dog attachment

Question
My husband and I "rescued" a one-or-so year old Border Terrier mix from an Animal Shelter.  She is a good, calm girl; but has one serious problem, she loves to chew on my things! We've had her almost three months now and this problem increases as time goes by.  She takes my underwear, socks, pocketbooks, shoes, and today she destroyed the frames of my glasses.  

I don't want her to chew anything that isn't hers.  My question is, why does she only chew MY stuff? How come she never bothers with his things?... and, of course, how can I stop this?

I thank you in advance.

Answer
Hi, Maureen,

Sorry it took so long to get back to you. I've had the flu.

As for why your terrier mix picks only your things to destroy, I could only speculate. It could have something to do with her past history, it could be scent-related, it could be something about your energy as opposed to your husband's energy that stimulates these feelings in her. (My personal theory is she's choosing to chew on your things because she likes you, she feels more emotionally attracted (or attached) to you than she is to him.)

As to how to resolve this, dogs chew things in order to relieve internal tension and stress. If a dog has plenty of chewable objects available, but still seeks out things that aren't hers, you have to treat her as you would a young puppy. This means that when you can't supervise her, she has to be confined, either in a crate or in a gated area, so that she can't get into things she shouldn't. Also, if while you're supervising her and she grabs hold of something that doesn't belong to her, DON'T, as in ABSOLUTELY DO NOT, scold or punish her for it. She's part terrier, so you'll just turn this into more of a fun game for her. You have to find a way to redirect her urge to chew into one of HER bones or toys.

Something that might help reduce your doggie's ability to adjust to her new environment, and help her be more able to reduce tension without destroying your property, is a pushing exercise, where you'd hand feed her all her meals outdoors. You start by putting one hand, palm up, against her chest while you offer her some food with your other hand. As she eats you start to slowly pull your hand away so that she has to push into your other hand in order to eat. Slowly increase the amount of pressure she has to put against your hand in order to eat and her internal tension and stress will start to disappear. Here's a link to explain this more fully: http://tinyurl.com/3balu6

Also, if you play tug-of-war with her, outdoors, always let her win, and praise her enthusiastically for winning, that'll also go a long way to reducing her internal tension.

Finally, dogs need more play time than cuddle time. So if you've giving her too much physical affection you might want to cut back. It may be part of what's causing her internal tension and attachment issues.

I hope this helps,

LCK