Lucky for me, when I added my first dog to my household I was great friends with an amazing behavioural trainer, my mate Vix. Along with many other fantastic tricks of the trade (crate training, clickers and The Other End of the Leash), she also taught me the value of teaching dogs not to snatch things dropped on the floor, to protect them from butterfingered friends and relatives and paracetamol and the like. But it’s only now I have three dogs, that I realise the competitive urge to gobble is huge and it’s an absolute blessing to have trained in a bit of restraint (if you’ve ever banged heads with a golden retriever you’ll know where I’m coming from).
A similar thing developed quite naturally; if you (dog) have something you’re not meant to, I’ll take it from you and give you a treat. Which quickly became; if you have something you’re not meant to, bring it to me and I’ll get you a treat. Which has been great, like the time when Cisco was about 5 months old and he found a flatmates acupuncture needles and he delicately brought them to me rather than crunch up the packet. And when any of them find loose socks rather than quietly chewing the toes out, they bring them and drop them on my lap; ‘Here mum, I’m not meant to have this – where’s my treat?’. Pretty clever, eh?
But it seems my LOL (little old lady) has gotten crafty in her dotage. Today I’m thinking ‘weird that was on the floor, I thought it was on the cupboard’ as she brings me a button , then a clothes peg, then a battery. Then a pen lid. Then a bracelet.
Hangon a minute! I follow her. Turns out she’s sneaking about looking on counters for things she can nick and then bring me all, wasn’t it lucky I found this!
What?
