# Help! Chewing Problem!!



## HavAPuppy1 (Oct 24, 2010)

Amelia is 11 weeks and suddenly needs to chew on her pee pads everytime we leave her in the exercise pen alone. She has plenty of chew toys - it seems to be an attention seeking behavior rather than teething. We have tried: No followed by giving her an appropriate toy followed by praising, we have also tried leaving the room when she does this but she doesn't seem to notice. We have also tried spraying bitter on the things she is chewing such as rug and corners of pee pads, but nothing will deter her. I have given her a kong stuffed with food but once she gets tired of that its back to the pee pads. I don't want to punish her by putting her in her crate because I feel that should be a comforting place for her. I have had other puppies before, but never this breed, so I thought maybe there are better suggestions than the methods we have tried. Please help!


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## Gizmo'sMom (Jul 9, 2010)

Gizmo does this as well, she also likes paper, cardboard, and anything that resembles tissues or paper towels. She usually waits till we turn around to make her move (so I don't think it's an attention getter on her part) 

From what I've read this seems to be a breed thing for shredding the stuff. To solve it I got a potty patch and I am switching to Ugo dog. Atleast for Gizmo I couldn't even get the potty pad to the ground and she would rip it out of my hands


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## Ellie NY (Aug 27, 2010)

Eli would also chew the potty pads. He hasn't met something made of paper that he doesn't want to chew. He's chewed through the cardboard boxes I use for file storage in my office, he steals any piece of paper - printer, toilet, tissue, kitchen, etc - that misses the garbage can. If given the choice between a roll of kitchen paper or a kong stuffed with food, he'd choose the paper roll hands down. You can buy a plastic "frame" for the potty pad which could lessen the chewing. I'm not certain it is possible to get them to stop this behavior when they're puppies. Sorry to not be more helpful.


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## TilliesMom (Sep 30, 2010)

sorry you are struggling with this!
but, YES, it is a breed trait... Tillie has started going into the garbage for kleenexs to shred... ewwwww! LOL oh and when she is extremely mischevious she will take the toliet paper and run ... and it is still ATTACHED to the roll. she's never met a paper towel, kleenex, TP that she doesn't "love" ... she is 5 months old.
My advice would be to switch to either a potty patch, a little box, or training her to go outside. Trying to break shredding is like asking a woman to NEVER eat chocolate again! LOL


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## Suzi (Oct 27, 2010)

I have the same problem only the chewing started later than 11 weeks. I just said no and give her something else to chew on. I wish I had trained her with the puppy litter box or the pads inside a litter box. Although we plan to travel and the pads would be nice only for times that their is not a easy way to go outside. try taking the pad out of the pin and crate her when you can not watch her. Or try putting the pad in a puppy litter box maybe she will not chew it.


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## HavAPuppy1 (Oct 24, 2010)

Thanks everyone! I am definitely going to look into some kind of tray to hold the pad in place. I didn't even know they make such a thing. Is this a puppy trait she will grow out of with time??


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## motherslittlehelper (Mar 18, 2010)

Augie chewed and ripped the pee pads when we tried them when he was a small puppy. We bought a holder for the pee pads - he just dug and ripped at them until he got them out. It concerned me as there was plastic on one side of the pee pad - at least the kind we had purchased - and I was afraid he would ingest that. He came from the breeder well on his way to being paper trained and so we just used the newspaper for quite awhile. Then heard about the UgoDog on the forum and got one of those. That worked well. There are trays with the fake grass too. We can leave magazines and newspapers laying around now and he won't tear them apart. Paper towels, toilet paper, kleenex - different story. He will dig and dig at my jeans pocket, if I am sitting with a kleenex in the pocket, until he gets it out. There must be some kind of fragrance on them - as these are UNUSED kleenex!  Yes, they can be stinkers! 

And....WELCOME to the forum! I think I may have missed your introduction. There have been several new members lately, and I think I may be missing people. There is lots of good information here. Did you post more pictures somewhere??? We like pictures!!  Your Amelia looks darling in your avatar!


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## whimsy (Apr 3, 2010)

I use the tray for the pee pads and I have right from the begining. They have them at petsmart.
Anyway,,Whimsy went thro a few days of ripping at the pee pads in the tray and I just kept after her until she stopped doing it. She was probably about the same age as yours. I would tell her to 'leave it' and then offer a treat when she did. Thankfully the pee pad chewing phase didn't last too long.


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## Cherin36 (Sep 2, 2010)

We bought the tray from petsmart too and have it in Chewy's ex pen. He tried to pull the pad out a few times when we first got it but has since given up...probably eight weeks now. However, we also have a wee wee pad area in the bedroom and have been lazy about getting a second tray and he shreds that thing any chance he gets! So he hasn't lost the urge...
As a side note, someone told me when we first got Chewy to only have one wee wee pad location but I didn't listen  and he consistently uses both depending on where he is in our apartment...pretty convenient!


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