How to Prevent Your Dog From Shredding Paper
This dog training tip works best! If your dog has turned into a paper shredder, it’s best to keep paper products away from your dog. Keep extra rolls of toilet paper behind cabinet doors and place tissue boxes out of reach from your dog. If your dog shreds your mail, it’s best to keep mail on kitchen countertops or your desk.
Sometimes, dogs will raid your trash can too, so I recommend purchasing a heavy-lidded trash can. Now, if your dog is stealing paper from countertops or your desk (I know several dogs that are really good at this), I recommend placing paper products behind pantry cabinets or placing mail inside a lidded box.
Prevention doesn’t mean you’re ignoring your dog’s paper addiction. Prevention actually changes your dog’s behavior. When dogs are unable to practice a behavior (e.g. paper shredding or stealing), the behavior will go away. If your dog doesn’t have paper to shred, he’ll stop shredding paper.
Paper shredding behavior usually suggests a bored dog. I suggest providing different forms of daily mental enrichment, such as providing your dog with frozen food stuffed toys or puzzles. If your dog steals and shreds paper when you’re not home, it’s best to always crate your dog with a super yummy food stuffed toy. Prevention and mental enrichment are key.
If you come home from work to find your pup calmly lounging in the middle of a disaster zone, there’s a good chance boredom is to blame for at least part of the mess. Young dogs especially need mental and physical stimulation to keep them happy. Like children, they get bored easily and find creative ways to solve the problem.
A dog’s number one method of learning about the world around them is using their sense of smell, but taste and touch are also important. Parents of toddlers know their babies like to put things in their mouths as a way of exploring new things, and pet owners should know dogs like to figure out what things are by first sniffing and then taking a bite.
When you raise your voice and rush after your dog every time you catch them with a filched magazine in their mouth, you’re teaching them a confusing lesson. To them, there’s no such thing as negative attention. As long as you’re looking at them and interacting with them, they’re happy. They don’t necessarily care that you’re mad. In their mind, shredding paper always leads to getting their owner’s attention. You’ve accidentally reinforced their naughty behavior.
Your dog has never had to go into the wild and hunt their own food, but the instinct to do so is ingrained in their minds. Dog Discoveries says,
Vetstreet lists Boxers, Cairn Terriers, Maltese, and Golden Retrievers as breeds most likely to shred, but ripping up paper into tiny pieces is something any dog can get attached to. It can be funny and cute the first time, but when you’re constantly cleaning up after your furry confetti maker, the novelty fades. Shredding paper and other objects like shoes and stuffed animals is a completely natural behavior for dogs, but that doesn’t make it any less tiresome. Here are a few possible reasons why your live-in ransacker loves to shred.
If you’ve already tried different training methods to stop your dog’s destructive behavior, my best advice is to talk to a professional trainer or behaviorist. When I was having trouble with my dog, a behaviorist helped me put together a daily routine to get my dog’s behavior under control. It included physical exercise twice a day, two training sessions a day, serving meals in interactive ways, and “time outs” when his behavior got especially bad. After a few weeks of this, I saw an incredible improvement. He still gets into occasional trouble, but I haven’t lost a shoe or lampshade in years. Don’t let your dog’s destructive behavior ruin your relationship. The desire to shred things is completely normal for dogs, and you are 100% capable of finding a solution. It might take a few weeks or months, but be consistent. And most importantly, don’t give up!Up Next: Check out this list of dog training tips that I wish I had known when I first adopted my dogs. Click here for the list.
If you recently brought home a puppy, destructive behavior is almost a guarantee. Your pint-sized pup is learning about the world. And like a human baby, a lot of that exploration involves putting things in their mouth. Chewing is something you can’t avoid with puppies. They all do it, and it’s pointless to get mad about it. Their baby teeth are falling out and making room for their permanent teeth, and that process is almost always painful. Chewing helps relieve that pain, and it’s also fun. Part of your job in raising a puppy is learning to curb that behavior and teach your dog what they can and can’t put their teeth on. Make sure your puppy has plenty of quality chew toys. Experiment with different kinds to find something your pup likes best.
I know I’ve said this before, but puppies (and even adult dogs) are a lot like human kids. When a child is stressed or anxious, it’s pretty normal for them to express those feelings by either acting out or picking up some kind of compulsive behavior. Dogs are the same way.
Besides general puppy behavior, boredom is the biggest culprit behind why dogs shred things. When your dog has nothing to do and a day’s worth of pent-up energy to deal with, shredding everything in sight sounds like a great way to pass the time. Bored dogs will look for any way to entertain themselves.
From paper and cardboard to stuffed animals, pillows, and clothing, nothing is truly safe when you have a dog that likes to shred things. Destructive behavior is a common issue among all our canine friends. It’s not limited by a dog’s age or breed, and dogs shred things for a few different reasons. If you’re constantly worried about what your dog is going to destroy next, the first thing you need to do is understand why it’s happening. Once you have an idea of what’s causing the behavior, you can work on preventing the destruction and protecting your stuff. Here are a few of the most common reasons why dogs shred things.
Dog tears up paper
It is a situation that just about everyone who owns a dog has dreaded, coming home to rooms of shredded paper. The professionals at Canine Commander Plainview dog training knows, dogs are infamously good at destroying large amounts of paper in a short time. Most of the time, they are likely to do this while you are away from home. However, there is also a chance that they will do it when you are right in front of them. The reasons dogs shred paper vary depending on the individual pup. Even worse, it is possible for a dog to develop this habit out of the blue suddenly. Thankfully, there are ways you can manage this situation and avoid serious waste in your home.