Hey! That WAS my iPod: How to Stop Your Dog’s Destructive Chewing

Hey! You’ve reached an old page. There is a new-and-improved destructive chewing tutorial available now. Check it out: How to Stop Your Dog’s Destructive Chewing in 9 Easy(-ish?) Steps

Want to spend less time Googling, and more time making progress with your dog?

That’s what the 3 Lost Dogs Academy is for.

It’s a low-cost way to get ongoing help from actual dog trainers (hi, that’s us!), with whatever you’re working on. From the basics to the messy, complicated stuff no one talks about.

Direct help from dog trainers Erin and Jake via private forums and live group Zoom sessions
Instant access to every course and workshop we've ever made
Available anywhere in the world
$24/month or $147/year (prices in USD)
Easily cancel any time

So if you’re sick of searching the hellscape of generic AI-written articles on Google or scrolling through dog trainer drama on InstaFaceTubeTok…

Come hang out with us. We’ll help you cut through the noise and figure out what actually works for you.

Follow us

threelostdogs

Here's what we're up to on Instagram:

Get a Malinois, they said. It'll be fun, they sa

Get a Malinois, they said.

It'll be fun, they said.

(Actually they did not say that, they said it would be insane and everything we owned would be destroyed and we would cry)
.
.
.
#rewardbasedtraining #positivedogtraining #puppyblues #wtfwitphase #forcefreetraining #puppytraining #newpuppy #adventuredog #puppyadvice #belgianmalinois #maligator #malinoisofinstagram #malinois #malsofinstagram

When people see Flower out in the world, they see

When people see Flower out in the world, they see a dog who comes when she's called, sticks close by, pays attention to me, and wags her tail a lot.

What 𝘐 see is hours and hours and hours - over weeks and months and years - of learning and friendship.

You can teach your dog a recall cue over the course of a weekend. That part's easy.

But having a dog who 𝘤𝘩𝘰𝘰𝘴𝘦𝘴 you, even when they could have the whole world? That's not a trick, that's the real deal.

𝐓𝐡𝐚𝐭'𝐬 𝐚 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐥 𝐫𝐞𝐥𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬𝐡𝐢𝐩.

It's why we want it so bad. And why we're so frustrated and hurt when we don't get it.

So you sign up to training classes, or send your dog off to a board and train program promising you results in a couple of weeks. And at first it seems like it might actually have worked.

Then your dog sees a squirrel run up a tree, or you try to leave the dog park, and it all goes to hell in a handbasket.

What the hell? You paid the hugely expensive price tag, you bought the special collar, you followed the instructor's directions. What gives?

I once was told that all my fancy dog treats couldn't ever compete with the outside world. And, honestly, that's right.

But you know what can compete? 𝙔𝙤𝙪.

Dogs are the only creatures on the planet who have evolved - over 40 thousand years - to 𝘭𝘰𝘷𝘦 us. Falling in love doesn't happen overnight, and 𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘺𝘪𝘯𝘨 in love definitely doesn't.

It's going to take more than some cookies and a week or two. And it's going to take way more than just "practise".

It's going to take bonding, trust, empathy, patience, fun, and curiosity.

Both of you are going to need to learn a new language that only the two of you speak and only the two of you understand. And once you've got it? It's going to take a lifetime to keep it.

But that's the magic.

Reliable behaviours are all built on the same solid foundation: genuine love. Flower comes when she's called because I taught her that skill - and because I am the person she shares the world with. I celebrate with her, learn with her, and explore with her. I am not her boss: I am her family.

And so when I call her, she comes running.

"Wait, where's the camera? Oh wait. I found it! 😃"
.
.
.
#maligator #malinoisofinstagram #malinois #belgianmalinois #mal #malsofinstagram #rplusdogs #campingwithdogs #hikingdogsofinstagram #adventuredog #rescuedog

We might be dog trainers by trade, but when we got

We might be dog trainers by trade, but when we got our puppies we were just like everyone else. We wanted that legendary, loyal friendship - a partner we had a deep bond with, taking on the world together through thick and thin.

So, when we found ourselves pulling our hair out, locking ourselves in the bathroom to get a few minutes of peace, fighting back tears, and walking around like severely sleep-deprived zombies, we were pretty disappointed.

Dog ownership was definitely not living up to the hype. And that friendship we were hoping for felt impossible.

We were hanging on to the last shreds of our sanity. One more puppy scream or chewed up remote or peed-on carpet, and we were going to lose it.

And running around after them yelling "no!", or Googling "how to make my puppy stop [insert incredibly annoying behaviour here]" just made the dream of a bond with these puppies feel further and further away.

We were turning into people we didn't recognize, and didn't like very much. Our puppies didn't like us much, either.

All that is to say: we know how you're feeling because we 𝘸𝘦𝘳𝘦 you. We've lived it, and survived it.

And we built that friendship we wanted. No puppies were rehomed, returned, or regretted (mostly) in the making of this story.

How?

𝐖𝐞 𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐩𝐩𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐫𝐲𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐨 𝐟𝐢𝐱 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐦.

We stopped Googling, stopped yelling, and stopped teaching them what not to do. Instead, we focused on only one thing:

Building a relationship.

Everything we did with our puppies revolved around sending them the message that we were safe, reliable, and kind.

We earned their trust, not the other way around.

The peeing and chewing and crying still happened, because that's what babies do. But they happened a heck of a lot less when we stopped holding our breath hoping they wouldn't happen so we could pat ourselves on the back, and started assuming they would happen and planning accordingly.

Puppies became teenagers, with new challenges that we faced together just the same way, and the biting and peeing and crying stopped.

And waiting for us on the other side was the love and connection we'd dreamed of when we first brought them home.

Better an imperfect plan you can achieve than a pe

Better an imperfect plan you can achieve than a perfect plan that makes you miserable.

We currently only have private training spots available in our puppy program, but everyone's welcome to join our membership, where we can help you come up with a plan that works for you.

Despite how it might feel, your puppy doesn’t ha

Despite how it might feel, your puppy doesn’t hate you and you haven’t screwed everything up. Puppies are actually pretty resilient, contrary to popular Dog World fearmongering.

You just need a plan that:

✅ Doesn’t burn you out or require you to be superhuman

✅Turns you into the predictable, safe, trustworthy human your puppy needs

✅ Makes your puppy want to listen to you instead of tuning you out

✅ Works with the chaos of real life (yes, even yours)

✅ Tackles the root causes of the drama instead of just slapping bandaids on symptoms

✅ …but also includes SOME bandaids because sometimes you just need obnoxious behavior to stop RIGHT NOW before you lose it

That’s what Puppy Survival School is here for. We have a proven path out of the What Was I Thinking phase.

You CAN grit your teeth and white-knuckle your way through the next few months of puppy blues drama all by yourself, or you can come hang out with us and start feeling better by next week.

"Tuition" is $24 a month for the complete system + trainer support to help you implement it. See link in bio.

#wtfwitphase #puppyblues #puppytraining
#newpuppy #puppyhelp #puppytips

You were prepared. You did your research. You knew

You were prepared. You did your research. You knew that puppies are hard work.

And you were ready for it.

You jumped in with optimism and compassion, eager to be an amazing “parent” to this fuzzy bundle of joy.

But it’s been so much harder than you expected.

“Is something wrong with me?” you think. “Is something wrong with my puppy?”

Nope.

The most well-prepared puppy parent on the planet can still be blindsided by how hard this is.

Here’s the thing: “Puppies are hard work” is misleading.

That makes it sound like it’s all about the chores. Walks, obedience class, feeding, grooming, cleaning up a few messes.

What it’s actually about:

The sheer relentlessness of it all.

That’s what REALLY gets you. It’s why people hit day three and think “holy shit I just ruined my life.”

Nothing prepares you for how the puppy ALWAYS has to be accounted for. It’s not like you do your puppy chores and then get to go back to your normal life.

You don’t get a break.

You sit down and doomscroll for a minute. Oops, puppy pooped on the floor when you weren’t looking!

You need to take a shower. Where is puppy going to be? In their playpen? …uhhh, turns out they can climb!

You need to work? No big deal, just put puppy in their crate. But the first time you put them in their crate and leave the room for one minute, they FREAK OUT. How the hell are they supposed to be crated for hours??

It’s even worse if you have little kids or other pets. Puppy is drawn to them like a moth to a flame - a moth with razor-sharp teeth.

Now the kids want nothing to do with their new “best friend” and you’re pretty sure your cat will never forgive you.

Your entire life has been reduced to following a tiny fluffy maniac around yelling “no don’t do that!”

This is normal.

Even though no one talks about it.

Is there anything you can do to make it easier? Of course. But just because these “setbacks” happened in the first place doesn’t mean you’re failing.

It doesn’t mean you won’t bond with your dog. It just means you’re in the thick of it.

You’ll get through it. And it’s okay if this isn’t the joyful, magical experience you imagined yet.

#wtfwitphase #puppyblues #puppyhelp

Maybe I should treat my brain like a dog. Now, did

Maybe I should treat my brain like a dog. Now, did you meet its enrichment needs? Did you split the exercise down into small enough steps, or are you lumping criteria again? I *did* once tell my psychiatrist how I use the Premack Principle to build focus in dogs, to which she replied "...have you ever thought of using that on yourself?"

#forcefreedogtraining #rewardbasedtraining #positivedogtraining #adhdproblems #adhd #adhdentrepreneur

I was REALLY looking forward to taking my first pu

I was REALLY looking forward to taking my first puppy for walks. Imagine my shock and dismay when she didn't even want to set foot outside the front door.

Did I force her to do it anyway? You bet I did!

Did she end up being kinda weird and reactive and not trusting me or really wanting to spend time with me? You bet she did!

Do I wish I had not done that? You bet I do - okay we can stop with this bit they get it.

Oh well. Sorry, Friday. When you know better, you do better, as they say. At least now you guys can learn from my mistakes.

To learn more about how we recommend structuring puppy outings, scroll a little ways down our feed to find the reel titled something like "Puppy Training: try this activity to teach good habits and build your bond."

We also have a YouTube tutorial that goes more in-depth. You can message us and I'll send you the link.

#puppytraining #puppytips #puppyadvice #puppyblues #wtfwitphase

Want our help?

Join the 3 Lost Dogs Academy

Step-by-step training courses
Get your questions answered by professional dog trainers in our private community

You might also like:

This Is Why Your Puppy Sucks at Going For Walks (And What to Do About It)

Is there hope for your stubborn dog? Why some breeds are harder to train, and the secret to success

10 Common Mistakes That Make Puppy Behavior Worse

7 Unexpected Challenges That Can Make Even The Most Prepared Puppy Parent Want to Throw in the Towel

Puppy Biting: Why Nothing You Try to Stop the Biting Works

5 Ways to Break Free of the Puppy Blues