Why does the puppy like slippers so much?

Puppies, after a certain age, become particularly destructive. The preferred targets are slippers and gloves, but toys, newspapers and mail can also be chewed. In addition to biting and tearing, the puppies rage against them, hitting them from one side to the other, as if they were trying to “kill” them. A newspaper, for example, can be slaughtered as if it were a dead bird that the puppy wants to pluck.

Many aspects of litter life are useful to explain this behaviour

For one thing, it’s almost always a fun event. A game in which the puppy jumps headlong.

In addition, it is “programmed” to explore every aspect of the world in which it lives. Dogs are animals of wild origin that must be able to know the environment that hosts them to ensure survival. For domestic dogs, the situation is totally different. As their existence is undoubtedly less dangerous, however the factor of discovery of the environment was not erased from their hereditary heritage of wild animals.

Then, there is the problem of teething, which is completed between the fourth and sixth months of life. In this period, just to reinforce the teeth, the dog needs to bite hard and resistant objects. Because the food that is usually supplied, has a poor consistency (milk, vegetables, rice, meat), it cannot meet this need.

Third, this behaviour depends on the vital stage the dog is in. It comes before the predatory activity. That is, the moment when the puppy is big enough to be interested in the preys, but not physically developed enough to hunt them. It is when the adult dogs bring the puppies pieces of meat, which are left randomly around.

It is natural, for a puppy, to identify in a slipper or in a postal package the “piece of meat” generously left at its disposal by the adult on all fours or by the adult on two.

The puppy, however, does not understand, why we do not like the systematic destruction of a nice pair of gloves, scolding him even harshly. The animal only tried to act in the best possible way, in order to grow and integrate fully into its social group.