Quote: connie sutherland

 Quote: angela burrell

Let me understand if I got this. The dog steals your things, wants you to chase him, so you DO chase him?

That grabbed me, too. Why would you train the dog that you will join in the chasing game?

I should add that when Marley (I know, but I did not name him ) has something I do not want he would love nothing more than the "chase me" game. I trade him for something he can have and do not give in to the chase game.

Trading out for a toy your dog can have works wonders and even with a lab, they learn what is acceptable and what is not.

 Quote: Jinn Schmitz

Everyone has some great advice, I'm not that experienced, but maybe use a lead line on a flat collar and not a prong. You can still use it to gain leverage without the corrections of a prong lead.

I have never had to use a prong on a lab. They work and learn well in a flat collar and a short lead as a drag line.
Although we use an e-collar with this one for training on birds.

Keep away is my least favorite game of all games dogs play!

I chose the bring me something, get rewarded route. I had reasons for this with my SAR training as well. (I know not all SAR folks allow dogs to pick up articles, but we do in Canada).

As a pup if he picked something up, I encouraged him to bring it to me. I treated him in the begining, played with the item if it was acceptable/safe (stray glove found on a walk for example).

My dog does now bring me things when he is soliciting play. (I no longer reward this with food.) But now the play will be on my terms. When my dog brings me a pencil, ball cap, spool of thread, his dog bed...etc..I usually just tell him "thank you", and take it from him and put it away. If it is a good time to play I will take out an appropriate toy and do some fun stuff. If it is not a good time to play I tell him to "go lay down".

Just what worked for me. Like I said...I LOATH keep-away games. (Unless put on cue, like we play "I"M GONNA GET YOU" and then I will chase my dog, then we reverse things and I run away and he chases me. All this is done with a toy in his mouth.)

Yes, I have tried the Ignoring the situation as stated in my first post.

Natalya, "Drop it" and "bring it" is something my boy does on command, IF theres a treat. I have failed miserably at getting him to "drop it" in regular play without treats. Therefore, He still gets lots of treats during a game of fetch. He's got the basic Obedience commands of Sit, Stay, Down and Come that work almost all of the time even under distractions. I;m proud of that. And I didn't mention the Praise he gets but he Definately gets a pat and hears "Good boy" alot more than "No".

I have also tried to get him to drop the Item using another toy Trying to play with him with another toy was successfull at the beginning, but its like he now knows that I'm just using the Ball or bone to distract him. I get him excited about it, throw his ball, he looks at it and hovers over his stolen item. He Really wants me to get that Item he has sotlen, and Yes; I fall right into his little plan and chase him everytime. What else can I do' He has an Item that could hurt him if I Let him chew it upwhich he will gladly do right in front if me.
More play is a good Idea. In fact I guess I should know this as sometimes I have taken himon a walk before yard work and a tried Puppy IS a Good Puppy.
Thanks I appreciate the responses.

 Quote: aric_stack

I get him excited about it, throw his ball, he looks at it and hovers over his stolen item.

I would not throw the toy you are using to "trade" with. He has to bring the item he is not supposed to have to you, or drop it and come to you, in order to get the "trade" toy.
He is seeing the "oh look what I can get Dad to do" as his game and now you need to turn it around and make it a "this is way more fun than what you stole" game.
It will take time, but have patience and make sure that whatever you do, it is WAY more fun than what he is doing at the time.

Aric, (owner of a black lab) one of the things that I found that works really well is to find a toy he REALLY likes. The important thing here is to TEACH him the word "TOY" Go get your toy!!!Where's your toy?!! The excitement in your voice will get him to drop whatever he has and run off looking for the toy. Thing is, you will have to throw said toy or engage for a second or two w/him or else he will get wise and not go get his toy anymore, lol

 Quote: aric_stack

He's got the basic Obedience commands of Sit, Stay, Down and Come that work almost all of the time even under distractions. I;m proud of that. And I didn't mention the Praise he gets but he Definately gets a pat and hears "Good boy" alot more than "No".

That's great Aric! - a lot of people DON'T get this far, and since you didn't mention a lot of prelim training in your original post, I thought it wouldn't hurt to get it out there... but you're obviously doing quite well, you just have a bouncing, full of beans puppy on your hands!

All of the other suggestions here (except perhaps playing fetch with lawn chairs ...) have been really good, and unfortunately, some of these obnoxious behaviors you just have to be patient and work with until the dog is really a mature, happy adult who can actually fathom being still and taking naps for large portions of the day! It's trying, but if you always make an effort to keep him on the right track, he'll grow into a respectful and well behaved adult. It's a lot like raising kids, so I've heard.

~Natalya

 Quote: aric_stack

"Drop it" and "bring it" is something my boy does on command, IF theres a treat. I have failed miserably at getting him to "drop it" in regular play without treats. Therefore, He still gets lots of treats during a game of fetch.

You can chain the fetch thing.

Start by teaching "give," when he puts the item into your hand or at your feet or whatever you are going for. This will be a whole separate thing, with markers and rewards. THEN you combine it with fetch.

Also, I would phase out treats very gradually (and actually never 100%). So you might get really good compliance, and then treat 8 out of 10, and so on, but RANDOM ORDER. Eventually, you are treating randomly only.

Ok Thank you; I can see how I can take the toy Idea further. The Toys he Likes the Most are the ones I do Not leave lying around because he'll destroy them; The Firehose toy and the Firehose type material frisbee. (These toys are supposed to be tough but he doesn't think they are so tough). He likes These toys so much that sometimes he does not "Bring it". I'll have to use treats, or we'll be back in the same situation, and then play with him a while.

Toy + Treats are more fun than my underwear, for him I'm pretty sure. In Fact; I allready know that treats alone work but I'd like to add the toy in and see if later I can eliminate treats.

Puppys take alot of planning and work.

Hey Aric,

I've got a 16 month old high-drive male Lab and what you're describing sounds all too familiar. You've gotten excellent advice from all the "pros".

What Carol said about a prong collar has been my experience as well. Other than using it on walks I don't find it useful for training pruposes.

I did find using an ecollar to be very helpful with improving my dog's "out". A few sessions with the collar on low-level stim and my dog will out anything I ask him to...even those forbidden items he can't seem to help snatching.

My dog was initially treat-crazy and less toy-driven. With some work, such as Connie described, it turned around and toys are now the center of his universe.

If it makes you feel better, I wouldn't leave my dog inside or outside without supervision. He's not trustworthy yet...still has very much a "kid" mentality even though he's a big 85lb boy. As Natalya pointed out, they don't really become mature until about 2.5-3 years.

They DO take a lot of work, but I'll bet you get "puppy amnesia" and start thinking about getting another one before you know it.