Little Thief
Does anyone else have problems with their corgis taking things that don't belong to them and refuse to give them back? Oppy is almost 7 months old now, and if he decides he wants something, and he actually gets it in his mouth, good luck getting it back any time soon. Corgis are so quick that it takes me and Hilliary a couple minutes to corner him and take back whatever it is he's stolen. What's even worse is that recently he's starting grabbing things off our desks when we're in the bathroom or kitchen. He's already ruined my headphones by eating the padding off of them, and just this morning I found Hilliary's camera case on the floor (luckily he didn't get inside it, it's just held shut by a magnet). We used to punish him by shooting him with a little squirt gun (similar to the squirt bottle), but he doesn't seem to be affected by it much anymore. I don't know what to do, it's making it hard to trust him, especially now that he's getting a little older and we were hoping to start leaving him out of his crate little by little when we weren't around.
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Meredith and Paisley on
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My dad's corgi is a little thief as well. He usually doesn't take very important things, and usually sticks to socks, tissues or pieces of paper that may be left on the floor. I have found that for him it is a game and a way to get attention, since he always does it when we are all busy doing something else. For him, it only makes it worse if we chase him around, since it makes it a lot more fun for him. Instead, I have taught him the command "drop it" or if you like the show It's Me or the Dog, she uses "leave it." That way he will just drop it and doesn't get to be chased around the house. We usually then proceed by playing with him or giving him a treat since all he really wanted was attention. I would also make sure he has plenty of appropriate toys and things to chew on that are his own.
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Permalink Reply by Talula the tabby slayer on
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Try trading up for whatever he's got-- and using the drop it command. Talula likes to play the catch me if you can game, but if I offer her some string cheese to trade, she instantly drops whatever she has in her mouth.
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Permalink Reply by Matt & Hilliary on
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Oh yeah, the second you bring food into the equation, Oppy immediately loses interest in whatever he had, but I really don't want to reinforce "steal something you shouldn't have = food". Sadly trading other toys doesn't work.
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Permalink Reply by Geri & Sidney on
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Sidney likes to steal underwear, even bras. He also takes socks, if just to flip them in the air playfully. And he loves to take paper and shred it.
It is really helpful to teach "leave it" , for when they are headed toward something with the intent to pick it up, and "drop it" for when they already have picked the object up.
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Permalink Reply by Boo Buchheit on
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This can get worse when they get a little taller. Leo can reach a dish towel off the counter now.
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Yeah, it's pretty amazing how they can stretch to get things. Who needs long legs, they have long bodies!
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Permalink Reply by Valerie and Simon on
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OMG, I was just coming here to post this! My Simon is almost 13 weeks now, and just this past week he's become a little thief! His favorite are my socks and my wristbands (I just had wrist surgery 7 weeks ago and wear wrist bands when I'm doing alot with my hands for extra protection). I can't leave a laundry basket around -- he goes searching in them for socks!!!
He likes slippers too, and my flip flops. And he thinks it's a GAME. He runs around the house with them, just egging me on to chase him! We've been working on 'leave it' or 'drop it' and he's doing pretty good with those OUTSIDE, but in the house? With my STUFF? Not a chance!
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Permalink Reply by Manda and Chloe on
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he is still only 7months old, to him its all play. chloe did that as a puppy, her favorite things to steal were underwear and socks. there was no catching her as a puppy. it took until she was about year and a half to fully break her of stealing things like that. but even now at 3 years old if shes gets a little to spunky she will grab a sock if she can reach it and fling it around, but she at least doesnt eat them anymore. best thing you can really do is put stuff out of his reach and work on some training and make sure he has plenty of stuff to keep his attention.
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He steals socks too, but he'll just chew on those and we don't mind as much. He managed to grab my iPod off my desk last weekend. Luckily it has a pretty good case on it otherwise it would have been all gnawed up. Guess we just have to start keeping things out of reach.
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Permalink Reply by Beth on
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Have you taught him the "leave it" command? That can be helpful. At 7 months, he still should not be left loose when no one is there to watch him. If he's stealing stuff in front of you, "leave it" would be helpful.
When Jack was small, every time he would voluntarily give something up when he responded to "leave it", he would get a trade-up of something tasty to eat. If he left an object, he got a treat. And if he responded to "leave it" if he had managed to grab food that he shouldn't, he got a really really good treat, like a piece of cheese. Remember, the correction (in this case, the squirt gun) is only half the equation, and not even the more powerful half. The motivation is "If I give up this fun thing, I'll get something even better." And for Jack, leave it means "Ignore it", "Drop it", "Don't look at it" all rolled into one. We don't have separate commands for each.
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The only time I leave him alone right now is when I'm in the shower. Most of the time he would just be laying right next to the door when I came out or around the corner chewing on his bone, but recently he's been a little adventurous while I'm in there. I understand that you want to reward them for dropping something or leaving something alone, but like I said in a previous post, I'm worried that he'll associate stealing things or pretending to steal something to getting a treat.
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I can understand, from a human line of reasoning, where you fear that if you reward your puppy for "leaving it" after stealing something, he might start randomly stealing stuff with the idea of getting a reward. However, from a dog's way of looking at the world, that is a very complex series of thoughts, going something like:
1) Gee, I would like a treat
2) I know, I can steal something! and then
3) My owner will yell "leave it!" and then
4) I will leave it and then
5) Treat!
Let me put it another way. I have taught my dog to sit, speak, shake hands, back up, lie down, etc. But at no point does my dog think "If I randomly bark, sit, offer my paw, etc etc I will therefore get a treat." So, since the dog does not randomly offer any other behavior he has been trained in the hopes of getting a reward, why would he come up with just this one (leaving it) to initiate on his own, in the hopes of being rewarded?
Stealing things and running with them is inherently rewarding to a puppy, and so it takes a lot of conditioning to break it. You have already found that negative reinforcement alone (the squirt of water) is not effective. Some of it is a function of the pup's age, and to some degree he may outgrow it.
I would take a two-pronged approach. First, I would teach leave it, and practice it often. Here's how I taught it, when Jack was only about 3 months old.
1) Play tug with favorite tug toy (I know some trainers say you should never play tug, but I disagree).
2) Wave treat in front of pup's nose.
3) Wait for pup to start to let go of tug and simultaneously say "Leave it" and then instantly "Good boy!" and treat.
4) Repeat once or twice, then move to
5) Play tug, then show treat WHILE SAYING "leave it". Again, reward and treat. After a few times, move to:
6) Play tug, then say "leave it!" At which point, pup should be associating the words with the treat, and instantly let go of the toy. Then reward lavishly and treat. It only took me about 10 minutes to train "Leave it" with this method. I never had a problem with tug turning into aggression, as long as the game always ended with the dog willingly giving up the toy and me getting to keep it.
Now that the dog knows what "leave it" means, practice it often. If he has a tennis ball, picks up a stick, is chewing on a Nylabone, say "Leave it" very cheerfully, reward and treat.
After the dog is reliable, then you can move to intermittent treat reward (always give verbal reward). Again, though, if my dog finds a real prize (say, heaven forbid, I drop a piece of chocolate) and he leaves it, I ALWAYS give a treat reward, even now, to keep his motivation high.
Step 2 is correction. At seven months, corrections should still not be harsher than a calm and firm "No" or "I said Leave It".
For Step 2, you will need to leave a leash on your pup so you can catch him. If a dog is running loose with a leash, it goes without saying that you can't leave them alone for even 2 minutes, because in that time pup can hang himself.
So, pup has not let earned his "loose in house" privilege and is now on "loose with leash in house" privilege. Sequence of events is:
Pup grabs something that is not his and runs. You firmly say "leave it" Hopefully, pup complies and then you do your Happy Dog Dance and tell him how wonderful he is. Please note you are NOT rewarding his stealing something, but his leaving something, and THAT is what he will remember. You tell him how clever he is, and if it were me (I know you're opposed) he would get a nice treat because he's a Good Boy for leaving it!
Option two is that you say "leave it" and pup does not leave it. Pup runs. Then you simply grab the leash, give your firm but calm correction, and manually remove the object from pup's mouth. If he tries to snatch it back you can give a sharper "Ah-ah!" or whatever your verbal correction is.
Repeat often. It will take time. Stealing stuff is one of the most self-rewarding things a puppy can do. Practice often. Try putting something tempting, like one of his toys, on the floor and walk him by on the leash. Before you get within reach, say "Leave it, leave it" and try to see if he'll walk by on a loose lead. If he goes for it, give a short leash correction. If he walks by, praise him to the high heavens and then say "Ok, you can have it!" and play with him with it. If you are playing fetch, try saying "leave it" before you throw the toy, and put it down. Physically stop him if he goes for it, repeat the command, and when he leaves it tell him how good he is and use throwing the toy as a reward. If he has a favorite tennis ball, try keeping it so he does not have free access to it. Use that tennis ball as his reward if he leaves something else.
Mix it up, keep it fun. At this stage of training for a dog, reward should far outweigh corrections. Set him up to succeed by giving him lots of chances to "leave it" when you know you have his attention and he will listen.
Like I said, this one can be a lot of work. Eventually your dog should be able to sit in front of a piece of steak and "leave it" while you walk away, but that won't come for many many months yet.
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