With children come toys. At the beginning are the baby's first, soft and fluffy. As the child gets older the toys get more numerous and smaller. If you have a dog that is constantly stealing, chewing and eating things this will be a huge problem for you once you have children.
The topic of today's blog is the dog learning what he is allowed to play with and what he isn't allowed to play with. Not only is the habit of picking stuff up really costly as you replace your child's toys. It can also be extremely costly if your dog gets an obstruction or eats something poisonous. Another side effect is aggression, as the child gets older and starts to try and get his stuff back your dog may respond by guarding which can escalate to biting.
Remember you want to reward good behaviour not just correct bad behaviour. Set your dog up. Have your dog on leash and allow him to go into an area that has something he would usually pick up; shoe, toy, kleenex. Interact with the dog. You can have him do recalls (coming when called) start far away from the toy until your dog will race over the toy to get to you. Have him do some sits and downs, tricks are also good if you have any. Even start to train a trick.
Repeat the above until your dog couldn't care less about the item. If this is a behaviour that has been heavily practiced this might take a few repetitions Meanwhile make sure the dog does not get the opportunity to access the item when not training.
When your dog couldn't care less about the item, set the situation up again only this time you are going to let him walk into the room on his own ahead of you. What does your dog do? Does he drive straight at the item => calmly walk over take it out of his mouth put it back and the floor and with the leash leave the room. Your dog is just telling you that he is not ready for this challenge.
Does your dog go straight to the item but when you approach drop it and come towards you? Then go ahead and play some games, do some recalls, work on some cues. Yes we would prefer he not have grabbed the item but still a giant step better than the grab and run.
Does your dog ignore the item completely and just pay attention to you? Time to start making it harder. Spend a couple of minutes interacting and then have a seat, ignore the dog. Does your dog lie quietly waiting for something to happen? If so, reward that is a really nice behaviour. Does your dog jump and bark at you to continue the game? If so ignore him until he behaves in a manner you would like and then reward or if he persists leave the room (taking the item with you). Does your dog go to the item as soon as he realizes you aren't playing with him anymore? If so calmly approach take the item out of his mouth put it back on the floor and go back to your chair. If after a couple of repetitions he still is grabbing the toy when he is ignored stand on the leash where you are sitting, this takes away the opportunity to go after the item.
Once you have reached the dog ignoring the item in various places throughout the house. You have built value for the appropriate behaviour. The more items you do this with the more your dog will generalize to not touch your's or your child's stuff.
The topic of today's blog is the dog learning what he is allowed to play with and what he isn't allowed to play with. Not only is the habit of picking stuff up really costly as you replace your child's toys. It can also be extremely costly if your dog gets an obstruction or eats something poisonous. Another side effect is aggression, as the child gets older and starts to try and get his stuff back your dog may respond by guarding which can escalate to biting.
Remember you want to reward good behaviour not just correct bad behaviour. Set your dog up. Have your dog on leash and allow him to go into an area that has something he would usually pick up; shoe, toy, kleenex. Interact with the dog. You can have him do recalls (coming when called) start far away from the toy until your dog will race over the toy to get to you. Have him do some sits and downs, tricks are also good if you have any. Even start to train a trick.
Repeat the above until your dog couldn't care less about the item. If this is a behaviour that has been heavily practiced this might take a few repetitions Meanwhile make sure the dog does not get the opportunity to access the item when not training.When your dog couldn't care less about the item, set the situation up again only this time you are going to let him walk into the room on his own ahead of you. What does your dog do? Does he drive straight at the item => calmly walk over take it out of his mouth put it back and the floor and with the leash leave the room. Your dog is just telling you that he is not ready for this challenge.
Does your dog go straight to the item but when you approach drop it and come towards you? Then go ahead and play some games, do some recalls, work on some cues. Yes we would prefer he not have grabbed the item but still a giant step better than the grab and run.
Does your dog ignore the item completely and just pay attention to you? Time to start making it harder. Spend a couple of minutes interacting and then have a seat, ignore the dog. Does your dog lie quietly waiting for something to happen? If so, reward that is a really nice behaviour. Does your dog jump and bark at you to continue the game? If so ignore him until he behaves in a manner you would like and then reward or if he persists leave the room (taking the item with you). Does your dog go to the item as soon as he realizes you aren't playing with him anymore? If so calmly approach take the item out of his mouth put it back on the floor and go back to your chair. If after a couple of repetitions he still is grabbing the toy when he is ignored stand on the leash where you are sitting, this takes away the opportunity to go after the item.
Once you have reached the dog ignoring the item in various places throughout the house. You have built value for the appropriate behaviour. The more items you do this with the more your dog will generalize to not touch your's or your child's stuff.
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