Our 6 month old black lab loves to carry things around in his mouth. Most often it is the acceptable toys we buy him but he loves to try get at the boots, our socks in the hamper when someone leaves the door open by error. we don't let him have free reign of the house - only certain rooms. Recently, in an attempt to curb him of this unacceptable behavior, i've barracades the boot area as well. However he still manages to get something he shouldn't have and he will make sure i see him, then run behind our rocking chair and peer out around the side and not come with the object. i used to try catch him cleverly but abandoned that right away as i seen this was a game to him. i now run to the cupboard and tell him mommy has a cookie or grab his toy bear and run away with it. i've been hoping this would stop his taking the object altogether and stop the hiding with toy bit. any other suggestions.

You are still rewarding him by giving him a cookie. Another toy is ok, but no food.

Michele,

I had a toy obedience dog with exactly the same problem as yours. Since 8 weeks old she has always found my boots and socks to be irresistable, maybe it's the smell <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" />

I had decided when she is 16 weeks old that searching all over for my boots and socks was not enjoyable. So what I did was laying all the boots and socks I can find in the house everywhere on the floor.

By then this puppy is already basic OB trained motivationally with food so she knows food comes as a reward following a praise. I first had her on leash from afar and slowly walked into the room with all the boots. The minute she saw all those smelly toys <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/tongue.gif" alt="" /> she bolted and was cought by surprise with the leash. I just stand there like nothing happened and looked up to the roof and when she looked up to me I smiled and give her a tiny reward and a good pett. This goes on from afar and done every day for 10 mins until she totally ignored the boots and stuff. Work the puppy nearer and nearer to the boot when there is improvement until perfect. Once you can get the puppy to ignore the items from far and near.

The second step is to divert the puppy attention with some basic OB command like sit, down, etc...nothing too serious. and this time start this from far end from the boots. Food Rewards must be big time jackpot on success and of course make sure by now use the food that she likes. Work nearer and nearer to the boots and always remember when you decrease the distance from the distraction always start and end with big jackpot. If the dog is still showing interest with the boots, you are too fast already...backoff to previous step.

When you can do that, comes the proving stage where you do your OB excercise from a distance offleashed and even better food and reward....getting nearer and nearer.

I can guarantee you this will be successful in max 2 weeks if you do it daily. Mine was successful in 1 week.

Remember, no compulsion from you. just hold the leash and act as nothing happened when the puppy pulled. Dont ever yank the line as this will kill any bond you had so hard created.

This may sound like a lot of work but by solving your boot problem, you had also done an important proving stage on your OB to be real solid. I call this killing 2 birds with one stone. All these will even increase your bonding, positive encouragement, no pain but joy for you and your puppy.

Hope this helps.

Thanks for your suggestions. I will try making your example part of my training.