Practical Dog Training Tips

The Use Of Toys In Training!

Chew-toys and destructive chewing

We've already mentioned chew-toys briefly in a quick tip. Most pet owners supply their puppies with chew-toys in hopes that the puppy will use them exclusively instead of chewing up good shoes, table legs, couches, etc.
I'm not sure how the use of chew-toys got started, but I strongly suspect money may have had a lot to do with it as sales of these articles amount to millions of dollars annually.

The reasoning behind the use of chew-toys seems to center around one or more of the following:

It's instinctive for a puppy to chew

Since he's going to chew "something", better a nylon bone than my new shoes.

Chew-toys relieve boredom

Often a puppy chews things because he's bored, so it's better if he chews on a nylon bone when he gets bored.

Puppies need chew-toys to develop their teeth and jaws.

Yeah, and pigs need to have their wings clipped regularly so they don't fly away from home.

Let's take them one at a time.

Is it instinctive for puppies to chew? Yes.
When we want to learn about some new object, we first look at it, then we pick it up and feel it. When a dog investigates a new object, he first smells it, then he tests to see if it's good to eat.

Can we get rid of an instinctive behavior? No.
But what we can do, is modify or control instinctive behaviors. In all training we use the dogs' instinctive behavior, trying to enhance and strengthen desirable behaviors and diminish and suppress undesirable ones.

Encouraging and strengthening a behavior that could result in the destruction of a two-thousand-dollar sofa does not strike me as a particularly good idea.

Do chew-toys relieve boredom? Maybe.
But so does chewing a table leg or playing "shred-the-new-lazyboy-chair".
Now folks, if you're going to train your dog to chew to relieve boredom, guess what's going to happen when he gets bored and his chew toy is in the other room and your shoe happens to be handy.

Generally, about here, some chew-toy advocate jumps up to point out: "Just train your dog to chew the toy and not the furniture".
What this tells me is, this guy wants to teach the dog to chew this but not that. Most of the time these people compound the problem by using items such as old slippers or old socks tied in a knot as chew-toys. Old socks, incidentally, are not only unsatisfactory as a toy, they are dangerous and could kill your dog. Don't expect your dog to chew an old slipper and leave your new ones alone. I think you'll have more success teaching him to chew nothing but food.

Does he need to chew to develop his teeth? No! Emphatically, No!
If you're feeding your puppy a good diet, complete with raw bones, like you should be, he has no need to chew nylon or rawhide or plastic to develop his teeth and jaws.

The alternative to chew-toys.

I never use chew-toys and I have never raised a destructive chewer!

Yes, you read that right. The only times I've had damage from a destructive chewer were the times I was trying to retrain dogs that had been made into destructive chewers by well-intentioned owners who had been conned into giving their dogs chew-toys.

From the time I bring a new puppy into the house I teach him not to put his teeth on anything that isn't food. If he picks up a stick in the back yard and chews or plays with it I say nothing, but in the house, if it isn't food, I tell him to "leave it" and make sure his focus changes to something else.
Does he still have the instinct to chew? Yes, but it's surprising how easy it was to suppress that instinct.
Does he still get bored sometimes? Probably, but nobody ever taught him to chew to relieve boredom, so he doesn't chew.
Do his teeth fall out because I don't give him chew toys? Well, no, so far I've never had that problem.

A legitimate use for toys

Canvas dummies, bird wings, Frisbees, and especially balls, are invaluable training aids. When I'm training a dog to find drugs, I regularly use a ball to motivate him. I'm not even sure these items should be considered toys, but, most people probably think of them as toys. Certainly, a lot of pet owners use them as toys, and they seem to satisfy some parental instinct to provide for our children, so I'll refer to them as toys also.

Let me say, right up front, my dogs never have any toys of this type either. I use them all the time. I play with my dog and the ball. But the ball is not his. It's mine. When we're done playing, I take the ball away and put it up. I want him to relate to me, so the only way he gets to play with the ball is if he plays with me. That way, the ball and the play session become a strong motivator. If I left the ball with him all the time, pretty soon he would have little interest in playing with it and I would lose my best means of motivating him.

When playing with the dog and "my" toy, I always try to leave him wanting more. I want to avoid him losing interest at all cost.

So, there are legitimate uses for toys, but there are no dogs' toys and certainly no chew-toys.

Good luck with your training

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