How to Get Dogs to Quit Chewing on the Deck
- 1). Coat the places on the deck where your dog tends to chew with a nontoxic, unpleasant-tasting item, such as cayenne pepper or a bitter apple. While you will need to take further action to train your dog to stop destructive chewing, this step should stop it from causing more damage in the meantime.
- 2). Remove stress from your dog's life. Excessive chewing often is a sign that the dog is unhappy. Dogs are social animals that dislike being confined and alone on a regular basis. Give your dog plenty of exercise and interaction with humans or other animals, and the destructive chewing might stop.
- 3). Give your dog chew toys. While excessive chewing can be a sign of unhappiness, some amount of chewing is healthy. Provide your dog with items that it can chew on and play with freely to discourage it from chewing on the deck and other places that you want to protect.
- 4). Stop your dog when it chews on the deck with a firm "no." Immediately direct it to chew on its toy instead. Eventually, it should learn to go straight to the toy, rather than the deck, when it wants to chew on something.
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