I just adopted an 8 month old chocolate lab from an excellent home who could not care for her. She is crate trained and potty trained and overall a pretty good puppy. She has begun stealing anything she can get her mouth on, including papers within reach of the table or clothes from the laundry. We are pretty puppy proofed, but it still happens. When I try to get her to drop it she runs and thinks it is a game. I can't chase her because that makes it worse. We have begun trading her treats for the items, but is that htebest solution?
Yes. Firstly, keep things she shouldn't have out of reach as much as humanly possible. Secondly, trade for treats. The more valuable the item the tastier the treat! But practice with toys too
Hi Michele and welcome to the forum. As Mag (Boogie) says, trading is a great solution. Labs are particularly fond of carrying stuff around, being retrievers, it comes naturally to them. Lots of excitement and praise when she does it will make her bring you things, rather than running away with them. As you've found, chasing makes it worse because it's a great game! Give her a few items that you encourage her to retrieve - this may be a toy, a ball or a proper gundog "dummy" and play retrieving and hunting games with them. If she brings you something else, you can then say, "where's your <whatever>?" and get her searching for that instead of whatever she has. She'll grow out of it in time, but giving her things to occupy her mind at this stage will really help. Good luck, and please try to share pictures of your girl (what's her name?) when you can
I think that, rather than trade for treats, just making 'being near mum with things I've nicked' a really good thing is best. I did trade for treats with my first dog, and he turned into an OCD retriever in the house - he might have anyway regardless, as he is that kind of dog - but at 3.5 years old he'll still roam the house and bring me anything - oven knobs, waste paper baskets, bathroom soap, oven gloves - that isn't nailed down.... With my new puppy, I started off on the right foot by just being really interested in her when she picked something up, and she'd lie down near me to chew/play with it. I dropped treats when she wasn't looking, and while she went for the treats I'd just remove whatever it was that she'd picked up. It worked really well - she heads towards me now when she has things, but doesn't really go looking for things to bring me. It's a good compromise, I think. No so sure it'd work with a dog that has already learned to run off with things, but still worth a try. I think the key is not to let them see you take the thing, because then you don't give any particular value to nicked things.
We can leave anything around now with Bruce, 11 months (even at coffee table hieight), which has been the case with all our pups except Tatze. She still has a liking for socks and will prance with joy when she finds one!
Hi Michele, In addition to the great advice given above you might also like to check out this article: How To Stop Your Dog Stealing
The fetch everything that is not nailed down comes from a drive to retrieve. You are not training your guide dog puppies as retrievers, it's extremely unlikely that they have (recently) been selectively bred for retrieving drive, and are not even allowed balls for fetch, so don't even get rewarded for play fetch.
They play normal 'fetch' and retrieve games in the garden and on free runs, just not with balls. I use these with mine and then they go to school with them - the trainers use whatever we send up with them, for enjoyable play and to help with recall. https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B001AQZ4FE/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1 They love to retrieve and are not stopped from doing so, just trained not to touch anything on tables or shelves etc. By, firstly having nothing available then - as they get older - teaching 'leave it' and 'swap'. Food is never left reachable.
Saba does exactly the same, and I trade with him if the item is important to me, otherwise I let him keep it until he's ready to bring it back!
Thank you all for the great advice! The trading for treats works, I just wanted to make sure I was not causing more problems. We have begun ignoring her if its not something important. That seems to help as well. For those who asked her name is Brook Lyn. I will post her picture soon.
That's my approach. Although usually Lilly "stole" for the fun and the chase rather than to chew it. You just had to keep an eye out for the "boredom" signs of imminent chewing......then crack open the stinkiest most valuable treat you have unless the item is expendable.
I find you can tell the signs... All quiet...then a certain quality to the pitta patta of the paws on the floor....a sure "tell" there are ill-gotten gains to be bargained for.
