Forget sit. Teach Legal Chew Toys First.

New puppies have hundreds of things to learn. Where do you focus? Instead of starting with commands that look impressive like “sit,” start with building good habits that will prevent the future destruction of property. It isn’t that “sit” or “drop it” or “fetch” aren’t important, it’s that by focusing on legal chew toys first you and your puppy will have a strong foundation for

Define only what is legal

Can you imagine going through every single item in your home with your puppy, and saying “this is not a chew toy,” “not that either” or “definitely not that” for each and everything? The theory here is to instead define what is legal, and everything else is off-limits.

Teaching a puppy what is and is not a “legal chew toy” is an important part of raising a well-behaved and happy dog. Chewing is a natural and necessary behavior for puppies; to relieve pain from teething and keep their jaws strong. However, it’s important to teach your puppy what they are allowed to chew on to prevent them from damaging household items or ingesting potentially dangerous objects.

I’m sure you’ve seen the photos of a guilty dog with a destroyed couch or pillow filling in the background. The stories of shoes and purses ripped to shreds. Or trips to the emergency vet after half of a phone charging cable can’t be found. This is why we teach legal chew toys.

One of the best ways to teach your puppy about legal chew toys is to provide them with plenty of appropriate options, as different toys provide different stimulation for the dog. Each puppy will also develop their own preferences for texture and feel and shape. Look for chew toys that are specifically made for puppies and are the appropriate size and hardness for your pup’s age and mouth. Avoid toys that are too small, as they can be a choking hazard, and avoid toys that are too hard, as they can damage your puppy’s developing teeth. Our vet advised for hard toys that we should be able to create an intent with our fingernails; anything harder was too hard. Check with your vet on what is best for your puppy.

It’s also important to consistently supervise your puppy when they are playing with chew toys. This will allow you to intervene if they start to chew on something they shouldn’t be, and to redirect them to a more appropriate option. If you catch your puppy chewing on something they shouldn’t be, calmly but firmly say “no” and remove the object from their mouth. Then, offer them one of their approved chew toys as a replacement.

To further reinforce the idea that certain objects are off-limits, it can be helpful to use bitter spray on items that you don’t want your puppy to chew. This is especially helpful if your puppy has chewed on something before and wants to come back to it. This will give your puppy a negative association with chewing on those objects and can help to prevent future incidents.

It’s important to remember that puppies, like all animals, will make mistakes as they learn. Don’t get frustrated with your puppy if they chew on something they shouldn’t. Use chewing and playtime as an opportunity to teach them what is and is not acceptable. Remember, how much they have to learn. With patience and consistent training, you can help your puppy learn what they are allowed to chew on and develop good chewing habits that will last a lifetime.

Puppy Apartment for Legal Chew Toys

For Tuna, we set up a Puppy Apartment as a safe confinement area. He was allowed everything that was in the puppy apartment and nothing that was outside of it. This simplified the rules he had to learn from an item by item rules to just “if it is in my apartment, I may chew.” Simpler rules lead to quicker learning. Setting up your puppy for success by simplifying what they need to learn was a recurring theme in our approach to training.

We would get him interested in new toys by joining Tuna in his puppy apartment (yes, we’d go into the pen) and engage in playtime. Puppy teeth are notoriously sharp, so when he got mouthy, we should stand up and leave the puppy apartment. This reinforced that the puppy apartment was a fun space where, if he had good behavior, we would play with him. But it was not a place he would go to be punished or put on timeout; he was already there and we (the reward) left as a negative consequence.

When he knew enough rules of the home, and we had enough confidence that he wasn’t going to have a potty accident in the next few minutes, he slowly was allowed to explore the home under close supervision. This was often aided by bringing along a toy, but always a toy that he already loved and was introduced to in his puppy apartment. That way, even though the home was full of new interesting things to chew on, he was content with bringing his favorite toys along with him.

Every Meal is a Training Opportunity

Never miss an opportunity for training. Meal time is the perfect example. Toys like Kongs or Topples allow the puppy’s dry food to be given as a chew toy. Think about that: The puppy gets all the benefits and happiness from chewing and gets food along the way! They will be addicted to legal chew toys by following this.

By using chew toys to feed your puppy their meals, you can turn mealtime into an opportunity for training and reinforcement. These toys allow you to provide your puppy with a healthy outlet for their natural chewing instincts while also rewarding them with food. This can help to create a positive association with chew toys and encourage your puppy to choose these toys over inappropriate objects around the house.

By consistently providing your puppy with chew toys at meal times and reinforcing the idea that these toys are acceptable to chew on, you can help your puppy develop good chewing habits that will last a lifetime.

Note that we are not talking about special treats in the Kongs, but the puppy’s normal kibble. That is more healthy and supports maintaining a healthy weight.

The trick is not frustrating the puppy with the difficulty of the mealtime chew toy. While our current feeding routine involves soaking and then freezing an entire day’s worth of food in five XL Kongs, Tuna had to start with dry kibble just placed in a Topple. Over time, we soaked, then froze the food to slowly increase the difficulty of the task. Having these frozen food/toys on hand is a lifesaver throughout the day as it will redirect the puppy from anything, and I mean anything. It can also give you a much-needed ten-minute break.

And, while mealtime is happening, you are yet again reinforcing legal chew toys. We still use mealtime for training and have built it into Our Feeding Routine for Behavior and Health.

Resources that we used

• Simpawitco Dog Training

Equipment we used

• Topple
• Kong (puppy at first, current XL and hard)
• Bones
• Fluffy