Freddie often runs off with things he shouldn't have and so far the only way to get him to drop it is to offer a treat for him to exchange his prize for. I am concerned though he has learnt that if he pinches something he will get a treat which I obviously don't want. What is the best way to get things off him I don't want him to have? I try to keep things out of his way but it's a busy household and he will run off with anything washing , shoes paper anything! Thanks in advance
Hi. I find if I ignore Harley she drops whatever it is that she has pinched. If I chase her or try to get it back she turns it into a game. If it's something that has batteries or expensive I still swap for a treat or run off and get a toy that I know she will want. It rarely happens nowadays because she realises that I'm not going to chase her.
I ignored also but sometimes I would give the item he nicked back and practiced him giving it back to me. ( for treats ), then I weened him of the treats and now he doesn't nick anything except he takes a shoe every time a visitor comes in and then he just walked around all proud of himself but he doesn't run off or chew he just parades it around then drops it after we ignore him. It's very cute though, he gets so chuffed. Lol
We did this all wrong. Homer loved pinching things, underwear and socks I'd put out while getting dressed were a favourite, quickly followed by me chasing after him all around the house until we got to the treat drawer in the kitchen. Then a beautiful drop followed by a treat. It became our morning routine. In the last year, (he's 5 now) it's become less frequent and hardly occurs now. He'll pick up a pair of socks but give them back. To be honest I miss his cheeky spark and my early morning run around!
Hi all, I am hoping to revive this thread a bit because I have a similar question. Tank is 14 months now and, while his destructive chewing and stealing has improved, we have a long way to go before he will be able to be left at home unattended. I try to ignore, but the issue is that more often than not he will settle in and chew up whatever he stole rather than losing interest. He is particularly interested in objects that are "new" to him and we have to be super careful any time something is added to our home. Because of his destructive chewing, I only ignore if I really don't care that much if the object is destroyed. Any way to take away the object without "chase" turning into a game? Currently I try to just walk calmly over, remove the object from his mouth, and give him a chew toy in its place... unless it's really expensive and then I run and yell "no no no no no!" which is, as you can imagine, not at all effective but very entertaining for him. He also has an okay "leave-it"/drop-it, but still needs a lot of work in that area, and has never really gotten that "leave-it" = forever. Other big issue is that he is an absolute menace in regards to pinching and chewing when we are at others' homes - both because others tend to have a lot more stuff around than we do and because, I assume, everything is new and exciting to him! Plus, many of my family have young children and he wants nothing more than to destroy their toys. At our house I would say he's "okay", but at others' homes he is pretty terrible. It's important to me that we be able to take him to my family members' homes, if only because he needs to learn to behave in other environments, but he is such a handful at these times. My management tactics have included treating/rewarding for calm behavior, putting him in a down-stay for extended periods of time, leashing him to me, and, of course, providing chew toys and frozen kongs (which only last about 10 minutes with him). However, these just feel like distractions/managing the behavior rather than helping it to improve. Ignoring doesn't feel like an option in these situations because I guarantee that he will destroy whatever he steals. Would love any additional suggestions that folks have... and am also hoping for some "it gets better"-comments as well!
