Ms. Rei Rei Chewsalot

[Spontaneous Smile]

Our Sheltie Mix Rei Rei has an issue with chewing. She's gotten better since we adopted her, since her teeth have fully grown in and stuff. Now the only time she really chews on anything is when we're out of the house or is we aren't paying attention to her.

We almost always scold her after she chews something up, we hit her on the hind-quarters with the chewed up item, show it to her and sternly tell her "No." But she still continues to chew, even if she knows what will come of it.

Can anyone help us out? Our sofa already has holes in it and the bottom of a foot stool is ripped to shreds.

[star_crossd]

We give our dogs rawhide bones to chew (not pig ears, they give them gas >.>) and they rarely ever chew on anything else. I've heard that to stop dogs from barking, spray them in the mouth with water mixed with a bit of vinegar, maybe you can do the same with chewing?

[Spontaneous Smile]

We can't give her rawhide bones because her and the other dog will just fight over them.

We've tried spraying stuff with 'dechew' spray that you get from petshops- they don't work. The whole water and vinegar thing might work though.

[SnowKitten]

i personally hate the De-chew crap at the petstore.
Try getting the Bitter Apple spray somewhere online, and coat what she chews with it. It is quite tart and makes the dog reel after chewing on it.

NOTE--It might say *For Ferrets* on the label, but it will work for dogs too

[Spontaneous Smile]

Well we don't know exactly what she might chew up. It's a spontaneous thing for her. We have sprayed different things on the furniture and shoes and it doesn't seem to work.

[kimvia]

somehting that seemed to work well with our dogs for several kinds of behavior issues (fighting with each other, barking a lot, jumping up, etc) is putting some pennies in like an aluminum soda can and shake it as soon as you seem them misbehaving. the swatting probably isn't helping because they don't really feel it- most dogs have very high pain tolerance, now i am NOT saying to hit harder... my point is that inorder for it to actualy deter them , you'd pretty much have to cross the line into abuse, which you should NEVER do, so i'd stop the swatting all together. if the pennies in the coke can doesn't work, you could try lightly tapping their nose with the chewed object, not enought to really hurt, just enought to be a lil uncomfortable, be very careful not to hurt them, ok?
one last thing- you could maybe try sprinkleing somehting like cayenne pepper on the usual chewed objects. and then giving the dogs each their own doggie toy, mine like ropes, and having them chew it in seperate areas, if fighting is a concern. DOgs have a very natual urge to chew and they have to have somehting that they are allowed to chew. whenever they chew on their toy, praise them a lot!
good luck and feel free to pm me, ok?

[Spontaneous Smile]

The penny idea is a good one! I never thought about that. We try not to hit her too hard, just enough to where she understands she did something wrong (She knows that she has already) But we did hurt her once by accident and it broke her spirits. So then we started cuddling her and playing with her. She popped up again.

She's a good dog, and smart at that. She's still a puppy though and it's been a while since we've had a puppy (9 years ago, when Rusty was a littlun.) So we've had to readjust.