Following some success with returning the kitchen towel to its rightful place rather than up on a shelf I decided to try returning a few other items to my rooms. The kitchen mat and the dining room curtains have been my first two experiments as OH is fed up with cold feet in the kitchen and my curtain is suffering from spending all its days tied in a knot. Armed with a great number of cubes of cheese and my clicker I let Ripple loose, after his initial excitement at the new 'toys' he was surprisingly responsive to 'leave it' click and treat. I actually feel we may have made a little progress as he also managed to leave them alone while we did some other training although temptation began to rear its head as he got tired. Consequently he has now gone for a nap a very full and happy boy stuffed with his favourite cheese (so much for cutting out lunch at 6 months) .
Ah, mine still have lunch at 16 months. They're currently sleeping off an enormous frozen sardine and a chunk of rabbit each. We haven't yet returned our rug to the living room, basically because I know it will end up matted with dog hairs. I think that one has gone for good. Shadow had a habit of weeing on the floor towel in the bathroom when he was little, but that went back down when they were about 6 months. Luckily, they've never had a problem with curtains. Willow likes to hide behind them sometimes
If he responded to "leave it" I think you should just keep at it. He will get better with time. I used to call this faze "taking my house back" I started with one item at a time. Food never worked for Eric when it comes to house stuff. Don't get me wrong he takes the treat but I had a feeling that he did it more and more just to get the treats )). When ever he started going after something in the house I shoved one of his toys in his face and started a short play with him. Then I left him to play with the toy and when he did just that (play with his toy instead of attacking something in the house) I would praise him like my life depended on it Now "I have my house back"!
Lab proofing lol.. Baxter loved the curtains in our kitchen, they were super long, as a pup he would curl up at the bottom of them. Roll on a few months then they became a pull toy to him so like yours they got tied in a knot. We came home one day after being away an hour and he'd been pulling at them, he'd pulled the tie back hooks out the wall cracked the plaster around the hooks. He was sitting there proud as punch! So now the curtains are down. I plastered the holes, found the paint i'd used in the kitchen and touched it up. Arghh.. the paint must have faded as i have now two circles which look totally different from the rest of the kitchen. I'm sure i could hear Baxter sniggering in the background. Now to persuade hubby to decorate lol..
Ripple loves playing tug with the curtains but strangely doesn't really play tug with his toys, or play with his toys that much at all - he'd rather play 'destroy-a-house'. I'd also like to get my kitchen drawers back, they are currently jammed shut with pipes as Ripple can open them and loves taking everything out. The drawers go right down to the floor and when he first started opening them it was to take out all the towels and tea towels, so I diligently moved everything round and then he started taking out my baking pans and throwing them round the floor - oh my goodness what a noise. Then he had my egg poachers and my whisks and my plastic mixing bowls, so I gave up and jammed the drawers shut. What would I do with my time if I didn't have a puppy?
It's so exciting bringing your stuff back out! We brought our rug back out and have trained (well, just about - she still needs reminding now and then) Ella to stay on her vet bed and not the rug. You can see the look I get when I tell her to move back to her vet bed! Haha
Lovely picture Emily! I'd be quite happy if Ripple laid on the kitchen mat but what he wants to do is scratch it all up and then rip at it with his teeth. I forgot it was there this evening and couldn't distract him from it at all and then I could feel myself getting cross which I know would only undo any good work done earlier in the day. I love seeing pictures of everyones puppies asleep or relaxing but they do make me envious, Ripple only sleeps if he is actually shut in his crate he just keeps going otherwise. He's also not a cuddly dog and I really miss doggy cuddles (I've got cats and one of those loves to lay round my neck and lick my face so at least I get some cuddles).
