Chewing and Destroying Everything

The Doberman Pinscher is mouthy, this simply means the Doberman tends to interact with his mouth. Doberman puppies teeth early and fast. This combination leaves the Doberman puppy with a need to chew on something almost constantly during his first few months of age.

The Doberman Pinscher is also highly intelligent. This means it he needs something to do. A board young puppy will chew on something, so the Doberman owner should be sure to have a generous supply of interesting toys and chew items.

Yong Doberman puppies should also be watched carefully while they play. If someone is not available to watch him, he should be safe in his crate. A Doberman puppy left unattended will find something to chew on, often something dangerous.

If the puppy begins to chew on something inappropriate, he should receive a “No” verbal correction. This inappropriate item should then quickly be replaced with an appropriate chew item, after which the puppy should receive praise.

If the Doberman owner is consistent, the Doberman puppy will grow to recognize what he is allowed to chew and what he is not.

Swallowing Odd Items

For some reason, many Doberman puppies go beyond chewing and will swallow items. This is why it is important for the Doberman owner to replace toys and chew items when they become worn or torn into pieces small enough to be swallowed.

A swallowed item can cause injury or a blockage in the digestive system, so great care should be taken in keeping an eye on what the puppy is up to and the condition of his chew items. These chew items should be large, at least as big as the puppies muzzle. Also, care should be taken to keep small items around the house out of the puppies reach.

Sometimes, a puppy will pick up small items like rocks or pebbles in the yard and swallow them. This behavior must be corrected quickly. One good solution is to squirt the puppy with a squirt bottle. Remember, Doberman puppies should not be outside alone so there should be a person watching him. The key to this correction is that the puppy associates the cold squirt with picking up the items, and not the person watching him. Otherwise, he’ll just learn to be sneaky.

The puppy sitter should keep the squirt bottle out of sight, or better yet act as if the squirt bottle is used for something else; whatever throws off the puppy. Perhaps the bottle could be used to count fence boards?

When the puppy picks up the inappropriate item, the puppy sitter, careful to not allow the puppy to see where it comes from, should give him a good squirt. When the puppy startles up and turns around to see what’s going on, the puppy sitter should be looking away, back to counting fence boards as if he has no idea what happened and certainly isn’t responsible.

This will allow the puppy to associate the bad item with a cold squirt, and the item will quickly become less attractive.

Digging

A puppy who digs holes in the yard can cause great annoyance to people who prides themselves on the beauty of their law, especial since the puppy has already destroyed all the fragile plants and flowers. With a Doberman puppy that likes to dig, the owner must make a decision whether they would like their puppy not to dig at all or to only dig in a certain place.

Some people see how much their Doberman loves to dig and hesitate to disallow the activity entirely. Other people, like our family, have mother dogs. Before our Dobermans became pregnant, they had no desire to dig. However, something innate seems to compel a pregnant Doberman to build a den; this means digging. Once this behavior began, the females continued to enjoy digging even after retirement from motherhood.

Our solution was to establish a certain area in the yard for digging. If anyone started digging outside this area, they would receive a verbal correction of “No-Dig.” When I found holes outside the digging area, I would throw some of their ever present poop in and fill it the rest of the way. This keeps them from digging it back up. To make the digging area more desirable, hiding toys or treats in the soil is effective.

This was also helpful with a rescue Doberman we took in. His name was Stanley. He had some problems at first and was timid and skittish. One thing he loved to do though was dig. It was therapeutic for him. He took advantage of the digging area so much that his holes became hazardous; I fell in a couple times.

If your Doberman puppy digs like Stanley, you’ll either need to spend some time every day with a shovel filling in holes or put a small fence or other barrier around the digging area.

If the Doberman puppy owner would rather his puppy not dig at all, the same squirt bottle remedy for swallowing stones is effective, where the puppy-sitter secretly squirts the puppy, allowing him to associate a squirt with digging. Also helpful is the trick of burying poop in the holes.