Help with secret chewing
A little help on this would be greatly appreciated.
Tyson, as I've mentioned before, has a VERY hard mouth. I have 3-4 hard chew toys laying around the house for him to chew on when he wants. I have pretty much stopped giving him plush toys because he completely destroys them in a matter of two minutes and, truth be told, I hate cleaning up the fuzz all over the house. Things were copacetic with this arrangement until recently. My girlfriend has been spending more and more time at my house and she can be pretty scatter brained at times. I do my best go around and pick up her stuff or remind her to pick it up, but occasionally things slip through the cracks. So far she's down a bra, two pairs of underwear, four or five pairs of socks, and last night her favorite under armour jacket. That was the straw that broke the camel's back. The strange thing about this behavior is that Tyson won't touch my stuff if I leave it out. He seems to really like her---they snuggle together all the time.
Here's the rub. I've never actually caught him in the act. He always finds things in another room and chews them out of sight, so I can't interrupt and redirect him.
I do my best to limit his access. But given what has been lost, let's face it I'm not perfect at it. I feel like I need a two pronged approach to the problem. First, continue to try to limit his access to her stuff. Second, some training method I haven't thought of yet.
Here is what I dreamt up last night. First, I am going to start buying crap loads of the 2 for $1 plush toys from the store so he has an outlet for his desire to chew softer things. I'll just have to deal with cleaning up the mess. Second, I will try to construct teaching situations for him where I tempt him with an article of clothing left on the bed, and then encourage him to choose something else. I'm not too confident in this because he has never chewed anything in sight of me, so I don't think it will work.
Do you guys have any other ideas? Thanks!
Tyson, as I've mentioned before, has a VERY hard mouth. I have 3-4 hard chew toys laying around the house for him to chew on when he wants. I have pretty much stopped giving him plush toys because he completely destroys them in a matter of two minutes and, truth be told, I hate cleaning up the fuzz all over the house. Things were copacetic with this arrangement until recently. My girlfriend has been spending more and more time at my house and she can be pretty scatter brained at times. I do my best go around and pick up her stuff or remind her to pick it up, but occasionally things slip through the cracks. So far she's down a bra, two pairs of underwear, four or five pairs of socks, and last night her favorite under armour jacket. That was the straw that broke the camel's back. The strange thing about this behavior is that Tyson won't touch my stuff if I leave it out. He seems to really like her---they snuggle together all the time.
Here's the rub. I've never actually caught him in the act. He always finds things in another room and chews them out of sight, so I can't interrupt and redirect him.
I do my best to limit his access. But given what has been lost, let's face it I'm not perfect at it. I feel like I need a two pronged approach to the problem. First, continue to try to limit his access to her stuff. Second, some training method I haven't thought of yet.
Here is what I dreamt up last night. First, I am going to start buying crap loads of the 2 for $1 plush toys from the store so he has an outlet for his desire to chew softer things. I'll just have to deal with cleaning up the mess. Second, I will try to construct teaching situations for him where I tempt him with an article of clothing left on the bed, and then encourage him to choose something else. I'm not too confident in this because he has never chewed anything in sight of me, so I don't think it will work.
Do you guys have any other ideas? Thanks!
Comments
Your training strategy sounds like a good approach. Maybe you could have your gf hold onto and cuddle with the toys to get her scent on them first before he chews on them. Good luck!
In addition to the cheap toys, try a brown paper sack from the grocery store. Solomon used to do the same stuff as a pup and one time, he got hold of a grocery bag. I was about 14 at the time, and my mom decided it was better to concede and clean up the occasional grocery bag than to wonder what that little peckerhead was going to destroy next. Good luck!
As it turns out, she had chewed a hole in my hamper and was pulling the clothing out of the hole. The way I found this out was the pair of pants. They were too big to pull through the hole, so they were hanging half out with a nice hole in the leg. Grr.
I got a new hamper and put it in the closet.
BUT... I also purposely left a pair of socks on the floor in the room that I was occupied. I would pretend to be doing something else... She would sneak in (she really did sneak, it was SO cute) to steal it. As soon as she put her mouth on it, I said "AH AH" and redirected her to a plush toy for her to chew and praised when she put the toy in her mouth. After a couple of days, she stopped going for the socks.
Have you tried clicker training her? She may be less-likely to forget her stuff if you reinforce her for picking it up. :oP
----
I'm sure your girlfriend is really sweet, but the problem does seem to be hers a bit too. Can you clicker train her to make sure to pick up her dirty socks? :-) Use lots of positive reinforcement, and if you have to CM her with an alfa roll.
And @tjbart17... LMAO at the CM Alpha Roll...
We correct her when she does it and it seems to go better now, but then again she doesnt do it sneaky and she's still very young..
Sunyata's idea looks like it could work, good luck!
ETA: See, slinking off with Bella's lamb:
I think it's time to put this house on lockdown.
Yes it sounds like lockdown is inevitable.
Sorry that you're not feeling well.
Mostly, I have to admit I was just laughing reading all the responses here, with all the "resourcefulness" of these NKs who manage to get the things they want in the most creative ways! Casey, the chewing a hole in the hamper was the best story yet!
Bel used to steal things but didn't chew them, but since she took them outside, where they get lost in the woods, was effectively the same thing. Somewhere I like to imagine there is a stash of socks, underwear, and the occasional t-shirt that Bel has stolen. She did once steal a brandnew bra of mine (I was NOT happy) but I managed to catch her as she ran through the yard with it hanging from her mouth like a banner. It was relatively undamaged....