Reilly running away with forbidden items

[Dogband1]

Setup.  We keep him in our fenced great room, appx 25x12 feet.  

He will upon opportunity, a dropped sock, napkin, dish towel ....., whatever, seize this item and run with it from us despite our commands to come.  While this is relatively harmless, I do not want to condone this misbehavior.  

We could ignore this, or use our treat jar, which sounds like a kids rattle when shaken.... And use this to reward him with a treat for coming to us and dropping the item.  Or I could repeatedly say bad dog, and when he is finally caught, put him in isolation repeating bad dog.  Or I could just fix a big margarita and forget about it, heck, the ice machine would probably get him to come anyways.

i know to never, ever trust one off leash, but I would still like to have some ability to get one back in case of a leash break, or emergency.  Like I noted, I do not want this misbehavior to become standard procedure.  My others were worked with a long rope on their harness outside, to give them roaming ability, yet give me the ability to demand returning when called.  Right now our fenced yard is under 2" of melting snow and huge rains ... A muddy mess.

our housebreaking is going nowhere, the big snowstorm stopped most of our progress.

thanks for any thoughts.

[Malcolm's Dad]

I used "DROP IT" (strong voice) following with a treat when the item was dropped. This worked with Malcolm and today the "DROP IT"(strong voice) still works. Bad Dog never really seemed to work with Malcolm. He would just reply Bad Human.

[Idaho Cairns]

Kind of a puppy behavior that will, most likely, pass as the dog matures.  I would be inclined to simply ignore the whole thing--save those precious "No!" commands to control things like squatting in the house, biting, excessive barking, etc.--behaviors that you really need to get stopped early on.

[Hillscreek]

I used "trade it" when I was teaching Angus to give up socks, towels etc. He drops the item, I give him a Charlee Bear treat. This took a while and in the mean time trained me to put things away. My house got tidier than ever before  Later I got to a stage where I could tell him "leave it" and he would drop it.

He is four years old now and generally leaves my stuff alone but every now and the he will still grab something, say a small towel, and run off with it streaming behind him, then stop and go to play mode, butt in air, tail going, eyes bright. It is very, very hard not to laugh because I know he is doing it on purpose the little #&*@ 

I don't know how deep your snow is now but I dig a path and a bathroom for Angus. If snow not too deep I let him out on a long line. This year no snow so far so been lucky. 

[hheldorfer]

Reilly is being a typical Cairn, wanting to make you chase him and play at every opportunity.  Buffy is now fairly reliable with "drop it".  I like Hillscreek's approach with "trade it".  You may want to combine "drop it" with "trade it" - see if you can get him to drop the item when you offer him something acceptable like a treat or a toy.

[sanford]

Among other valuable commands, "drop it" is important to teach from a young age in the event he might pick up something unhealthy or indigestible.

[PLGD]

We did as Hillscreek but used part of the daily kibble as the treat so as to not over feed.  Max got so good at the drop it-treat game that when on our gated deck, he would select an  esp nice leaf then bring it in, sit, hopeful of a trade.  He will still do this with a twig or leaf whenever he thinks it's time for a wee bit o snack!

[Autumn & Lola]

12 hours ago, PLGD said:

We did as Hillscreek but used part of the daily kibble as the treat so as to not over feed.  Max got so good at the drop it-treat game that when on our gated deck, he would select an  esp nice leaf then bring it in, sit, hopeful of a trade.  He will still do this with a twig or leaf whenever he thinks it's time for a wee bit o snack!

That is SO funny!  What a smarty!!

 

[Hillscreek]

yep is is pretty funny and it is why I never gave treats when potty training - just praise. I figured otherwise he'd be going to the door every few minutes - and since he is a boy dog there is always a drop available to pee

[Autumn & Lola]

We use the phrase, 'NOT for Lola/NOT for doggies', or claim ownership, 'Mummy's sock' or 'Daddy's bra'.  She seems to realize now (after a few years of this) that those things are off-limits. She was never much of a thief (except for a memorable chase through the backyard ), but we started these phrases when she seemed to be interested in something we didn't want her to be interested in.

 

[sanford]

Some years back, I read on this site about folks who rigged up a bell on the front door and trained their cairn to ring it, alerting them that he had to go out to potty.

it worked too well... The dog would ring the bell throughout the day in order to be let out, even if he didn't need to potty at all!???

[bradl]

I'm sure it's happened to more than just us! Barley started to ring that thing like a butler pull. We could have renamed her the Dowager Countess.

[pkcrossley]

trading is very sweet, but i think most cairns understand this as "trading UP." they are capable of eventually making off the car, the house and the 403B before their humans catch on. "drop it" was my approach to this behavior (i guess it is universal). they are natural-born thieves and i guess this is just an overwhelming instinct. 

[Sam I Am]

8 hours ago, Autumn & Lola said:

We use the phrase, 'NOT for Lola/NOT for doggies', or claim ownership, 'Mummy's sock' or 'Daddy's bra'.  She seems to realize now (after a few years of this) that those things are off-limits. She was never much of a thief (except for a memorable chase through the backyard ), but we started these phrases when she seemed to be interested in something we didn't want her to be interested in.

 

Not that it's any of my business Autumn.....but Daddy's bra??  Reminds me of the Seinfeld show on TV.. A bro bra or bro zear. No wonder Lola was confused.

[Autumn & Lola]

Bwaa!  I meant Daddy's SOCK and Mummy's BRA! LOL! 

One of my favorite eps!

 

 

 

 

Edited February 3, 2016 by Autumn & Lola

[Dempsy's Mom]

my vote:  Big Margarita

[_whits_]

I can only tell you what not to do on this one. Cause I inadvertently taught puppy Addie that the BEST GAME EVER is getting mom to chase you. She's raced laps around the house, she took about 10 years off my life taking laps around an outdoor shopping center when she escaped a pre-Julius K9 harness. When she'd tire out from her races, she'd hide under my bed for ages. It's why - to this day - my bed is on the box spring, and the box spring is directly on the floor. Once she spent at least 2 hours under the bed because she was too exhausted to keep running but too stubborn to let me capture her.

And that's not even mentioning the time she got loose at my parents' place and ran laps around their bed and halfway through her NASCAR adventure she found a wig of my mom's and ran a number of victory laps with her trophy. 

"Leave it" is the best command I ever taught her to prevent her from grabbing things she shouldn't, but we never mastered "drop it" as there are certain items that are far too valuable for her to give up once she's got her mouth on them (dead birds being particularly prized). If I notice something before she snags it I can almost always get her to leave it, but almost never get her to drop it once she's claimed it.

[Lupinegirl]

Trading worked for Nikki.  When he was an obnoxious stubborn yearling  he stole something I didn't want him to have, so I grabbed one of his squeaky toys, talked to him in a high excited voice, played with it by myself,  and played keep away to tease hm with the toy.  He has never been able to resist that.  We still swap balls when we play fetch. I tell him to drop the one he has after I show him the one I'm about to throw.  I wouldn't throw it until he dropped the first one.