What ANTI~CHEWING SPRAY do you use or recommend for puppies?

[RTKangaMummy]

We get a 7 week old lab/retriver guide dog puppy on Wednesday and I want to treat the surfaces that she will prob want to chew with the spray or what ever it is to prevent her starting

Please tell me the name of your best one?

Can they be used on ALL surfaces ~ stair carpet and kitchen door?

Stair carpet is very old and frayed so doesn't matter about staining with spray

Also, which ones are useless?

Thanks

We tried the bitter apple one they sell in PAH with our two dogs (labs) and it was useless both times, they seemed to like the taste! Worth a try though.

From my own experience, the only way to stop them chewing is to give them lots and lots of chew toys, so your kitchen door isn't as tempting! PAH do some great rubber ones that are pretty indestructable, and you can fill them with treats to keep their interest. Kongs are great (especially if you freeze them with cream cheese inside - yum!) and nylabones are also good - just make sure you get the right type as some are too soft for bigger dogs. If she seems to like the carpet, give her a cheap fleecy blanket to destroy instead. I think it's important to match the chew toy to the texture they prefer - no point giving a rubber toy if it's leather they're craving. Some dogs are wood chewers (like ours) and there's not much you can do for that, as giving them sticks is unsafe due to splinters. But PAH do some dog chews called 'Munchy Bones' which ours seem to love, as they're stick shaped have quite a woody texture as they fall apart into little pieces when they're being chewed(and therefore don't carry a risk of blockage or choking like rawhide does).

Another good thing is the teething gel you can get for pups, as they'll normally chew because they're in pain, so that helps to treat the cause.

Saying that, I obviously don't practice what I preach, because my house is completely destroyed

Never used sprays, but thought I would let you have my experience with lab pups.

Pups will chew as they teeth and mouth - labs especially - I have had great success with having hardy items for pup which you are happy for it to chew. Put it in its mouth when it chews you or anything else and it should quickly learn what it can chew and it will stick to it.

Vigilance too!!Esp in the first few weeks of homing. HOPE puppy is magic for you. Good luck

Sorry, forgot to add, keep any TV remotes etc up high and out of harms way - ours really liked the Sky remotes and I've lost count of the number they've eaten. Not only is it expensive, but they actually pierced the batteries once too, so they're really dangerous - luckiy I got them away from her before any acid leaked out!

Oh, and hide all your shoes

Actually I was going to recommend the bitter apple spray. I have two golden retrievers and used it with both of them when puppies and they didn't like it so wouldn't chew what was sprayed. They both liked to chew table legs and carpet on the bottom step of the stairs but the spray stopped this although I used to spray regularly, no staining either. The other option is chewy toys (need to be quite strong if your lab retriever is anything like mine were) and restricting to rooms where you can keep an eye on them. A crate/cage helps if you are not around to supervise.

I am happy to say apart from socks I have had very little damage in the house, the garden is wrecked however.

In hindsight, my dogs also eat cat poo and have been known to lick vinegar off the floor, so maybe they're not the best example to use....lol!

Anti chewing spray? Such things exist? Are hey safe to use on childrens toys?

Now that my dogs is more settled here, we are having many many more problems with him. One of which being him chewing the childrens toys. We have ordered a kong and a giggly ball for him, as he has eaten or distructed all of his own toys so we are looking at building up a collection of tougher toys for him, but in the meantime we need him to able to distinguish between his and the dd's.

Shiny,

Can you keep the children's toys away from the dog? I still use the stairgate so that my dogs can only go upstairs when I allow them to which is where toys etc are. I would love to know what dog toys are hard wearing as one or other of mine have destroyed them all apart from a kong. I had a giggly ball which lasted 3 years until the youngest dog came along. We have lots of bones tho. Looks like a graveyard sometimes

I agree with MrsL - pups NEED to chew. Trying to stop them is cruel. Instead, give them something they can chew - to take their minds off shoes, furniture etc. A well-stuffed Kong (recipes on the internet) can't be beaten!

Didn't work with ours, we tried the bitter apple one and she liked it!

Yes we have a KONG that the guide dog supervisor gave us along with some large plastic keys

DH is going to get some of the nylabones for puppies on Monday

I know she has to chew I just don't want her to hurt herself doing it by chewing the "pretend" wood on the kitchen door or the carpet on the stairs

Perhaps we will try the apple spray on something else and see what happens if she likes the taste then we won't put it on the door etc if she doesn't then we will

Thanks for all the help

we have a crate already set up for her

I can keep the childrens toys away from the dog. It is the children that have trouble with that concept.

HarlotOTara, kong make a few different types of toys now in addition to the originals - PAH has quite a good range of them. Ours love their Kong Wubbas which are fetch toys (like a normal kong but wrapped in tough nylon with 'tails' on it, so you can throw it - it also floats). And they also have a frisbee (which ours love) and some tennis balls (normal ones last us two seconds!).

PAH also stock a great range called 'Busy Buddy' which are usually kept with the kong stuff - we've just bought our 8 month old pup one of their bones today, which is made out of really tough rubber. You fill the ends with treats, and it makes a really annoying fun squeaky sound when they throw it around. It's her new favourite! They have a 'chew guide' on the packaging too, so I always make sure to get the hardest ones. All the rubber toys can be put in the freezer, which really helps their gums.

Just another tip for anyone with a teething puppy, if you find yourself getting frustrated and wanting to shout at him/her for chewing something they're not supposed to, stop and take a look at their poor gums first Often they'll be red raw and bleeding, which must be agony for them - it's very difficult to be angry with them when you see that. I've read a few stories about people shouting at their pups for chewing and it makes me want to scream! Don't get me wrong, sometimes they're just being naughty, which is a different matter altogether, but most of the time it's through pain. They need to chew to help their teeth break through the gums, and leather is a great texture for them - nice and squishy, but still tough enough to get a good munch on. That's why they'll run away with your shoes! But if you give them an old shoe or belt to chew (supervised, of course), they'll love you for it and it'll save your sanity.

Unfortunately labs are known for chewing the most inappropriate things - ours ate through the plaster on the wall!

This might be a stoopid question..........but can you soothe pups' gums with the doggy equivalent of Calgel or homeopathic Teetha crystals? (tis been a good while since DCs were teething so forgive me if they aren't the current teething meds of choice )

Obviously pup still needs to chew but just wondering if there is anything you can give to ease their pain a little?

There's a few things you can do - there's a teething gel made by Mark & Chappell that you can buy online and in some smaller pet shops. You can either rub it on with your fingers or smear it on their toys.

There's also little biscuit things you can get that have a mushy centre to help sooth the pain - they do them in PAH. I found them to be a bit small though, as the pup would just swallow them whole! So I ended up having to hold them for her while she chewed them - nearly lost a few fingers!

They also seem to like munching on ice - if you've got one of those ice-lolly kits, you can make some doggy lollies with watery gravy and hold them by the stick while they chew them. That really seems to help. You can also wet a facecloth and freeze it, then give it to them to chew (soak it in gravy instead of water, if you can stand the mess!).

I always just try to imagine what it's like when I have toothache, and it's easy to see why they usually prefer something soft to chew on, especially during the early teething stages. They need to apply pressure without hurting themselves on something hard - that's why our fingers are often a prime target, it's just the right texture for them! Although the nylabones are great, they're only really for the later stages of teething. Ours wouldn't touch them in the beginning, and prefered towels and facecloths, or rope toys. Really just anything that massages their poor gums and helps to break the teeth through as quickly as possible, without being too hard on their sore bits. Feeding dry food (or adding mixer to wet food) also helps to bring the teeth through quickly.

Thanks MrsL.

Will start exploring those options.

Am storing all this info for when our pup comes home in 4 weeks

You're welcome Tulpe. Just remember - the pup WILL drive you mad chewing everything in sight (including you!) and you'll probably spend the first few months wondering what you've let yourself in for. But eventually it will grow up to be a lovely, well-behaved dog! Just keep the end in sight when the pup is driving you insane!

Our first dog will be 3 in June, and she is an angel now. She would never dream of doing anything naughty - you could leave her in the room with a steak in front of her and she wouldn't even sniff it. We always consider her the 'good girl', and our new pup (now 8 months) seems like a devil dog in comparison. I sometimes wonder if she'll ever be well behaved! But actually when I look around the house, all the damage was from the first time around! When I think about it, our older dog was a very, very naughty pup and chewed anything and everything. She destroyed the kitchen, ate plaster off the walls, and ripped the carpet off the stairs (in comparison, the new pup has caused no real damage). She also went through a phase of biting me at every opportunity. But now she's perfectly behaved, and you'd never believe it was the same dog. So maybe being naughty as a puppy isn't a bad thing - gets it all out of their system

Hi there,

I was reading these posts to find out which anti chew is best for puppies- my little poodle keeps chewing on all sorts of things around the house he shouldn't. Its so hard to keep them away from baby stuff isnt it! I'm sure he will choke on a dummy one day! I randomly found this DOG OFF spray by a company called pro pooch. Its brilliant and comes with an e-book to help you use it which was great for me as I am rubbish at puppy training!!! Its 7.99 not too bad and delivery is free which is always a bonus. propooch.com/products/anti-chew

Bitter apple spray worked for us, but whatever we sprayed he found something else to chew, skirting boards, another piece of carpet and the underlay, a whole sofa cushion, shoes, doors, every dog bed, blankets, vet bed.......

Eventually, for his own safety as eating foam in a sofa couldn't be good for him, we reduced the amount of time was left alone to only a couple of hours and crated him when he was. Chewing thankfully stopped suddenly at around 18 months.