Chew Toy Training – 5 Tips to Chew Toy Train your Dog (w/Olive!)
Many of you have asked about learning
more about chew toy training. As luck
would have it I just did this with my
new dog, Olive. So, 5 strategies for chew
toy training, coming up!
Ian here with Simpawtico Dog Training and
before we dive into Olive’s second week
at home please make sure you’re
subscribed so you never miss any of our
videos. Also follow us on all the big
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acquainted. And don’t forget to check
that YouTube description for notes, links
and resources about the stuff we talked
about. In our last video which detailed
Olive’s first week at home we talked
about focusing on the management aspect
first before getting too caught up in
teaching behaviors and doing fun stuff.
Now that she’s settled in a bit and
starting to find her groove we can get
into some of the nuts and bolts. Week
two’s goals are: chew toy training, name
training, offered attention, control
behaviors such as sit, down, and stand, and
mouth behaviors like take it, leave it,
and drop it, and walking with Darwin.
You’ll notice that at the top of the
list was “chew toy training.” As I’ve said
many many times one of the greatest
things you can do for house manners and
for being at home alone is to chew toy
train your dog. A dog that’s hooked on
chew toys will stay out of most kinds of
trouble. I’ve also said before that it’s
not what it is it’s what you’ve trained
it to be so if your dog isn’t into chew
toys, that’s not the end of the
conversation. We need to train them to be
into chew toys. From the very first night
Olive had a habit of suckling and
chewing on the blankets. This was totally
unacceptable. Luckily we put down some
older ones because we weren’t sure what
to expect from her and we didn’t want
her messing up the nice comforter. That
was actually my wife’s idea and boy that
was smart planning. This kind of suckling/
gnawing behavior is sometimes a
comforting activity that understimulated
dogs will engage in, kind of like a
pacifier. I could also tell that Olive
had been allowed to play with squeak
toys and plush toys in her old life
since she went bonkers for them. Some
squeaky and plush toys came with her
when we adopted her and eventually she
would start destroying these. This was
exactly what I was afraid would happen,
and this is exactly why in the 4 Types
of Toys video I mentioned that I don’t
like to let dogs have squeaky and soft
toys because it encourages them to do
the same with other things in the house
like the blankets, pillow corners, and
even the underwear she keeps trying to
steal from the hamper. Now the act of
chewing is calming
and it gives a dog healthy outlets. It
alleviates boredom, calms them down, and
gives them something to funnel energy
into. Think of it like giving a kid a
coloring book. So I don’t want to
discourage chewing; I just need to
channel her desires into better objects.
We needed to make the transition over
from soft things to real chew toys. I
wanted her hooked on hard things like
Nylabones, Benebones, antlers, and
similar types of toys. My late Boston
Terrier, Bobo, was trained to channel his
jazzed up energy into a chew toy when he
got overwhelmed and kind of hyper. He was
trained to find a bone and tear into it
for five minutes or so. After that he was
as cool as a cucumber. I would like for
Olive to pick up this habit as well. Also
both of my other dogs are addicted to
chew toys and it’s a tremendous
management tool. We even take bones with
us when we travel and it helps keep them
busy at Grandma’s house or when they’re
hanging out at the Simpawtico facility. So
to that end, here are my five strategies
that we used for Olive’s chew toy
training: gateway toys, baited and roughed
up chew toys, 2-step redirecting,
targeting and shaping, and praise, praise
and more praise. Let’s take a closer look
at these. Strategy number one is to use gateway
toys. These are temporary inbetweeners
meant to pave the way toward the real
chew toys. For this purpose we purchased
a couple of new toys for Olive. One was
this Kong ring. It squeaked and while I
typically discourage dogs from getting
squeak toys, as I said, I knew that Olive
have had an affinity for squeakers so
something tougher and more durable would
make a good bridge to other things. This
worked great because she could chew on
it and squeak it but it was harder for
her to destroy. Squeaking it got her to
engage with it almost immediately. As of
the making of this video
we’ve already phased this toy out and
she’s engaging a hundred percent now
with non squeaking toys. I also got a
Kong dental toy. We jammed some peanut
butter in the ridges to make it
interesting.
This one had deep cracks so I wanted her
to really engage with this piece and get
busy with it. This worked great too
because it was even tougher than the
ring so she could really get crazy with
it. Now I should mention that my Kong
video is really aimed at creating a chew
toy habit as well.
The goal of a food-filled Kong is not
only to crate train or occupy alone
time, it is also to get the dog into
chewing on something in the first place.
This is, in essence, being used as a
gateway toy too – which will eventually lead
to the main chew toys. I’ll link to that
video as well in the YouTube description.
The takeaway here for you is not
necessarily to go out and buy these two
toys, exactly, but to think of things
along these lines that are a good fit
for your dog to bridge the gap. Look for
toys that your dog will find interesting
but are a little tough. Even if they
won’t last too long that’s okay because
they’re not a long-term solution; they’re
short-term items that get them hooked
into spending time with a toy in the
first place. Every dog will be a little
different and the gateway toys should be
phased out at some point no matter what.
Using these gateway toys led us right
into strategy number two: using a baited
and roughed up chew toy.
In short order we took one of the Nylabones
that had already been worked on
by my other dogs. This had lots of nooks
and crannies on it and it’s a lot more
inviting than a brand new one. There’s
lots of grippy space on it. Then we
smeared some peanut butter lightly in
the cracks. It’s not necessary to glob it
on, I just want to make it a little
tempting. Just like on the dental toy she
has to work at those nooks and crannies
in order to get the peanut butter
meaning she has to actually chew on the
bone. While she’s doing it we praised her
enthusiastically. This is essentially
classical conditioning. She chews, we
praised for the duration. She comes to
see chewing as an indicator of praise.
Plus she’ll discover that chewing is
awfully great all by itself without the
external praise. If you don’t have an
already been chewed bone to try this
with, just get a new one and rough it up.
Use some coarse sandpaper, a file or a
rasp, or even a cheese grater if nothing
else. All the good smelling stuff is just
under that smooth, factory surface so
get that sucker nice and used looking.
Now we also had to deal with that
blankie suckling situation so we used
two-step redirecting. Often the process
of chew toy training is necessitated by
your dog chewing on, shall we say,
unapproved things like shoes, purses,
underwear, and the mail. A lot of training
tips online mention trying to
redirect or swap your dog’s activity
from the non-sanctioned items to a chew
toy. When making this transition, though,
it’s important to get the order of
operations down right. Suggesting a chew
toy as an alternative is great but don’t
just jam it in their face. This is a
common mistake owners make when trying
to redirect their dog to a better
behavior and they’re missing a step in
between. First calmly get the dog to stop
chewing on whatever it is and praise
that. Praising the cessation, or the
stopping of the behavior, creates a whole
operantly conditioned sequence in their
brain unto itself. Then offer the
alternative toy to fill the vacuum and
praise that when they engage with it.
It’s a two-step process. In Olive’s case
we calmly, serenely, without ever losing
our cool persistently stopped her from
chewing the blanket. We’d just hold onto it
with our hands and when she let go we
praised her. We didn’t want it to turn
confrontational because she’d just shut
down. The whole process needed to be
supportive but resolute. Fortunately it
took less than a week for her to start
being more curious about the chew toys.
Eventually she started settling down
with the blanket, and we stopped her like
usual, so then she went and grabbed a
chew toy on her own we praised her
lavishly for this, and that seemed to seal
the deal. Now she’s not only engaging
willingly with the bones but she’s
actively seeking them out and parading
them in front of us to show us how good
she is. Some of you won’t be able to sell
it to your dog with any of these
strategies. No worries though, we always
have more tricks up our sleeves. You can
always take a more structured route with
targeting and shaping. You have to build
interest and then reinforce the
engagement with the item. This is how
trainers teach a dog to pick up specific
items, or to acclimate them to Gentle
Leaders, or muzzles. It’s willing
engagement that is encouraged and
cultivated, not forced. As with any
training activity you can always break
it down into as many parts as necessary
to be successful. For example if your dog
isn’t taking the bait and working at the
peanut butter, reward and praise them for
simply investigating it. Reward them for
bopping it with their nose. Then reward
them for putting their mouth on it, and
so on until they’re taking it. This is
called targeting and we shape it over
time to be closer and closer to what
we want it to look like. Jean Donaldson
has a great video showing you how to get
a dog to love a gentle leader head
halter. There’s also one by Donna Hill on
how to teach a service dog a directed
retrieve. While neither of these deal
directly with chew toys, both of them use
a similar process of targeting and
shaping that you can absolutely apply to
getting your dog interested in a chew
toy or even into a game of tug, like we
talked about in the Drop It video. I’ve
done exactly that many times with my
students’ dogs. I’ll link to both of those
videos in the description below.
Finally the easiest strategy to
implement is just praise, praise, and more
praise. Here’s the step that most people
miss, and it’s a golden opportunity that
they waste—so simple! Praise your dog
enthusiastically the whole time they’re
engaging with the toy. So often we give
the dog a toy and they start working on
it and we go, “Oh thank God I can go check
my mail now.” So not only does the dog
stop getting social interaction, but
unless they happen to get hooked into
the act of chewing itself right away
there won’t be as much buy-in. So hand
them a toy, engineer the situation to get
maximum engagement, and then praise the
hell out of it! This is a teachable
moment! Remember, you will eventually be
able to use the chew toy to occupy your
dog while you do other things, but for
right now you have to tend to it and
cultivate the habit. You sit with them
and you act like their cheerleader. In
fact, any time your dog engages with the
chew toy take just a moment to praise
them. Walk over, give them some loving
petting, and tell them how proud of them
you are. You’ll be conditioning them to
associate the chew toy with praise, and
chewing is a calming, enjoyable activity
by itself. It’d be like if someone
coupled your favorite activity with
compliments and a massage. I mean who
wouldn’t love that? So let’s recap the
process guys. One, use gateway toys to get
the process moving. Two, use a baited, roughed
up chew toy for initial engagement. Three,
make sure redirecting from non-approved
items has a middle step where they are
praised for stopping and then offered
the chew toy as an alternative, and then
praise again for engaging with it. Four, if
none of these seem to seal the deal try
targeting and shaping. Break it down into
smaller
phases and nail each phase down
systematically with positive
reinforcement. And finally: praise, praise,
and more praise. Praise all engagement
heavily to build maximum buy-in. Also
keep in mind that you can always combine
several approaches to get the job done.
It’s not a search for a magic bullet.
It’s about engineering your space so
that the options you want your dog to
choose are abundant and easy. For example
2-step redirecting might segue into a
short session of targeting and shaping
to get the initial buy-in, or you may
offer a better gateway toy, or a baited
and roughed up chew toy. No matter what
though keep at it and give the habit
time to form. In the end good habits are
just as hard to break as bad ones. Now
here’s my question for you guys:
I gave you five strategies for chew toy
training—do you have any cool approaches
I didn’t list? Do you have any neat
stories about how you might have gotten
your dog hooked? Share them with us in
those YouTube comments. In the meantime,
good luck with your chew toy training
and don’t forget to give this video a
thumbs up if you learned something
useful. As always keep learning, keep
practicing, and we’ll see you next time.
Thanks for watching!
