My little guy loves to grab something that he knows he shouldn't (magazine, sofa pillow, tv remote, etc) and playfully take off with it hoping that I will chase him. I try not to encourage him by chasing but instead clicker him to me for a treat....but I'm just rewarding him for being naughty, right? What is the correct way to discourage this behavior?
They grow out of it. In the meantime, keep your stuff picked up, and put your cushions away for now. TV remote out of reach, shoes out of reach and so on. Train a 'leave it' which will help if you've forgotten to put something away and see your dog heading towards it. But once your dog has something, the only thing to do is reward them handing it over. To some extent you are reinforcing the behaviour of picking something up in the first place - but most Labradors will do that anyway, so you lose nothing by rewarding them handing the prize over, and gain an awful lot in not chasing them. Just keep stuff out of reach, reward them bringing you the stuff they do manage to nick, and over time they stop being so bothered about nicking stuff.
I'd avoid using the clicker, since the click means "That thing that you're doing right now - I like that and it earns you a treat!". So, by all means, use a treat to exchange for the things he's picking up, alongside training your "leave it" and "give it" cues, just avoid clicking behaviour that you don't actually want.
I'd encourage a "leave it" of "give" command. We've noticed that H sometimes runs off a few paces and stops to wait for the chase. We tell her to sit, then walk up and take it back, rewarding and praising her for the sit.
Ok...This advice is along the track of what I have been trying to do. Swapping does seem to work with him and he LOVES any kind of treat but I will avoid using the clicker to attract him. We try to keep things out of his path. My home decorations are a mere shadow of what they used to be! ☺️
I hope they grow out of it!! This is one of Coopers favorite things also. She doesn't just take it, she will destroy it. It is the one time that "Stay" often does not work. She will trade with me, but I'm still concerned that I'm rewarding her stealing/keep away behavior.
Math Much?? Two weeks ago I could not spell engineer, and now I are one. She is 15 months. We have had her 13 months.
I saw a great demo of using a clicker to get a dog to bring back a toy - every time the dog approached the handler, the handler clicked and threw a treat in a little bowl by her feet. Dog runs round a bit more, and every time he gets close, click and a treat when in the bowl. In the end, the pile of treats was too much and he rushed in, dropped the toy and gobbled the treats. I thought it was a lovely technique! Never tried it myself though...
I think that sometimes, they trigger our "hunt-and-kill" instinct... just when they grab a "just right now ironed clothes".... I do never chase her (well apart from "just right now ironed clothes")... if that happens is my fault..., when she steals anything go to opposite direction with some dog-attrative thing (toy, superb-treat...), when she drops it and come... just give the prize... BUT do not use a word like "come", as far as there are big opportunities she will disobey... so we would be teaching her to disobey (and she is self rewarding, playing around with the stolen thing)... better a "non-verbal" behaviour than use a command... Sometimes you get suprised by her coming to give to you some "stolen thing", that you were not aware she had stolen...
Hi there, You have had some great advice above, but just to add that you might be interested in this article on stealing too
