How to teach my 6-week old puppy what's appropriate to chew?

Question

Our 6 week old puppy is good about chewing only her toys, but she occasionally chews on rugs, socks, etc. What can we do to start teaching her what's appropriate to chew and what's not? Pet's info: Dog | Mixed Breed | Female | unspayed | 1 month and 11 days old | 20 lbs

Anna M., DVM · Accepted Answer

Good question. Puppies explore the world with their mouths, and at that age, everything is a toy! The most important thing is to not leave Athena unsupervised with *anything* she might chew on that she's not supposed to, as you have to be able to respond to her in the moment. Anytime she grabs hold of something she's not supposed to play with, either gently remove that item from her mouth and redirect her to play with one of her allowed toys, or if necessary give her a stern and sharp "No!" while you take away the object - and then direct her to a toy she can play with. She's going to be exploring and experimenting with her surroundings, so it's going to take time and consistency to help her learn what's on limits and what's off limits. Again, it's very important that she never be left unsupervised with items that are supposed to be off-limits. If she's alone and decides to chew up the rug, and has a wonderful time doing so, it will be that much harder to train her after the fact that she shouldn't have done that (very fun!) activity. Not to mention the risks of ingesting that foreign material - you don't want to end up with an emergency vet visit! Hope this helps. Feel free to request a consultation if you'd like to discuss training in more detail.

How to teach my 6-week old puppy what's appropriate to chew?

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