So I have a 6 month puppy (golden retriever and border collie predominantly). He’s mostly been an angel but now that he has all his adult teeth he’s absolutely destroying his soft toys.
He use to be able to cut through rope toys and into stuffed animals as a puppy, but it would take a few days or hours depending, and I would always take the toy away and throw it out when I noticed him starting to wreck it and if it’s to the point of being a safety risk. I figured this was due to his sharp puppy teeth. But now that he has all his adult teeth’s his destruction has just sped up. He ripped open a “tough” stuffy in under 20 minutes yesterday, totally ripped off the nose and was ripping out the stuffing
What sort of behavioural modification techniques can I use to correct this? He has lots of chew toys made up of different materials to gnaw on; he gets bully and yak sticks; we go for 2-3 walks a day, do 2 training sessions a day; and play lots. I also work from home so he’s rarely fully alone. Do you folks think this is just a puppy phase, or related to his adult teeth still growing in maybe? Is this something I should be working on or am I over concerned?
He’s pretty gentle otherwise, but we are still definitely working on his nipping which I think is related to his herding background. With other dogs he loves to wrestle and play bitey face but never to the point the other dogs have to correct to him. So I think he knows the difference between biting living things gently and ripping up a toy
submitted by /u/FederalContact4582
[link] [comments]