Finn loves to grab anything that's "new". I posted about this in the other thread in regards to his bed. However he is a bandit when it comes to things lying around my apartment that are new and interesting. I had a shower cap that had fallen down off the hook and he stole it, and proceeded to parade around the house with it in huge leaping bounds. He "dropped it" pretty well for me though once I saw what he was doing. He does this with shoes too. I try to replace the objects with toys. I also praise him for playing with his toys. I've put up everything that he likes to steal, and for some reason he's pretty good about household things that have been out since he was a puppy. But I'm curious, do puppies just grow out of this behavior like they do biting? I'm afraid of bringing him over to people's houses because he will just go after everything that isn't tied down.
Kind of. Tatze does it far less than she used to, she was a real cushion stealer and now never bothers with them. But she has a liking for eating dog walking equipment and has not grown out of that at all. ,,,
Cooper is 3 years old and he STILL looooooves slippers,shoes and dish towels. He steals and chews them.....so I am very careful to either close bedroom doors, put shoes, etc up where he cannot reach them (ditto in kitchen) but, sometimes, we "forget"....and off he runs with his treasure!! He will drop it when asked.....I don't run after him when he does this....I sort of amble towards him ..... but he knows what I am after!.....same thing he is after!!! Ah these pups.....they are so smart and SO FAST!
Sort of. Oban, 9 years old, just a few minutes ago stole one of OH's gloves sitting on a vent to dry and presented it to him, in hopes of a play or a treat. He got a treat for placing it on an outstretched hand. Our CD cases are now safe, he hasn't chewed one of them since about 5 months old. But I still wouldn't leave my expensive glasses lying around, mostly because one tail wag knocking them to the floor might scratch them. But he did have a penchant for chewing OH's cheap little reading glasses when he was up to about one year old. 7 pairs he chewed. Who is it, I ask you, who failed to learn when the dog chewed 7 pairs of his reading glasses?
No! I don't think the steeling has actually got less. It's that we have become more tidy. Woolly hats, gloves and scarves are still a real treat to find, socks are easy pickings off the drying rack.
A dog does not grow out of a behaviour just by getting older. If they enjoy the behaviour why would they stop? There are 2 choices you either train to stop or modify the behaviour or you accept it and live with it.
In Xena's case it has petered out. If we're in the room I can leave stuff lying around on the sofa/coffee table without worrying, but then I get complacent and suddenly she's chewing tv remote #3. The only training I did in this regard was to have EVERYTHING out of reach initially, and then to gradually re-introduce it. But when we go out I still keep everything clear.
It depends on the dog. There are loads and loads of puppy like behaviours that a dog grows out of, so it depends on the dog's motivation to pick things up. My older dog will never grow out of either picking things up, or attention seeking (picking things up is both an obsessive behaviour and attention seeking for him). That's just the dog he is. Although even then, it has got a bit better but he sometimes is in the mood to bring me anything in the house that is not nailed down and I'm not exaggerating about the not nailed down bit. My younger dog is already growing out of picking up random stuff, although I suspect carrying socks around might be a permanent thing with her.
Charlie is 6 years old and doesn't care about retrieving but he does like to pick things up around the house, shoes, socks his blanket, but I do use it as a bit of a training exercise, so he brings an item to me I ask him to"drop" and he does so he gets a treat Right or wrong I don't mind it's training to us and it works. I do wonder if it's because for fun I clicker trained him to fetch my keys, post etc. He's RETRIEVING so that's the best bit for me
It's funny what they choose to pick up, isn't it? My girl loved her toys when she was in full-on crocopup mode ( as well as everything else she could reach and sink her little sharp teeth into). Now she has an occasional play with her toys but mostly she loves; our shoes, my glasses case, sticks and the remote control, which is covered in teeth marks. Maybe she would pick up more but I tend to keep most stuff out of the way. She's not allowed upstairs but occasionally gets through the barrier at the bottom of the stairs and then goes bonkers for whatever happens to be lying around, I guess because it's all new.
I don't look at it as stealing! Retrievers are programmed to carry things in their mouths and this is what they are doing. Mine have a box with 'cuddly toys in' and these are now what they rush to pick up when I come home to give me. They have given up shoes, cushions, tv remote, telephone etc., so puppies do grow out of it to an extent. But stealing - no
My dog, at (almost) 5 doesn't do this much anymore, but it will still surface when he gets excited. Like when visitors come over. He will start looking for something to "steal"....usually something off the coffee table. Except now, whereas he used to do a dash and grab and dash away, he now saunters over, eyeing the booty on the table (pieces of paper, or especially pens or pencils), looks at it for awhile, and then leisurely picks it up and trots off with it. Not so sneaky anymore....
Snowie chewed through four pairs of Havianas (actually, only one of each pair!). But he stopped chewing what isn't is when he was about one or two years old. Now he loves to take an item of my clothing or a shoe to his bed and rest his head on it. I totally trust him not to chew my stuff. He has a shelf of his stuff and he goes there when he wants to find something to chew - usually a hoof. The only thing I protect from him (aside from food - cannot be trusted!!) are visitor's handbags. If they leave them on the floor or a chair, he'll inspect them thoroughly! Doesn't chew anything, but pulls out whatever he considers interesting. So I always put visitor's handbags in a cupboard. Oh, he always steals used tissues and usually eats them! And he sometimes steals my hair bands when he's feeling playful in that way. But I must say it was a relief when we could trust him not to chew up stuff. He still chews a lot - just on his own meaty bones and hooves. As for stealing things - he never was that way inclined. Maybe cos we never made a fuss of it if he did, I don't recall.
Cooper, 22 month, and Tilly 11 years used to steal all kinds of things and chew them up when they were pups. Both have learned to confine their chewing to dog toys. I'm really not sure how we taught them that, other than saying NO when they took something they should not have, and giving them lots of things that were theirs. In our case, we pretty much don't worry about what they have access to. They just tear up their own toys and leave everything else alone. Cooper still likes to chew up pieces of firewood occasionally but that is the extent of destruction. We don't leave food around at their level most of the time, but they even seem to leave that alone if happen to leave something for a few minutes. I would not want to test that for a a long period.
Bailey, I am convinced, has a sock fetish....every day when I come home from work he will rush upstairs grab a sock and then spend the next 10 minutes parading around the house with it! He often finds a sock in the mornings and arrives downstairs with it in his mouth (I think he has a secret stash somewhere as I am sure all my socks are put away). They are always my socks, never my OH's socks, clean ones preferred but has on occasion whipped a sock off the floor of the bathroom while I am sorting out the washing and he's snuck into the bathroom behind me! I don't stress about it as he has never chewed them - they just become rather soggy! New things can occasionally attract a carry around, but usually end up with a game of "toss in the air, dance around it like a group at a disco dancing around their handbags while snapping and barking", which gives us time to amble over (so we are not chasing him) asking for a leave and giving a treat. Depending on what the item is depends how quickly we get it back! Bailey is nearly 14 months old
Right....I can't remember how we taught our family Corgi not to take our stuff. I mean, she was never 100% perfect but about 99%. Once in a while she would find something to chew up if we left her alone for a long time (like a pen...blue ink all over her paws!!). But yeah most adult dogs I know (ours, friends) don't just grab things randomly. I guess it's a combo of age and training, because I remember her stealing laundry when she was a pup. It was sort of a think out loud question, seeing where everyone's dogs fell into the spectrum. After leaving my shoes around for two months without him bothering them, they have suddenly become the creme de la creme of everything on this earth to him....if I leave one out he takes it and starts throwing it around the living room like he just did a hit of cocaine! I chased him once (oops!) and now he probably thinks it's a game. So.....if he gets one I slowly come over and just tell him drop it and give him a toy. Same thing with my closet - he loves to go in there to grab laundry! I've been keeping my bedroom door closed now. Do I completely prevent access for now or just monitor him when he goes in there? I'd rather have him get bored of my open closet so he doesn't always think it's some forbidden trove of goodies.
Harley hasn't chewed anything since she was 5 months old, and that was only a pair of really old boots. She does like socks (dirty ones!) but just throws it around, plays with it for a bit then leaves it. She occasionally pinches a cushion off the sofa, but will drop for a treat. If trainers are left out she will occasionally parade around with it until she gets bored. I never put things out of reach from the day we got her. She learnt really quickly not to pick up things that weren't hers but us training the 'drop it' cue. Very occasionally she will take a cushion / trainer into the garden and wants to be chased and we do as a game, but as soon as we say 'drop it' she will. Personally I don't mind her doing this as it is very rarely that it happens and she doesn't chew anything.
For quite a while we closed the bedroom door during the day to keep Cooper from grabbing things and possibly chewing them up. When Coop was younger, I lost a pair of dress shoes to her, and several cedar shoe trees, but she seems to be 99.99% reliable now as far as chewing things up. For the past few months we've left the door open, and Tilly has decided to sleep on our bed during the day. Cooper has the bed at night, so it only seems fair that Tilly gets it during the day if she wants it.
