Who stole the socks?

I've learned recently that Animal Planet has officially been ruined for me. While house sitting I was trying to kill some time before I had to get out of the house, so I turned on the television. After flipping through the channels I deemed that there was nothing on worth watching, so I turned to my old reliable favorite. However I only managed to get  about a minute into the show before I just had to turn it off.  The show was "Bad Dog!" and it was all about klepto canines. I watched clip after clip of dogs stealing random items from their owners and the owners chasing the dogs trying to get said item back. I cringed at every clip (and I only watched two and a half clips). I can't believe how many dog owners think that this behavior is funny and acceptable. When did it become funny for your dog to steal things?

Now don't get me wrong Pyrate and I enjoy the occasional game of chase. I do this as a reward because he absolutely hates playing fetch! It's like pulling teeth with him, so after a good round of fetch I will chase him around while he plays keep away. However, I never chased my dogs when they stole something! This is the worst thing you can do, because you just made it an incredibly fun game of keep away!

Two simple commands can keep situations like the klepto dogs from happening. A "leave it" command is key in getting the dog to stay away from whatever they like to steal. "Leave it" is a simple command that means exactly what it sounds like. The dog must leave it alone. Ideally this means even when you are not in the room; however, to get to that point means a lot of hard work and trust exercises. I always give the example of Pyrate. With him I can place a plate of food with in reach, tell him "Leave it" and walk out of the room for 10 min without worrying about my food disappearing. I am always met with disbelief of this feat, but I also explain this took 3 years to accomplish. Not only does it take a very long time to get to that point, but it also takes constant work. This meant when I left for a summer to go travel in the outback that my dog's training faltered. It took another couple of years to be able to trust him once more.

Not only do the dogs need to know "leave it," they also need to learn a "drop it" command. This is so we can get the items they stole back from their grips.

With two simple commands you can keep the dog from continuing stealing. By removing the fun from the game and by presenting alternate behaviors to get the attention they are seeking your dog no longer has to be a kleptomaniac.

I know that every client I have worked with thinks that their dog could never leave that sock let alone a tasty morsel! However, I've never had a dog come to me that didn't pick up the "leave it" command by the end of the lesson. Now don't get me wrong I have seen the dogs mess up on the "leave it," but it's through no fault of the dog. Usually, as the pet parent, we get too excited for our dogs to learn this wonderful command that we go a little to fast. Breaking the command up into stages works best for our dogs (just like any difficult task). Usually by the next week all the dogs in my class can leave everything we throw at them alone. I've had pet parents who have watched a class that was a week ahead and swore to me that their dog would never be able to do the same.  We can usually throw treats at the dogs, toys, paper, my treat pouch, just about anything until we have "land mines" everywhere. The dogs always surprise their owners in this exercise, because they are leaving everything they tell them to and even doing it at a distance! It's after this exercise that the pet parents start thinking their dogs can be as good at "leave it" as mine are with it!