Stopping a thief
 

Any tips on how to stop a dog from sneaking into my room to steal handphone socks? Or better yet, how to make a dog leave the hp sock alone?

My dog loves hp socks coz he chews them up. He has demolished all but one in the flat.
Same thing happens with fluffy toys. But we keep them outta his sight.

But hp socks are a bit of a prob. Coz I usu leave them on my bedside table (which is low enuff for my dog to reach). And more unfortunately for me, I have a door of the plastic, sliding kind. It's very easy for my dog to open. So usu in the mornings, when i'm nt in my rm, he'll sneak into my room to get his paws on a hp sock.

Well, I tried one thing and it works but I'm not sure if you'd like to try my way hahah.... Try and sprinkle some pepper powder on the sock. Dogs hate the spicy smell and taste and usually after a few chews, they won't repeat the chewing coz they remember the smell and taste.

Sigh... not reallie working leh. Anything else I can try? ;)

The best is to keep the dog out of the room.
Alteratively you'll have to correct the dog each and every time you see the dog exhibiting an objectionable behaviour. Also always provide the dog with a dog chew that he likes.

actually u can talk to ur dog..somemore u hv to communicate wh him.u just treat them like ur child then u will know the effect.but of course hv to take some times la..and when every time he is notty,u cannot scold him,u just can tell him wat he did is wrong and dont do again ..i hope my experience can help u.... :)

my sister does that a lot. she will even show him the stuff he stole. :bigsmile:

but i guess it takes time. nowadays i try a modified carrot n stick method on him to retrieve the stuff he stole. seems to work, coz in the past, he won't surrender it. he'll just shred the loot to pieces.

so when he grabs a slipper and won't let go, we bring him into a room and close the door. i'll ask my mum n sister to talk excitedly n loudly outside the room, so he'll want to go out to play (they're his fac playmates).

then i open the door slightly to tempt him. he comes to the door n i try to take slipper away. if he won't let go, i close the door and smack him on his butt (gently of course). then he'll walk away from door with the slipper.
so i repeat the process. and when i see him put down the slipper, i open the door wide. if he grabs the slipper to run towards the door, i close door again. eventually, he gets the idea tt he can only get out if he surrenders his loot.

and this is becoming easier as time goes by. he takes less than 5 minutes to surrender slippers now.

I tried never to reprimand my dogs with force or loud yelling. Every time they misbehave or do anything that they specifically know that I do not like (intentionally and not in a playing mode), I restrict their freedom by placing them in their cage for fifteen or twenty minutes. It took about 3 months for them to realize that every time they do something that I do not want them too, they will get stuck in the cage for a while.

Try it if you like. Either that or buy two socks every time you buy a new phone sock. :D

haha... but now he is stealing socks. It's terrible when someone comes home. That's when he gets excited.