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When my puppy has something he thinks I might take from him, he runs away with it. Most recently it was the paper cup from a frozen dog treat. He never growls and once he knows I have him, he lets me take it. I just worry that he will get a hold of something dangerous (we ran across 2 dead mice this AM on our walk and I don't know what killed them; maybe poison) and play the game. Do puppies outgrow it normally, or do I need to teach him to give it up?
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Hanna B.
When my puppy has something he thinks I might take from him, he runs away with it. Most recently it was the paper cup from a frozen dog treat. He never growls and once he knows I have him, he lets me take it. I just worry that he will get a hold of something dangerous (we ran across 2 dead mice this AM on our walk and I don't know what killed them; maybe poison) and play the game. Do puppies outgrow it normally, or do I need to teach him to give it up?
You definitely need to teach your pup the "leave it" command. This is really imporant in cases such as the dead mice you saw. He won't know if it's an OK thing to have or not -- everything is fine to a puppy -- so you need to teach him to "leave it" or "drop it," whatever "it" is.
This is a typical dog game - keepaway. I am not a trainer but have heard trainers say this is not a good practice b/c it makes your dog the leader. With my dogs, they know the word 'drop' so if they have something they should not have, one command is all they need to hear to leave it alone. Another command I leaned in my petsmart class was the word 'leave it' which means do not pick it up, walk past it. Otherwise, we can play keep away and they know it is a game. To lean 'drop' I had them on the leash (so they could not take off with the item) and gave them a toy. I would say 'drop' ( I may have to say it a couple of times until they made the connection) until it was dropped. Then, they received a reward - with mine it was a small piece of dog treat, chicken, etc. Once they learned the command to drop, then I could play keep away with them and they knew the difference. We could play keep away until I said 'drop' then they dropped the toy, I picked it up and gave them praise. Hope that helps.
Try to teach him to leave it or drop but if that doesn't work very well you can always show him the trade command. Find something he likes and try and get him to drop what he has for what you have and trade. It works well but ultimately you want him to try and teach him the leave it command.
I agree leave it and drop it are very important commands for dogs to learn. My dogs have found dead gophers, chicken bones and all sort of bad things on walks if I see it in time "leave it" stops them from touching it,if I do not notice and one picks it up the drop it command will get them to drop it and look back at it was they walk away ..dreaming of eating that great treasure!
Your Puppy is old enough to learn these as even a 8 week old puppy can learn commands. Don't play the chase puppy to get things away game as much as they may love the game just do not play it. Don't even play chase me to get a dog / puppy that does not come instead turn and run and make lots of happy-excited sounding noises if necessary to get them to chase you!
you definitely need to teach him "drop it" and "leave it". those are 2 of the most important commands. you don't want him to think that it's a game when you're trying to get something that could harm him out of his mouth.
at some point you can also teach him when it's ok to play keep away (when you say it's ok).
playing tug is actually a good way to teach "drop it", if your dog likes it - play tug with him and reward him when he happens to let go. when he's doing it more often, start saying "drop it" when he does.
then try saying "drop it" while he's tugging. if he doesn't drop it, either get the tug rope or toy away from him if you can and stop the game or gently hold his collar so he can't pull and the rope goes slack. he will probably let go - it takes all the fun out of it for him. stop the game for at least a couple of minutes, then try again. when he does drop it on command, give him a treat and give him the rope right back for more tug.
make it a rule of the game that if he doesn't drop it when he's told, the game ends. practice with whatever he tends to have in his mouth - toys, balls, whatever. randomly tell him to drop it then give him a reward (a treat, petting, a game of tug, other kinds of play) and give whatever he dropped right back. he'll learn quickly that there's no loss when he drops things for you, plus he gets a bonus.
"leave it" i taught my dog with luring, but there may be a better way that i don't know. i just tossed a treat or ball, said "leave it" and immediately presented her with a better treat from my hand. she's really solid on the command, so i guess it worked just fine!
I train my dogs to hunt, so one of the first things I teach them is the "drop" command. Most hunting dogs learn this command fairly quickly, some don't even need to be taught. When we play fetch they know they must either place the object they retrieved in my hand or drop it at my feet, or I won't throw the object again for them to fetch.
I seem to have better results with females. Males seem to be more possessive and are more reluctant to give up their "prize." Whereas the females seem to understand the "game" better. For the males I give them a treat, as an incentive. They can't take the treat from me unless they drop, whatever is in their mouth. If I have a particularly stuborn male dog, I will use a female I have already trained. When the male sees the female getting a treat when she drops the object at my feet or in my hand, the male usually begins to understand what is expected of him in order to get a treat.
Thanks a bunch for the advice. I have told him to leave it (in the case of the dead mice) and he seems to do OK with that. It is when he already has something when it is tougher. He seems to learn things fast, but he is stubborn and loves to play.
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8,309 posts, read 38,782,175 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Hanna B.
When my puppy has something he thinks I might take from him, he runs away with it. Most recently it was the paper cup from a frozen dog treat. He never growls and once he knows I have him, he lets me take it. I just worry that he will get a hold of something dangerous (we ran across 2 dead mice this AM on our walk and I don't know what killed them; maybe poison) and play the game. Do puppies outgrow it normally, or do I need to teach him to give it up?
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