Chewing is a normal pattern for dogs. One of the main reasons dogs chew is to relax.  There are other reasons and they can threaten your rapport with your dog!  This is a destructive habit that needs to be altered.

Your dog may chew because he is teething and, just like with a baby it hurts (a lot). Giving him frozen rawhide bones is a wonderful way to begin breaking this habit. Keep a few in the freezer for him.

Because a dogs attention span is all of a foot long, it is a good idea to get 10 or 12 rawhides chews to freeze. Put five down, then in a few days put them back in the freezer and put down the other five. Each one smells a little different and this gives him a variety of things to chew on without endangering your furniture or shoes!

Also provide your dog with lots of toys. You can never have too many of them and he will get a lot of comfort from them, even when you are not around.

Play with him and his toys so he learns that they are fun to chew and he will choose them over other items he isnt supposed to have.

NEVER GIVE A DOG AN OLD SHOE OR SOCK AS A TOY, he wont know the difference between the ones he can have and the ones he is not supposed to have!

Boredom is another reason a dog will chew. He can’t go to school or to work each day and he doesn’t understand soap operas and can’t talk to his friends on the phone, so he chews out of boredom! This is another training issue solved by chew toys. Isn’t it worth all the times you have tripped over those toys.

The best rawhide bones you can buy, as well as any of our other great pet products, are available from Wholesome Pet Supply. Give us a try. You’ll be glad you did!

For millennia, cats have cultivated a reputation for self-absorption, superciliousness and outright disregard for anyone’s opinion other than their own.

But that doesn’t mean that cats are too independent to heed a human’s wishes, says Dee Mason of Garden City , N.Y.-based AristoCat Training (aristocattraining.com), whose company name obviously suggests that there is some bid-ability in that bewhiskered head, just waiting to be tapped.

1. COMMUNICATION IS KEY

Mason stresses the importance of simple, short sentences. Many cats, she adds, don’t know their names because their owners do not use them frequently enough.

Consistency counts, too. “Use the same words and the same phrases,” she continues. For example, one of her cats learned to distinguish between “not now” – which meant she didn’t have time to take a petting break – and “wait a minute” – a verbal promise that attention was coming. The cat responded accordingly, either meandering back to her bed or standing by twitchingly.

MIRROR, MIRROR. “The way you perceive cats is the way they’re going to act,” Mason warns. “If you treat them like spoiled babies, that’s what they’ll be like. But if you have the mentality that they are intelligent and loyal friends, that’s exactly what they will be.”

2. CONSIDER TAG TEAMS

“Cats learn visually by seeing another cat” do what the owner requests, Mason says. So, if you are teaching the command “sit,” hold a treat in each hand, lure each cat into sitting, and reward the cat who complies first.

TOO MUCH OF A GOOD THING “You only want to work with two cats at a time,” Mason says. More than that will just create confusion instead of competition.

3. WILL WORK FOR FOOD

Cats, like people, need motivation, and they should be rewarded and reinforced for doing what you ask. But each cat’s “button” is going to vary. “They are so individualized, they are just like people that way,” Mason notes.

Food is an obvious motivator, but, again, consider personal preferences in this notoriously finicky species.

“Some cats like wet treats, some like hard – you need to find out what your cat will respond to the best,” Mason says, noting that she had one cat that responded only to organic catnip, while another wanted only a processed brand.

LOOK AT ME! Though it may not seem obvious, attention is a big reward for many cats, but skittish or sensitive ones may not appreciate physical contact.

4. FIRST, PROVIDE SOLUTIONS

If your cats are scratching the furniture, the first step is to get them in the habit of using a scratching pad or post. “Then you can start to deter them from where you don’t want them to scratch,” Mason advises.

Like rewards, adversives are highly individual. Some cats will avoid citrusy smells such as some orange rinds. Others might respond to a cat-safe spray-on repellent sold at pet stores.

DON’T TRY THIS AT HOME “I do not recommend throwing a can full of coins or using a water spray bottle because while people think their cat is not going to relate it to them doing it, cats are too smart for that,” she adds. “Fear is not going to make a happy household.”

5. POTTY POWER

Litterbox lapses are not only frustrating, but they can be self-perpetuating. Use a good enzymatic cleaner (Mason recommends Simple Green) to remove the odor from the area, then cover the area with a scratching pad, bed or other item the cat would not be inclined to soil.

“Wash the litterbox often, at least once a week, in soap and water,” Mason recommends. “If it’s dirty, your cat’s not going to want to use it.”

FIRST THINGS FIRST

Always visit the vet to rule out a medical issue when a cat stops using the litterbox.

This is the same method used to train the whales and dolphins and other creatures at Sea World. Anyone who’s been there knows that these wondrous creatures perform flawlessly for audience after audience and, at the same time, enjoy doing it.

The enjoyment feature is the key. You love you dogs and you want them to be responsive, but you dislike hurting them! With clicker training you don’t have to. This training works for every dog, from bold to timid, from tiny to giant. It is the same training method used to train animals for movie and TV work.

The clicker itself is a simple toy-like device that is used in the initial stages of training any behavior. It provides clear and precise communication between owner and dog and allows you both to concentrate on and enjoy the task at hand. You click at the exact moment the dog is performing whatever it is you want, and since you always follow that click with a tasty treat, the dog will learn to love the sound and the work to make that sound happen! As part of the training, you teach the dog hand and/or verbal signals for each behavior. As the dog learns these, you phase out the clicker. It has completed its function, which was to communicate to your dog which behavior you desired.

With positive reinforcement training there is no more forcing a dog to learn. Instead, the dog becomes eager to learn! Tasty food treats are the primary reinforcers at first because they are easy to use. However, other reinforcements are used as well from squeaky toys to playing games. A dog properly trained this way will not be dependent upon food in order to respond.

Clicker training can be used to teach your dog regular pet obedience type behaviors (such as loose-leash walking) as well as more advanced competition, trick or service behaviors. You will love it… and so will your dog!

You can learn more about dog training and Clicker Training at my Best Puppy Kits dog training site.

You can get the tasty treats used with Clicker Training from Wholesome Pet Supply.