A few years ago I got a call from a nice woman that informed me she was having trouble with her dog. I asked what the problem was.

"We have a few of problems but the biggest problem we are having right now is chewing, " she said.

I told her it was no problem and we set up a time to meet. When I arrived at the house I realized that they had more than a few problems. They had a lot of problems, their dog basically tackled me when I walked in the door, there were strong signs that that the dog was not housetrained, and the dog, a big boxer mix, knew zero obedience.

"My husband is not home yet but we need to deal with the chewing problem, " the boxer's owner said. I asked her a few more questions but she kept stressing the chewing problem. As soon as her husband came home I figured it all out. You see, the boxer mix had a lot of problems that they had put up for a long time.

The husband didn't care about any of the problems until their dog chewed the TV remote. That was enough to get him to call a trainer to "fix" the problem. I started an obedience program, an exercise routine, and showed them how to use a taste deterrent to help with the chewing.

I went on to explain that chewing is a natural, normal canine behavior. We get upset when our dogs chew and destroy our belongings. But, we need to teach our dogs what is acceptable and unacceptable to chew on. This is done by managing your dog's behavior and using a taste deterrent.

Buy or make your own taste deterrent. Many pet stores carry taste deterrents such as bitter apple and sour grapes. You can make your own taste deterrent by mixing a concoction of hot sauce, cayenne pepper, hot mustard, etc.

Always test the taste deterrent on your dog before you use it. Spray some of the bitter apple, sour grapes, or whatever you're using on a piece or cheese. Then offer it to your dog. If your dog eats the cheese with the taste deterrent on it, the taste deterrent will not work. You need to keep trying different taste deterrents until you find one where dog does not accept the cheese.

Once you have found the taste deterrent that your dog does not like, you can now use it to teach your dog what is acceptable and what is unacceptable to chew on.

Spray the taste deterrent on some of your items. Take a little bit of peanut butter and spread it on some of your dog's toys. Put all of them on the ground. This will help your dog learn to discriminate between what are your items and what are their toys.

Dogs love to chew. Your items have the scent of the bad taste, the dog's toys have the scent of peanut butter. The taste deterrent can now also be used on other objects that your dog may be chewing on such as furniture, molding, tables, etc.