discodolly asked:
our pup keeps pinching my shoes, tea towels, anything she is not supposed to, and runs off into the garden with them? Any advice gratefully received,
our pup keeps pinching my shoes, tea towels, anything she is not supposed to, and runs off into the garden with them? Any advice gratefully received,
Try giving it an old shoe that you no longer wear and everytime you catch him /her with the wrong one make sure that he is aware that the old shoe is theirs to play with even if it is something else they run off with keep giving it the old shoe,Eventually he/she might get the message.
Sounds like your dog is having a lot of fun pinching your stuff. It is basically asking for you to play with her. Therefore, if you chase it, it will have even more fun running away from you.
I would attach a long piece of light rope (around 6ft or 2m) to her collar when she is in the house. Let her get used to having the rope on by just leaving it on for 2 or 3 days. Make sure that there is not a lot of things lying around for the rope to get caught on.
After 2 or 3 days:
When your pup pinches something, grab hold of the rope, give it a sharp tug and say no at the same time. Take away the item (if she won’t just give it to you, swap the item with a treat or something she likes). Grab her toy or ball and make her really excited about the toy and just generally play with her for a little while. If you dog likes chasing after stuff, throw the toy for her to chase.
This provides a negative association with pinching something and a positive association with the thing she can actually play with. Therefore, she will drop the bad behaviour and only play with her toy.
Hopefully, after a couple of corrections, your dog will pinch her own toy in an attempt for you to play with her. Try to give her the attention when she asks for it but don’t do it every single time as your dog has to learn that sometimes she will just have to amuse herself.
If your dog does not stop pinching stuff after being corrected more than 10 times, it means that the negative association is not strong enough. Slap her on the thigh as well as giving her rope a sharp tug. (Only slap the thigh as there are no vital organs which can be damaged in that area).
You can remove the rope after she has not pinched anything for three days.