Stealing stuff?

[ShiroPower]

Hi all!

I posted on here awhile back about my very aggressive and biting puppy Shiro, a lab/great pyrenees cross. I finally convinced my husband to have a trainer come out to help us, and we did, and we are going along really well now with hardly any teeth- and if he does use his teeth, he does it so gently you can hardly tell.

My question now is that he is 8 months old, and I am due in 3 weeks with our first baby (god willing she doesn't stay late! lol!). He seems to be really good with children so that's not a problem, now that his aggression is under control. My biggest problem is that he keeps taking stuff- socks, underwear, debit cards (!), dishes, food off the counter, books, papers, etc etc etc. I would REALLY like to curb this habit, especially when it comes to baby toys. Is there a way I can teach him to only chew on what he's given (and he's got lots of chew toys!) and leave the baby stuff alone?

We've tried positive reinforcement when he chews on his stuff, calmly taking stuff he shouldn't have away, negative reinforcement ("NO! drop it!") and while he drops it... he'll just pick it up again, and again, and again.

Any ideas??

[kandy]

Have you tried replacing whatever you take away with one of his own toys?

He could also be bored with his own toys. You should rotate the toys he has so that they are 'new' and interesting to him.

[BenMax]

It sounds like the dog is bored. Replace whatever he has in his mouth with his own articles..and make it fun. I use the words 'leave it' and then replace the object with dog's toys and tell her she is a good girl. I make it fun for her to leave what she should and then reward with her own objects.

[BenMax]

Originally Posted by kandy

Have you tried replacing whatever you take away with one of his own toys?

He could also be bored with his own toys. You should rotate the toys he has so that they are 'new' and interesting to him.

Oops sorry Kandy... same thing I wrote.

[ShiroPower]

I was thinking he was bored, but he has SO MANY toys! We've tried taking the item away calmly and then giving him one of his own toys, but he just looks at us like we're crazy and lunges for the item we took away.

I guess I can start rotating them... after awhile, i guess the same objects (even if there are tons of them) get boring.

Does anyone have any experience with the Buster Cube (kongs he gets bored with really quickly)? Or the toy at Petsmart with the little squirrels that he can dig out of the tree? I don't really want to buy him more toys, but if they're good and can keep him out of trouble I'm for it.