Cute and loveable as they are, a puppy with a chewing problem can cost you an arm and a leg, not to mention your sanity. Your first day home and you notice that puppy likes to chew on the legs of the couch, the moulding, your wallet, clothese, dolls, you and your kids and just about anyting your ne dog can get his mouth on.

Step one

The first step here, is take him to the vet for a checkup. Your new puppy could have a condition known as Pica. Pica is simply a stomach condition which causes nausea and the puppy will try to chew on non-food items in order to deal with the nausea. If your pup checks out o.k. for this condition, than let`s move on to step 2.

Step 2

The second step explores the instincts of your new dog. All dogs use their nose, eyes, mouth and ears to learn and understand their new surroundings. Puppies will chew on things naturally as they explore their new roaming grounds. Some chewing is expected, but when puppy starts chewing too much, you will need to introduce the word no. When your dog starts to chew on something that he is not suppossed to, give puupy a firm command of "No" as you take away the object.

This type of training yet simple, will be effective if you stay working at it. Remeber, your new Pup is basically a baby, and curing problems will not happen overnight. By using a strong voice with the simple statement "No", you will instantly change the situation. Rember to take the object away from your dog quickly. Tug of War is simply out of the question. Your new dog will take tugging back and forth as a game. This will make the chewing problems worse for you.

Step 3

Step 3 comes into play after you have exhausted all of the previous remedies. If your puppy is unresponsive to the previous steps, than you will have to make a trip to the pet store and pick up some bitter apple. The taste of this spray is extremely sour to dogs. Bitter apple is safe to use with dogs so don`t worry. By spraying objects that you know, your dog likes to chew, he will quickly associate them as bad tasting and leave them alone.

With these 3 simple steps, you should be able to change these negative chewing habits in your new puppy.