Main causes of dog stealing things
Its hard to believe that your dog is a thief because of YOU !!
Your dog has TOO much energy, seems unruly and overly stimulated all of the time because:
- You dont walk them
- You take them for short walks on lead
- You take them for mid time walks on lead
- you dont take them to dog parks and let them run free.
The reason they are stealing stuff is that they are a proud noble breed, and you in your fancy urban environment gives them nothing to do.
They are not a cat or a small rodent, they need daily exciting off lead stimulation to exercise their brains and their bodies.
Once they have started their life of thievery – they will continue for a while even if you burn off energy. They are continuing on from the inquisitive nature of a puppy often, and they love the small or texture or crunch of what they are ripping into.
Even if they are over teething, they will still find some smells and things in their mouth irresistible.
Sometimes the stealing things can be because they are insecure and they miss you – again seperation anxiety is often cureed by large doses of off lead dog walks before you go to work.
It could be a mental issue, that needs medication, but in the vast majoryt of cases, its about the dog having burned its energy.
HOW TO STOP YOUR DOG THEIF
If you have valuables obviously lock them up and put them out of site, secure the thing you put them behind as their nose will still know it is there.
If you have an indoors dog, because of security (you dont want them stolen) or because the weather is too hot or too cold – dont punish them by putting them outside.
Walk them more, play with them when you can when you come home, and let them know when a game is officially over.
You can leave a lot more attractive robust rubber squeaky dog toys around as a substitute to wrecking your things – and you will soon find out if its about your scent and your things or the need to just have fun because they still have energy to burn.
You can put bad tasting things like chilli on the thing you dont want them to steal if practical, but you don’t want to hurt your dog .. so for the time being if they are inside, rope off an area where they are allowed. Give them a doggy door so they can poop outside if need be.