Does your puppy chew your walls?

My husband put temporary cheap paneling over the walls that our Jack Russell puppy was chewing. In this picture, hubby is painting the paneling the same color as our walls.  It's a good thing we had some paint left over in the garage.  You can hardly tell the difference.  Well...sort of.

It's a good thing Gumbo is so cute.

Gumbo is now 9 months old.  We are seeing some positive changes.  He's 99% potty-trained now. We've given him more access to the other rooms in the house.  Every evening when my husband comes home from work, we take Gumbo on a 30 minute walk and then let him be supervised in the front room for about an hour. That's where he is in this picture.  He likes to play catch and could do it for hours.  We bounce a rubber ball off of our coffee table and Gumbo jumps up to catch it. He would make a really good soccer player: move over Pele.

Gumbo is more affectionate and sweet, which is great since a little part of me was worried that because of his puppy biting, he would grow up to be a vicious dog.  His mouth is always going though.  Chew, chew, chew.  He no longer bites our clothes or shoes, which is a relief because I spent the summer practically naked to keep him from jumping up and tearing my clothes.  We bought some Bully Sticks and they keep him out of trouble for a few hours.  He is still up-rooting our plants. Hopefully, he'll get over that soon because my husband and I love to garden.  Sigh... Someday we'll have a "super awesome dog" which is how the breeder said he'd be at 18 months or so.

We bought another crate so that he can be upstairs with us in the room where we spend the most time. We never used a crate with our other Jack Russell because we thought it was a mean thing to do, even though the breeder said how necessary they are when training a puppy.  Gumbo loves being in his crate and we never use it as punishment: the crate is where treats come and good things happen.

He is a very finicky eater.  My husband wakes up early and tries to get him to eat his breakfast.  They have a routine: he throws a ball and plays catch with him, hoping that he will stop and take a bite between throws.   It takes a long time, but my husband is very committed and patient.

Raising a Jack Russell Puppy

Our little Gumbo is now 8 months and 2 weeks old.  He is changing for the better!  His play biting has really lessened.  We were afraid that he'd grow up and be vicious--just what every dog owner fears.

He likes to cuddle and sit on our laps with his favorite toys.  He doesn't like when we get up to leave--he wants more, more, more!  He is so soft.  He is a smooth-coated Jack Russell and it feels just like fleece or silk when we pet him.  We're happy that he finally holds still long enough so that we can pet him instead of constantly snapping at our hands whenever we'd tried to lay a hand on him in the past.

He has a funny new trick.  He gets his rope toy and spins around like a whirling dervish.  He stops midpoint in his rotation and goes counter-clockwise. He never seems to get dizzy either.

He's doing better with the house-training; but still has accidents every once in a while.  His new thing is that he likes to bring rocks from the garden into his dog bed.  He loves chewing on them; that is until we take the rock away from him, lest he choke on it!

He's gaining weight and is much bigger than our other Jack Russell.  Maybe it's because I give him a scoop of ice cream everyday--do you think?  He also gets peanut butter in his Kong Toy; plus lots of Pupperoni's.

We opened up another area in the backyard for him to run around in.  As everyone knows, Jack Russells need lots of exercise.  Every once in a while, he'll hear some noise he doesn't like and gets the zoomies, where he runs around the circumference of the yard at his top speed like a deranged cartoon character.  Imagine Milo in the "The Mask" and you'll know just what we mean.

We are slowly letting him into more rooms in the house.  We want him to be a companion dog and be by our side all the time, but he has such a problem with chewing still.  He loves chewing on table legs, floor boards, kitchen cabinets, and everything else he can get away with.  We're hoping this is going to end soon.  He's already gotten into a bookshelf of my husband's cookbooks and started chewing and shredding them.  He's such a little stinker.  Our kitchen is now stripped down and minimalist.  Speaking of cookbooks, here's one he has bitten into and it has his name on it, too!  No wonder he thought it was okay to take a bite.

New Orleans Cookbook 

Aptly Called "Gumbo Tales"