To begin with, the one thing that you shouldn’t want to do is to yell at your pet for chewing the leash. Dale Carnegie mentioned in his book “How to win friends and influence people” that dogs learned faster when they were praised for the good things they do, rather than being yelled at for the bad things they do. Yelling at him/her will lead to confusion and make him fear you which is something you don’t want.
If you want to train your dog, then you need to make sure to do it before the dog reaches a certain age. Once they form their habits and behaviors, it’s usually harder to teach a dog. However, that doesn’t mean they can’t learn. You will need to be more patient with your dog and form a positive environment around them to be effective.
Anyway, as mentioned before, you need to find the reason your dog chews its leash. So, one of the reasons they might do that is because of their high energy and excitement every time they are outside of the house. There are thousands of smells that trigger different emotions, such as boredom which means they seek attention or they want to play due to excitement, or even frustration. However, dogs might want to play and they use the leash as a toy for their entertainment. Your pet’s excitement and energy every time you come from work is on the highest level so it’s not hard to understand their chewing.
Also, another possible reason your dog might chew his leash is to send you a message. Dogs usually send these messages once they have adapted to a certain learning behavior. For example, when your dog bites the leash it may be because it’s time to let off his waste, or maybe he’s hungry or thirsty.
All in all, chewing the leash is not the best quality your dog might have, but you need to understand what he is saying every time. This will take a while because you need to get to know the dog, but the sooner, the better. Let’s now explore what you can do or not do to improve your dogs’ actions.
Reward your dog for good behaviors
As said before, dogs learn faster when being praised for their good behavior rather than being punished for their bad behavior. So, the next time you see your dog chew his leash, don’t go straight yelling at him. Instead, just stop walking until he stops chewing it. Then, continue walking until he does it again.
You should also consider bringing treats during your walks so every time he is doing the correct thing, you give him a treat. This way he’ll know how to get his treat. Do not avoid giving him the treats he wins because dogs are smart, he’ll know when you are bluffing.
Become a better parent
You’ve read above that your dog is chewing the leash because of boredom, excitement, frustration or because they want to speak to you. So you need to figure out what causes these repeated actions. You must start to realize certain patterns. For instance, at 2 pm, your buddy starts chewing the leash for most probably, food. Every time you come home from work, he’s chewing the leash because he can’t wait to get out. Don’t avoid fulfilling your dog’s needs because you’ll only make him not trust you.
What you should do is remind yourself every time to do what he wants before he asks for it. It’s just like having a kid. You don’t wait for the kid to say “I’m hungry.” Instead, you put the food on the table and tell him to come to the table and eat. Dogs are not much different. Put food for them before you eat yours. After a while, when he gets used to your actions, he’ll know that around that time you’ll put food for him to eat, thus your dog stops chewing the leash.
Buy him toys
If your dog’s chewing the leash because he wants to play, or because he seeks the attention that he never gets, then you should probably spend more time with your dog. Dogs are such attention-seeking animals, they like to be the center of the world, so you should at least help him feel like the center of the house.
If your dog lives a plain life with not so much happening during the day, or he’s alone for long hours and he chews the leash, then the most probable reason is attention. Living alone is boring and all they want is a little fun to get tired and lay down again. So, the best you can do is play with your dog a little more than usual. Put this on your schedule and make sure your dog gets the playtime that satisfies him.
BOTTOM LINE
At the end of the day, your dog is here to make you happy, but you have got to give something back. You need to treat your dog exactly like a child, you need to worry about him, laugh with him, and do things together. This way you get closer, and he becomes more obedient.
Now, if you want to stop your dog from chewing the leash, then you may need to try more than one method. It’s hard to identify the reasons behind your dogs’ actions, so you may need to test things first before you see what works and what doesn’t. Whatever you do, make sure that you don’t yell at him, or hit him, because treating him like this will only push him away.