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Post by crazy4scraps on Dec 6, 2019 22:37:20 GMT
As many here know, we adopted a rescue dog a couple months ago. He’s a 1.5 year old lab who obviously hadn’t been trained very well to begin with, but the foster family did work with him some so he can sit, down, sort of heel and sort of stay. We have been working with him too just with general obedience, but it’s slow going. He has a bunch of assorted toys and stuff he can chew (Kongs, a huge antler, a Nylabone, a couple different indestructible rubber balls) but he steals other stuff and chews it too and it’s driving us insane because he can’t be trusted for a minute with your back turned. I’ve been working with him to “leave it” and any time we catch him with something he shouldn’t chew we take it and give him one of his own things. It’s like he’s not making the connection that he needs to leave ALL the things that aren’t expressly his alone. Yesterday I put a new chair cover on a chair in our living room and within two minutes he had a small hole chewed in it. (DH was with him but obviously not paying a lot of attention). Today we had some packages arrive on the UPS truck and one was some clothes in a bag type of package. DH was home and when he went out to get it off the porch, the dog bolted out, stole the bag off the top of the stack of stuff and ran off with it through the yard. Since it’s winter and DH likely didn’t have shoes on, the dog managed to scatter all the stuff in the bag around the yard and managed to chew a small hole in a brand new sweatshirt that “Santa” was going to bring me before DH could get to him and take it away. I’m sure he probably needs more exercise than he’s gotten this week since I’ve been volunteering at school all week, but even so he’s old enough that he’s not teething and he should know better. We probably take something out of his mouth that he shouldn’t have at least 30-40 times a day. (Boots, shoes, slippers, the newspaper, the pad from his kennel, the pad from our other dog’s kennel, and on and on.) Normally he does get plenty of time to be outside and run around, we throw the ball for him, etc. but it’s been an exceptionally busy week. Needless to say, I’m pretty mad. It’s been a long time since we’ve had a dog that was this destructive, and even that one wouldn’t do it right in front of us. I don’t want to have to kennel him 24/7, and we won’t send him back, but I can’t watch him every minute of the day either. Sigh. This is getting old. I can’t wait for him to mellow the heck out!
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Post by pierogi on Dec 6, 2019 22:42:12 GMT
Have you considered doggie daycare where he can run and play all day and burn off the excess energy while you get a break?
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Post by 950nancy on Dec 6, 2019 22:43:39 GMT
In my experience, labs are chewers. The good news is that theydo generally grow out of it (much later than other breeds).
My current puppy just turned two and it is her goal every single day to go behind me and "bring" me things she wants me to know she found that I didn't put away. Last night she went under the generally heavily guarded Christmas tree and picked up a small gift and tore around the table several times. Then she brought it to me 98% unharmed.
Like you, when I don't spend as much time with my girl, she gets more obnoxious. I would guess you have a good year or two to go. Just get that pup out as much as possible and keep pup proof boxes around that you can drop in the remote or pens. I will say that a puppy really does make you less messy or cluttery.
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Post by nlwilkins on Dec 6, 2019 22:45:31 GMT
When he is chewing on something that he is not supposed to, do you do something negative? Such as a mild bop on the nose or rump? (not saying beat him, just something to startle him, like a roll of newspaper that makes a loud noise when bopping him.)He obviously does not get the idea that some things are not for him and what you are doing is not working. As long as he gets lots of positive attention at other times, it should not turn him mean if you give negative when he is doing something wrong.
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johnnysmom
Drama Llama
Posts: 5,684
Jun 25, 2014 21:16:33 GMT
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Post by johnnysmom on Dec 6, 2019 22:52:45 GMT
I'll be honest, while our lab isn't a huge chewer (his weaknesses are tissues/paper towels and if available, shoes) I consider him an opportunistic dog. He's normally well behaved but if he thinks he can get away with something he'll do it without giving it another thought. For that reason we still crate him at night and whenever we're gone (generally one of us home for a large portion of the day). He'll be two in January and sometimes I think we should start letting him out alone but I'm not sure he's ready. At one and a half I wouldn't leave him to his own devices for more than a few minutes. ETA: have you tried using baby gates to keep his access more limited? I don't mean locked into one room but perhaps to keep him *out* of one or two rooms? Remi isn't allowed in the playroom (I don't trust the kids to pick up their crap ) and I'm not even sure he knows we have an upstairs LOL, even when the gates are down he knows he doesn't belong those places (we'll allow access eventually). Makes it easier for us to keep a few rooms picked up all the time instead of having to have the whole house dog-proofed.
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Post by crazy4scraps on Dec 6, 2019 23:22:32 GMT
When he is chewing on something that he is not supposed to, do you do something negative? Such as a mild bop on the nose or rump? (not saying beat him, just something to startle him, like a roll of newspaper that makes a loud noise when bopping him.)He obviously does not get the idea that some things are not for him and what you are doing is not working. As long as he gets lots of positive attention at other times, it should not turn him mean if you give negative when he is doing something wrong. We usually will loudly say, “Drop!” Or “Leave it!” Then make him sit and take it from him (without playing tug of war so he knows it’s not a game) and give him one of his things that he can have. He does get a lot of positive attention when he is being good. We’ve only had him for a couple months and I know it will take some time, but dang. We’ve had four labs before him so this isn’t our first rodeo. But of the other four, the first one was a shelter dog (and he was the one we had major problems with, he had to be kenneled whenever we were gone but never did anything when we were home), two we raised from pups and had almost no issues with this, and the last one was also a two year old rescue but he wasn’t a chewer.
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Post by crazy4scraps on Dec 6, 2019 23:38:59 GMT
I'll be honest, while our lab isn't a huge chewer (his weaknesses are tissues/paper towels and if available, shoes) I consider him an opportunistic dog. He's normally well behaved but if he thinks he can get away with something he'll do it without giving it another thought. For that reason we still crate him at night and whenever we're gone (generally one of us home for a large portion of the day). He'll be two in January and sometimes I think we should start letting him out alone but I'm not sure he's ready. At one and a half I wouldn't leave him to his own devices for more than a few minutes. ETA: have you tried using baby gates to keep his access more limited? I don't mean locked into one room but perhaps to keep him *out* of one or two rooms? Remi isn't allowed in the playroom (I don't trust the kids to pick up their crap ) and I'm not even sure he knows we have an upstairs LOL, even when the gates are down he knows he doesn't belong those places (we'll allow access eventually). Makes it easier for us to keep a few rooms picked up all the time instead of having to have the whole house dog-proofed. We do use gates in some areas and keep doors closed in others, but the things he’s getting at are things that are hard to put elsewhere (such as the chair cover, it goes on the chair and he’s allowed in that room, other stuff is usually picked up), and my boots I need to leave by the back door because our other rescue dog has potty training issues still and sometimes needs to be rushed outside quickly which means having a pair of boots ready to jump into at the ready. We took away his dog bed because he was chewing the edge of it. We keep the (indoor) crate doors closed to keep him from chewing up the pads and running around the house with them. Our kid is getting better at keeping her stuff in her room and keeping her door closed (she has some dog allergies so he is supposed to stay out of her room anyway). He stole the main floor bath mat and took off with that once too. He hasn’t chewed anything in the bedroom at night (but we do close him in there with us, he never has the run of the house), he pretty much leaves everything in there alone. I’m going to have a lot of stuff to do in my studio over the next couple weeks because I have several Christmas projects to work on, so I might have to get another gate and keep him trapped in the kitchen while I’m downstairs. There is so much stuff in my studio at the moment that there’s no way he could be down there with me at all and I don’t want to crate him all day when I’m busy and can’t watch him.
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Post by idahopea on Dec 6, 2019 23:39:02 GMT
Make sure none of his toys are soft stuffed things at this stage so he doesn't get confused. Sounds like he has lots of other good dog toys already. I would dog proof like you would baby proof with almost nothing around except his toys. I have to admit our golden chewed on the baseboards once I thought he understood what was okay to chew and what was not and I stopped crating him when we were not right there.
You can buy a baby fence (playyard with sides that connect to make an octogon) to put around your Christmas tree, to divide off part of a room (use it straight) or for many other things. We used one to keep our dog away from a nesting duck in our yard once.
Good luck! They are smart dogs and will eventually get it!
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Deleted
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Oct 6, 2024 19:25:15 GMT
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Post by Deleted on Dec 6, 2019 23:44:15 GMT
You should not have trouble teaching him what to leave a lone. Labs are very smart that way. Labs also need to run hard twice a day at the least so they can nap without thinking about what to get into. You can teach labs to pick up stuff and drop it into baskets. Our 1/2 lab would put all her toys a way at night.
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Post by crazy4scraps on Dec 7, 2019 0:44:59 GMT
Make sure none of his toys are soft stuffed things at this stage so he doesn't get confused. Sounds like he has lots of other good dog toys already. I would dog proof like you would baby proof with almost nothing around except his toys. I have to admit our golden chewed on the baseboards once I thought he understood what was okay to chew and what was not and I stopped crating him when we were not right there. You can buy a baby fence (playyard with sides that connect to make an octogon) to put around your Christmas tree, to divide off part of a room (use it straight) or for many other things. We used one to keep our dog away from a nesting duck in our yard once. Good luck! They are smart dogs and will eventually get it! We have one of those from when DD was small and are using various pieces of it in a few different parts of the house for exactly that purpose. We don’t have our tree yet, that should be interesting. What we need is one or two expanding doorway gates, then I could lock him in the kitchen. Both of the doorways into our kitchen are wider than a standard door. ETA: We have a moveable “rock” for our invisible fence that we can put behind the Christmas tree (the rock has a field with up to a 6’ radius), and some extra flags to teach him not to go near it. It has worked pretty well so far to teach him to stay off of my chair. I don’t care if he goes on the other chair, I just don’t want him chewing the cover. I don’t want him on my chair because that’s the one by the window and our last lab trashed the upholstery by repeatedly jumping on the arm in the same spot, and it’s been reupholstered since then so I want it to stay nice.
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sassyangel
Drama Llama
Posts: 7,456
Jun 26, 2014 23:58:32 GMT
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Post by sassyangel on Dec 7, 2019 1:13:09 GMT
Maybe try redirection to things he CAN chew?
That’s what I do. The minute she picks up it gets a hold of something she can’t chew, I say a firm no, take it away and give her one of her toys she can chew.
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sassyangel
Drama Llama
Posts: 7,456
Jun 26, 2014 23:58:32 GMT
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Post by sassyangel on Dec 7, 2019 1:17:10 GMT
And indestructible toys are great, but we also buy her cheap stuffed toys she’s allowed to destroy with no issues. They get thrown out once she’s destroyed them, and it’s cut down on her wanting to find other stuff to chew on.
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Post by Merge on Dec 7, 2019 1:30:18 GMT
Honestly, you’re going to have to put away anything you don’t want chewed for a while. Our pointer/lab mix chewed on everything she could reach until around the age of 3. DH would not believe me about this and lost at least two pairs of glasses that he left in her reach. She was crated whenever we weren’t at home for a long time.
She is the best girl now and never chews anything that isn’t hers, but it took at least 3 years.
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Post by buddysmom on Dec 7, 2019 1:36:55 GMT
I wouldn’t know.
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Post by *Shannon on Dec 7, 2019 2:30:47 GMT
I feel for you. We have two 2.5 year old Lab/Pointer/Boxer/Pittie mixes. One, Cam (avatar) generally does not chew things he's not supposed to and will happily give up anything that he does happen to end up with that he's not supposed to have with a simple drop it. The other one, Merlin, oy - he's a pill. He'll chew just about anything left around, and he's a dingus about it. He knows he's not supposed to chew things. He grabs whatever it is and RUNS like a wild man. You can feel the glee as he takes off with it, like one of the holiday cards I made. He's also a scratcher and a licker. And a slurper... I blame all of this on him being taken from his mother too soon. Well, not the scratching... he's allergic to everything apparently. Anyway, I digress. I am the first to admit that I need to work with him more and exercise him more. I am hoping a little bit of time will make this less of a struggle as well, as they age they tend to get better about chewing the wrong things. I am a proponent of positive reinforcement. First line of defense is not leaving anything within reach. Second is exercise. Third line of defense is training look at me, leave it and drop it daily in increasing areas of distraction until they really get it. I really need to work on this with Merlin. A lot. Zac George has some great training videos: VERY IMPORTANT: How to Teach "Look at me" , and the Training Bubble ExplainedHow to Teach ANY Dog to Leave something aloneHow To Train Your Dog To Leave EVERYTHING Alone -- EVERYWHERE!How to Teach ANY DOG "Drop it" / "Let Go" in Minutes!
I know it can be frustrating... I wish you much luck and patience.
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Post by crazy4scraps on Dec 7, 2019 2:39:20 GMT
Maybe try redirection to things he CAN chew? That’s what I do. The minute she picks up it gets a hold of something she can’t chew, I say a firm no, take it away and give her one of her toys she can chew. We do that already. All.Freaking.Day. I will say it’s a lot easier to train a puppy to leave your stuff alone in the first place than it is to retrain a year and a half old dog to do the same. It’s like I have to teach him every single thing to leave alone. Just in the 20 minutes we’ve been home since getting our tree, he stole the pair of leather work gloves that I set down on top of a shelf for one minute while I was putting water in the tree.
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Post by crazy4scraps on Dec 7, 2019 2:47:49 GMT
And indestructible toys are great, but we also buy her cheap stuffed toys she’s allowed to destroy with no issues. They get thrown out once she’s destroyed them, and it’s cut down on her wanting to find other stuff to chew on. I’ve considered that, but I really don’t want him to think it’s okay to wreck things. With my luck he would end up doing that to one of DD’s precious loveys and that would not end well. We had to take away all of our little dog’s toys (and she has a basket full that she LOVES playing with) because he destroyed two of them in the first day and a half he was here. Now our little dog has her one favorite squirrel in DD’s room that she can only play with when we’re reading at bedtime and that’s it.
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Post by crazy4scraps on Dec 7, 2019 2:50:42 GMT
Honestly, you’re going to have to put away anything you don’t want chewed for a while. Our pointer/lab mix chewed on everything she could reach until around the age of 3. DH would not believe me about this and lost at least two pairs of glasses that he left in her reach. She was created whenever we weren’t at home for a long time. She is the best girl now and never chews anything that isn’t hers, but it took at least 3 years. We crated our first dog whenever we weren’t home until he was five. That dog was totally fine when we were home. This one will find something we didn’t realize wasn’t put up high enough and will drag it right out in front of us, almost mocking us. He’s such a little turd!
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Post by crazy4scraps on Dec 7, 2019 2:56:06 GMT
I feel for you. We have two 2.5 year old Lab/Pointer/Boxer/Pittie mixes. One, Cam (avatar) generally does not chew things he's not supposed to and will happily give up anything that he does happen to end up with that he's not supposed to have with a simple drop it. The other one, Merlin, oy - he's a pill. He'll chew just about anything left around, and he's a dingus about it. He knows he's not supposed to chew things. He grabs whatever it is and RUNS like a wild man. You can feel the glee as he takes off with it, like one of the holiday cards I made. He's also a scratcher and a licker. And a slurper... I blame all of this on him being taken from his mother too soon. Well, not the scratching... he's allergic to everything apparently. Anyway, I digress. I am the first to admit that I need to work with him more and exercise him more. I am hoping a little bit of time will make this less of a struggle as well, as they age they tend to get better about chewing the wrong things. I am a proponent of positive reinforcement. First line of defense is not leaving anything within reach. Second is exercise. Third line of defense is training look at me, leave it and drop it daily. I really need to work on this with Merlin. A lot. Zac George has some great training videos: VERY IMPORTANT: How to Teach "Look at me" , and the Training Bubble ExplainedHow to Teach ANY Dog to Leave something aloneHow To Train Your Dog To Leave EVERYTHING Alone -- EVERYWHERE!How to Teach ANY DOG "Drop it" / "Let Go" in Minutes!
I know it can be frustrating... I wish you much luck and patience. Thanks for the links, I will check them all out! I know in his heart he wants to be a good boy, and quite often he is. He shows a willingness to learn so there is hope. But I can absolutely relate to the grab, dash and GLEEEEE! Ugh. That’s what DH said he did today with the bag that had my new sweatshirt in it. Thank God it was a cheap $9 one from Kohl’s for me and not a more expensive name brand one bought for anyone else.
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Post by Patter on Dec 7, 2019 11:21:24 GMT
When you practice "Leave It," you need to practice with a high value treat. You also need to do it many times a day. I also would not give him "his" toy when he drops whatever he has that the shouldn't. He should be given a high value treat that he ONLY gets when he drops the thing he shouldn't have. He will know how great that treat is because you have only given it to him during training. He WANTS that treat instead of whatever is in his mouth. High value treat AND lots of praise and excitement for dropping it. It needs to be done by everyone in the house. He has to trust that when he drops it, he's going to get THAT treat. And it has to be immediate so treats in your pocket at all times is needed. We have one that at 4 will still pick up things he shouldn't because it's a game to him. He doesn't chew it just grabs and runs BUT as soon as I say "drop it" (even if across the room), he will drop it and run to me waiting for that high value treat. If it's not working, the treat isn't high value enough. And you can only give that treat as I said for this. If he gets it a lot for other things, it won't be of high value. Also, we crate all of our animals at night and when we leave home. Just best for everyone. They are very well trained and happy boys. They LOVE their crates.
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kibblesandbits
Pearl Clutcher
At the corner of Awesome and Bombdiggity
Posts: 3,305
Aug 13, 2016 13:47:39 GMT
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Post by kibblesandbits on Dec 7, 2019 12:27:55 GMT
All of the above - plus some extra EXERCISE YOUR DOG mojo, because labs need a lot of exercise.
For a quick training response and to get you some relief fast, get a training collar and use the beeper to supplement your NO/DROP IT. If he ignores, escalate to the vibrate. Collars give an electrical correction too, but I wouldn't recommend that for chewing.
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Post by crazy4scraps on Dec 7, 2019 15:40:24 GMT
When you practice "Leave It," you need to practice with a high value treat. You also need to do it many times a day. I also would not give him "his" toy when he drops whatever he has that the shouldn't. He should be given a high value treat that he ONLY gets when he drops the thing he shouldn't have. He will know how great that treat is because you have only given it to him during training. He WANTS that treat instead of whatever is in his mouth. High value treat AND lots of praise and excitement for dropping it. It needs to be done by everyone in the house. He has to trust that when he drops it, he's going to get THAT treat. And it has to be immediate so treats in your pocket at all times is needed. We have one that at 4 will still pick up things he shouldn't because it's a game to him. He doesn't chew it just grabs and runs BUT as soon as I say "drop it" (even if across the room), he will drop it and run to me waiting for that high value treat. If it's not working, the treat isn't high value enough. And you can only give that treat as I said for this. If he gets it a lot for other things, it won't be of high value. Also, we crate all of our animals at night and when we leave home. Just best for everyone. They are very well trained and happy boys. They LOVE their crates. I have been practicing leave it with regular treats (tiny puppy milk bones) and it has been working when we intentionally practice. This dog is VERY motivated by any kind of food or treats, but I can definitely see where a higher value treat would be more helpful here especially for when he grabs something and dashes off. He does also get them when he comes in right away from outside or for general obedience training on the fly (sit, stay, wait). I’ll have to find something different that will work for us for this issue specifically. The harder part will be getting my family on board with being consistent (especially DH, because he’s hard headed that way). This dog doesn’t hate his crate and will go in it willingly, but we can’t leave it open all the time because he will steal the pad out of it and run around the house like a banshee and then chew on it. For some reason he won’t chew on it when he’s in there though. We don’t crate him at night, he sleeps confined in our room with us and so far that hasn’t presented any problems.
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Post by crazy4scraps on Dec 7, 2019 15:53:01 GMT
All of the above - plus some extra EXERCISE YOUR DOG mojo, because labs need a lot of exercise. For a quick training response and to get you some relief fast, get a training collar and use the beeper to supplement your NO/DROP IT. If he ignores, escalate to the vibrate. Collars give an electrical correction too, but I wouldn't recommend that for chewing. Normally he does get a lot of opportunities to exercise and run around outside, last week was an anomaly because I was gone way more than usual. I work from home so we can take frequent breaks throughout the day, but I was volunteering at school so he had to be crated a lot more than usual. We do have a training collar that DH uses when they play fetch, but he already has an invisible fence e-collar that he has on all the time during the day because he’s allowed to go outside so frequently and I don’t often have time to get his fence collar on him and get the other dog outside quick enough to avoid an accident. I think it’s really going to be a matter of having all of us working with him more often intentionally, and practicing with different things so he learns he needs to leave alone all the things, all the time.
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Post by Basket1lady on Dec 7, 2019 18:54:17 GMT
You are right. It’s easier to teach a puppy than an older dog who has learned to gain attention by stealing things. You are on the right path, tough.
Continue the LEAVE IT command. Teach it at odd times of the day. It only takes a minute or two—run through it once or twice, always ending on a positive note. I used their own toys—the idea is that they drop the item no matter what. But we use two other commands—DROP IT and NOT YOURS. I use Leave It for things that have not been picked up and Drop It if it’s been picked up. I’ll also add Not Yours, meaning it should never be picked up. I did this with dd’s stuffed animals to distinguish which were toys and which were DD’s toys.
Labs are smart. Never, ever, ever chase a dog with something that you want. If they don’t come when called, run in the opposite direction, calling their name. Labs will chase YOU then. Honestly, it sounds like the dog is stealing things to get your attention. Even negative attention is good attention to him.
And watch the dog around the house. The best thing that you can do is to catch the dog in the act of stealing the item. It takes a lot of vigilance! Be form, not not mean. Labs want to make you happy. That is the biggest beauty in owning a lab.
Exercise the dog. If you don’t have time for a walk, throw a ball down the stairs until they stop returning it. Play hide and seek. Fill a Kong with a scoop of peanut butter, mix in some kibble, and freeze it. Pick a skill for the week and practice that. It’s easy to let our pets slide during this time of the year, but I could introduce you to my brother’s Brittany Spaniel. At 12 years old, he is still stealing things, needs a shock collar, and tests them every second he is awake. They got him just before they got married and this dog wasn’t walked or trained for 6 months. They never follow through on anything and will tell him to stay and then not watch to make sure that he does stay. It’s a mess and so is the dog.
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Deleted
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Oct 6, 2024 19:25:15 GMT
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Post by Deleted on Dec 7, 2019 22:50:38 GMT
My advice, you have chosen a stage of life that means dogs are your priority. You can't volunteer extra time that takes away from your dog's needs to be exercised sufficiently or you need to invest in time at a doggy daycare where he does get the exercise he NEEDS (it is not a good to have but a NEED) and maybe some extra training with them too.
You can't expect him to just somehow know with only a couple months of training. His prior life history didn't teach him anything... think what it would mean to you to be picked up and dropped into an alien world where you have little idea what things are used for and can't even make the sounds needed to communicate so no idea what they are saying to you. How would you know what you could/couldn't touch unless you touch it?
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Deleted
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Oct 6, 2024 19:25:15 GMT
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Post by Deleted on Dec 8, 2019 1:31:34 GMT
I feel your frustration. Ours has a taste for expensive shoes and thick leather goods. She at a WHOLE leather belt with only about 1/2" of leather around the buckle left. The leather straps on a fairly new pair of Birkenstocks, my FiloFax planner, many portions of a 1/2 dozen pair of nikes. She's also a paper eater. Ugh. For us, we absolutely have to keep stuff picked up, she was close to a year before she could be unsupervised in the house (I would put up a gate so she would have to be with me in my craft room, which was the easiest for me). We give her regular rawhides and yak bones (Love the yak bones especially!) - I tried many rawhides until we found the ones that lasted a long time (Cadet braided ones are good - I got a big bag at Costco). She has also learned what "no" and "drop it" mean and what she should and shouldn't have - that also took about a year, too. I'm glad she hasn't chewed furniture at least.
We have a long hallway that I throw tennis balls for her in the morning to get her some exercise - it's an easy way to get some exercise in the morning during the winter. I throw with one hand with a cup of coffee in the other.
Good luck! Our family needed a lot more training than the dog and finally everyone is good about putting shoes away and keeping doors closed where she would get into stuff.
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Post by 950nancy on Dec 8, 2019 2:11:41 GMT
Honestly, you’re going to have to put away anything you don’t want chewed for a while. Our pointer/lab mix chewed on everything she could reach until around the age of 3. DH would not believe me about this and lost at least two pairs of glasses that he left in her reach. She was created whenever we weren’t at home for a long time. She is the best girl now and never chews anything that isn’t hers, but it took at least 3 years. We use a squirt bottle of water. We had a little one downstairs. I just noticed that she chewed up that bottle. Ugh. My husband can't remember to put stuff up and then gets mad when she chews stuff.
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Post by crazy4scraps on Dec 8, 2019 6:28:23 GMT
You are right. It’s easier to teach a puppy than an older dog who has learned to gain attention by stealing things. You are on the right path, tough. Continue the LEAVE IT command. Teach it at odd times of the day. It only takes a minute or two—run through it once or twice, always ending on a positive note. I used their own toys—the idea is that they drop the item no matter what. But we use two other commands—DROP IT and NOT YOURS. I use Leave It for things that have not been picked up and Drop It if it’s been picked up. I’ll also add Not Yours, meaning it should never be picked up. I did this with dd’s stuffed animals to distinguish which were toys and which were DD’s toys. Labs are smart. Never, ever, ever chase a dog with something that you want. If they don’t come when called, run in the opposite direction, calling their name. Labs will chase YOU then. Honestly, it sounds like the dog is stealing things to get your attention. Even negative attention is good attention to him. And watch the dog around the house. The best thing that you can do is to catch the dog in the act of stealing the item. It takes a lot of vigilance! Be form, not not mean. Labs want to make you happy. That is the biggest beauty in owning a lab. Exercise the dog. If you don’t have time for a walk, throw a ball down the stairs until they stop returning it. Play hide and seek. Fill a Kong with a scoop of peanut butter, mix in some kibble, and freeze it. Pick a skill for the week and practice that. It’s easy to let our pets slide during this time of the year, but I could introduce you to my brother’s Brittany Spaniel. At 12 years old, he is still stealing things, needs a shock collar, and tests them every second he is awake. They got him just before they got married and this dog wasn’t walked or trained for 6 months. They never follow through on anything and will tell him to stay and then not watch to make sure that he does stay. It’s a mess and so is the dog. This is good advice too. We kind of do this now (not yours) but it would be a good idea to always say it as a reminder when he’s taking things he shouldn’t.
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Post by crazy4scraps on Dec 8, 2019 7:31:47 GMT
My advice, you have chosen a stage of life that means dogs are your priority. You can't volunteer extra time that takes away from your dog's needs to be exercised sufficiently or you need to invest in time at a doggy daycare where he does get the exercise he NEEDS (it is not a good to have but a NEED) and maybe some extra training with them too. You can't expect him to just somehow know with only a couple months of training. His prior life history didn't teach him anything... think what it would mean to you to be picked up and dropped into an alien world where you have little idea what things are used for and can't even make the sounds needed to communicate so no idea what they are saying to you. How would you know what you could/couldn't touch unless you touch it? Considering that he came from a foster family where the foster mom and her BF both worked full time, he had been crated for longer stretches with them than he ever is with us. The school’s book fair is a once a year PTA gig that I usually help out with, as I said it is an anomaly for me to be gone more than a couple hours a day. There were two days last week when I was gone from about 10-3, the other days it was more like 12-3:30, and one of those days DH was home half the day (which was the day he stole the package with my shirt in it, I never would have let him outside until after I brought the packages inside and the UPS guy was gone). So not horrible by any reasonable stretch, just not what we usually do since I am normally at home all the time and can let him outside to run during the day, multiple times a day. Heck, when I am home he will take a good 1-2 hour nap in the mornings when he’s not crated, after everyone else leaves and the house quiets down. I might be doing paperwork in the office or laundry or whatever and he’s right by me sleeping, so it isn’t like he’s balls to the walls hyper 100% of the time. We have almost a two acre lot and the whole thing is invisible fenced so he has a LOT of space. He tears around the yard like his butt is on fire smelling all the smells, but he stays in the yard. I will throw the ball for him until he doesn’t give it back and then I’m done (maybe 5-6 times all the way down our back hill and back). I’ll also throw it in the house in the hallway for him too if the weather is too horrible to go out for very long, again until he starts being a turd and not giving the ball back, then I take it back and it’s game over. DH plays with him again for longer stretches in the afternoons when he gets home, he has more patience for the dog’s nonsense than I do. He gets walks too, although we have just been walking him inside the perimeter of the yard while we’ve been teaching him the boundaries of the fence. I do shorter obedience sessions several times a day in the house, maybe 10 minutes or so working on a specific thing, usually after we’ve been outside with the other little dog and he’s had a chance to blow off a little steam. He’s at the lake cabin with DH today. This dog literally won the adoption lottery by coming to live with us. It’s been 30 years since we had a lab like this one with three others that weren’t anything like him in between, so it’s probably just as much of an adjustment for us as it is for him. Even my high maintenance Jack Russell wasn’t this naughty (but I raised that one from a pup which definitely makes a difference).
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Post by Basket1lady on Dec 8, 2019 9:28:40 GMT
My advice, you have chosen a stage of life that means dogs are your priority. You can't volunteer extra time that takes away from your dog's needs to be exercised sufficiently or you need to invest in time at a doggy daycare where he does get the exercise he NEEDS (it is not a good to have but a NEED) and maybe some extra training with them too. You can't expect him to just somehow know with only a couple months of training. His prior life history didn't teach him anything... think what it would mean to you to be picked up and dropped into an alien world where you have little idea what things are used for and can't even make the sounds needed to communicate so no idea what they are saying to you. How would you know what you could/couldn't touch unless you touch it? Considering that he came from a foster family where the foster mom and her BF both worked full time, he had been crated for longer stretches with them than he ever is with us. The school’s book fair is a once a year PTA gig that I usually help out with, as I said it is an anomaly for me to be gone more than a couple hours a day. There were two days last week when I was gone from about 10-3, the other days it was more like 12-3:30, and one of those days DH was home half the day (which was the day he stole the package with my shirt in it, I never would have let him outside until after I brought the packages inside and the UPS guy was gone). So not horrible by any reasonable stretch, just not what we usually do since I am normally at home all the time and can let him outside to run during the day, multiple times a day. Heck, when I am home he will take a good 1-2 hour nap in the mornings when he’s not crated, after everyone else leaves and the house quiets down. I might be doing paperwork in the office or laundry or whatever and he’s right by me sleeping, so it isn’t like he’s balls to the walls hyper 100% of the time. We have almost a two acre lot and the whole thing is invisible fenced so he has a LOT of space. He tears around the yard like his butt is on fire smelling all the smells, but he stays in the yard. I will throw the ball for him until he doesn’t give it back and then I’m done (maybe 5-6 times all the way down our back hill and back). I’ll also throw it in the house in the hallway for him too if the weather is too horrible to go out for very long, again until he starts being a turd and not giving the ball back, then I take it back and it’s game over. DH plays with him again for longer stretches in the afternoons when he gets home, he has more patience for the dog’s nonsense than I do. He gets walks too, although we have just been walking him inside the perimeter of the yard while we’ve been teaching him the boundaries of the fence. I do shorter obedience sessions several times a day in the house, maybe 10 minutes or so working on a specific thing, usually after we’ve been outside with the other little dog and he’s had a chance to blow off a little steam. He’s at the lake cabin with DH today. This dog literally won the adoption lottery by coming to live with us. It’s been 30 years since we had a lab like this one with three others that weren’t anything like him in between, so it’s probably just as much of an adjustment for us as it is for him. Even my high maintenance Jack Russell wasn’t this naughty (but I raised that one from a pup which definitely makes a difference). It sounds like you are doing everything right! I’m laughing at the adoption lottery statement—people say all the time that they want to come back as Basketlady’s dogs! I think you have gotten some good suggestions. It’s going to take some time for him to settle in. Most labs settle in by 3, so he still has time. You need to be be able to leave him. For an hour, for the day. It’s just not feasible to be home with our pets 24/7. It’s crazy busy this time of year, but be sure to give him some time when you get home. He doesn’t know yet that you will always come back. Emma is 7 and has always been mine, but I always spend 5-10 minutes with her after I get home, petting her and playing a little. I don’t do it right when I walk in the door, but will about 15 minutes or so after getting home. It doesn’t have to be a long walk, but just some time to reconnect. Training is important, but also take the time to make him your dog; he will listen better. I said try to catch him in the act of stealing things. You can set that up so that you know he’s going to steal something. Train by making a fake package with the bag and leave it lying somewhere and then have him walk by it. Watch out of the corner of your eye and say Leave It as he walks by. Be ready to grab it if he does. Repeat with food, toys, seat covers!, etc. I make a little sound through my front teeth like tsst , tsst , tsst, to show to pay attention to me and listen. Adding that in could help. I do it quietly at odd times, just to reinforce the “pay attention to Mom” command.
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