your dog with several safe and appealing toys designed to fulfill her (or his) chewing needs. Each time your dog grabs something you would rather she didn’t have, swap it for one of her own chew toys.

Ensure that the toys are tough enough that your dog cannot break pieces off of them and swallow them and also that the toy itself is big enough not to be swallowed. A general rule of thumb is that if the toy is small enough to pass through the cardboard centre of a toilet roll it is small enough to be swallowed. If you are unsure whether a toy is safe for your particular dog, let him chew it only under your supervision.

Provide a variety of different chew toys, but don’t allow your dog to have access to all her toys at once. That way, they will quickly become boring. Let your dog play with different toys on different days to keep her interest and hide the toys you are not using that day away.

My all-time favourite chew toys are the Kong toys, found at most pet shops. They come in a variety of different sizes to suit all ages and breeds of dog and are tough and long lasting. The black Kong toys are designed for industrial strength chewers, so if your dog is of the car bumper eating variety this is the kind to get. Kong toys are hollow so that they can be stuffed with food.

Your dog then has to lick, gnaw on and roll the toy around to get the food to come out.
I like to give each of my dogs a Kong toy or two to chew on whenever I go out. I keep back some pellets from my dogs’ breakfast and use them to stuff the Kongs and then seal the open ends with some peanut butter.

These toys are highly desirable to my dogs as they contain their food. This helps them to develop a ‘chew toy habit’ i.e. to prefer chewing on their chew toys as opposed to my slippers. It’s always a good idea to keep things you don’t want devoured out of your dog’s reach, but when your dog likes their own toys best it’s much more likely your possessions will remain intact if you do slip up and leave something out.

Handing out food stuffed Kong toys when you go out has a number of benefits; it teaches your dog that your leaving is not such a bad thing as they get their yummy chewies, which helps with separation anxiety. It helps with problem barking as your dog’s mouth is occupied with pulling out the goodies from his Kong and it also provides a viable alternative to extracting the stuffing from the sofa.

Over time you will find that your dog learns to unpack the Kongs quite fast, so you can then move up to ‘higher grade’ Kongs. Seal the top end of the Kong with peanut butter, stuff with your dog’s pellets, pour in some water and then also seal the bottom end with peanut butter. Put the Kong in the freezer overnight. The next day your dog has a ‘Kongsicle’ to enjoy. This is also a really nice cooler in hot weather. Other ideas are to stuff the Kong entirely with peanut butter and then freeze. Another client of mine likes to melt cheese in the microwave, stuff the Kong with this and freeze it. All of these will take longer for your dog to ‘unpack’.

What you can put in Kong toys is limited only by your imagination and what your dog likes. There are some great Kong stuffing recipes on to be found by using Google.

One word of warning, avoid using grapes, raisins, onions or chocolate, these can be toxic to dogs.

Other times that handing out stuffed Kong toys is useful:

At night, if your dog has trouble settling down to sleep and wants to get up and bark, roam around or bounce on the bed and keep you awake.

If your dog likes to jump up on your guests. Most dogs are not great multi-taskers, so usually, if your dog has a Kong in his jaws he is not also going to be signing Aunt Mildred’s new top with designer muddy paw prints in his enthusiasm to say ‘Hi’.

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