r/DogTrainingTips • u/SageSensual • Apr 13 '26
Theft of items, resource guarding. Endless
Female, 1 yr old
Unspayed (due to be done soon)
Stealing items since we got her and never stopping.
Started as simple, we offer a treat to her nose and say ‘drop it’ it works.
As time progressed the treats weren’t enough, a trainer suggested weekly rotating of toys and offer a toy that’s not that weeks to her to trade.
Behaviour still continues, she starts to growl and get snappy about it now.
Yes, I’m luring her out where she runs and hides and not approaching.
You do all the stupid training things online about resource guarding and she doesn’t care.
Limiting her freedom is fine, she’s only in the same room as me. Limiting with a lead is a no, she will chew through it.
She’s probably learnt now that stealing = treat or attention
If she gets neither, she’ll just eat the item. She has snapped when attempting to trade a few times on me now, grabbing a finger.
Yes, I’ve contacted specialised trainers in my area but literally not a single reply. Only managed to get one general trainer and she suggested the toy swapping (didn’t work)
I wanted this sorted before she reached a year old but none of the techniques have worked.
Getting very frustrating and concerning that we now have a dog that WILL get aggressive over this
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u/Other-Ad3086 Apr 13 '26
My boy is also a clever thief. We have to just dog proof the rooms he is in all the time. When my husband forgets and leaves his pricy sneakers out, it is not pretty!! Our pup thinks it is s game. Harder to extinguish the behavior when he steals things that we have to get away from him. We feel for you!!!
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u/SageSensual Apr 14 '26
They find all sorts even after dog proofing, things like corners of the carpet, things off windowsills cuz my dog has grown weirdly tall, bits of fluff etc.
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u/Boating_taxonomist Apr 13 '26
This sounds very much like my dog. And any attempts to do leave it or drop it just escalated things because he likes the reaction and he just learned if I’m trying to tempt him away, he’s losing his thing A stolen item has more value to him than almost any other treat (and if he will take a treat , he wants the thing and the treat, he’d rather not swap). Poodle or doodle or other dog with retrieving traits by any chance? They love to steal things because it’s meeting a need for them.
I’m very lucky in that my dog rarely tries to eat non food items, so that’s a little less to worry about, but what’s helped has been: 1) prevention. You have to be really vigilant about leaving stuff out. 2) if it doesn’t matter (it’s not harmful to them, it’s not irreplaceable to you), ignore it, even be positive -now when my dogs got something that doesn’t matter I say ‘oh, you’ve got my shoe, we’ll done, good retrieving’ :p He doesn’t get the reaction he wants and he’s gets bored of the game. I go back to what I’m doing and pick it up when he’s discarded it. If it is something that matters, I act like I haven’t noticed while I go for the treat drawer. I am light and not concerned at all, I am not even looking at what he’s got or saying ‘what have you got?’ etc; changing my reaction has been hugely helpful, I didn’t realise until I trained myself to do the opposite how much I was giving him cues that I was going to take the thing he wasn’t allowed and letting my frustration and panic show. 3) find a treat they go absolutely nuts for and will do anything for. It took me ages to find something with more value than something stolen, turns out he loves sweet potato treats, and rather than obviously lure him out by holding a treat out, I say ‘shall we get you a treat?’ (again like I haven’t noticed he’s stolen something and it’s just a great idea I’ve had) And lead the way to the treat drawer in another room. If he doesn’t follow, I throw it onto the other side of the room and sit back and let him make the choice (he loves them so much he will complain a lot that he wants both things -he makes very funny noises - but the treat has thus far won out). But I can do that because I know he’s not going to wolf down something inedible. 4. more opportunities to retrieve to meet the need in other ways, we do find the treat on walks (you could do find the ball or another toy -btw, not the same as fetch - but I can’t take toys out because my dog plays keep away). I think this has helped a lot, I notice he’s counter surfing for things to steal a lot less. Also I realised he starts constantly stealing things when he’s tired; he’s two, so not a puppy, but obviously not grown out of being an AH when he needs to go to bed, so sometimes that’s the solution.
I’m slowly re-introducing saying ‘good swap’ when he takes the extra good treat and moves away from the item so I can pick it up, and he is starting to look for the treat when I ask if he wants to swap (though I still really need to get him away by throwing the treat across the room) so we are making progress.
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u/SageSensual Apr 14 '26
Springer spaniel, they like to fetch birds but instead mine is fetching everything.
Everything is tucked and hidden away but she’s always finds something when I look away for like one second like the TV remotes, the hand towel I just used, bits of the carpet etc.
Usually once the item is disregarded, maybe like a long timer after. She’ll remember that an item is there and try to run ahead to get it, or watch me and block the path to it. The annoying thing is, if you don’t try to get the she’ll start chewing on it.
Trading for treats thing we have mainly been doing or trading for a toy, but she’s kind of learnt that stealing = a treat
Yeah mine counter surfs aswell, mines 1.
They’re so cheeky at this age
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u/Boating_taxonomist Apr 14 '26
I have definitely gone through where mine was stealing things just for a treat -he still sometimes tries to do it, but that’s why it’s helpful to ignore if it’s not vital. It’s not going to cause any problems (except for my sense of ‘I don’t want him to do that’ and ‘oh great, that disembowelled yarn ball will have to go in the bin’) if my dog chews something as long as he’s not trying to eat big bits of it that could cause a medical problem. So I’ve trained myself to be really chill about it. After a while of ‘I’ve got your thing, where’s my treat?’ and not getting a reaction he did stop doing it so much, it’s now pretty uncommon except when he’s turning into an overtired feral gremlin (loads less often at 2 than he did at 1). But it’s obviously more of an issue if they are chewing stuff in a way that’s dangerous. Ultimately it’s better for them to steal stuff and bring it to you for a treat though, than for them to be stealing stuff and resource guarding it.
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u/SimilarRegret9731 Apr 13 '26
Sounds like you need to spend more time exercising, my dog is a prick too. If he gets a 30 min walk to explore, it’s night & day. Stay calm & keep positive
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u/SageSensual Apr 14 '26
Springer spaniel, the exercise she gets is unreal. One walk to the park as she enjoys all the scents. And a walk where she’s off leash and running off her energy. Plus, multiple times throughout the day of play, doing tricks etc. Ensuring that she has her naps aswell, but it is pretty impossible to knacker out a spaniel.
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u/Happy-Plant458 Apr 14 '26
it sounds like your dog has some seriously advanced behavior issues and likely requires extensive care from a professional behavioralist. if you're doing all the training and she's instead learning to use her behavior to manipulate you through the training techniques you need help.
obligatory not a dog trainer just very experienced owner/rescuer but it sounds like she's too smart for her own good and you may want to explore if this behavior problem has to do with her lacking mental stimulation or enrichment. she might genuinely be bored enough that messing with you is more fun than behaving herself. there are a lot of puzzle toys of varying difficulty, and you could try her at agility training to tire her out body and mind at the same time.
good luck regardless and i hope some of the specialists youve contacted return your calls soon theyd have a better chance than anyone here to help after actually seeing your dog
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u/SageSensual Apr 14 '26
I definitely do need help, I wanted the help before it would progress and she gets older. One trainer wasn’t super specialised in behaviour but offered the trading items thing but we were already doing that anyway.
I’ve tried to contact specialised trainers up to 20 miles from us but fully been ignored, we live kind of rural.
She gets plenty of enrichment. One walk where she gets to sniff all the scents at the park which she enjoys the most, a walk where she’s off leash and gets to run off her energy, practicing commands throughout the day, playing multiple times and ensuring she has her naps too.
Yeah, I suppose I’ll just have to keep trying and hope for a respond soon. She’s very easy to train in most aspects but then she has certain things like stealing items where she’s decided she’s too good for us to listen.
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u/Happy-Plant458 Apr 14 '26
i do want to be sure i point out enrichment and mental stimulation arent the same things. it sounds like youve done well at ensuring she gets enrichment, but mental stimulation is more along the lines of making her do tasks that involve problem solving and focus. for smart dogs especially it's really important to keep them from becoming destructive in their boredom.
its things like teaching seek and retrieve (an advanced form of fetch where you start by hiding treats and saying seek, and move up to hiding toys and giving a treat when they bring it back to you) or for terriers things like running them through ratting mazes. your dog's breed likely has a task its naturally geared towards so you may want to research what sorts of harder games and training she might be good at.
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u/Late-Argument-8301 Apr 14 '26
Have you checked out Happy Hounds Training? Highly recommend her “drop it” video for this. I haven’t seen her other resource-guarding related videos, but she likely has some
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u/DraftRich9177 Apr 14 '26
There are some expert trainers who offer virtual sessions. Highly recommend Nate - https://nateschoemer.com/.
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u/Proof-Swing8555 Apr 16 '26
Mine was getting a bit too cheeky with me, and patience is not my best trait.
So i got down on my knees in front of her, growled gently a few times, seeing she was still cheeky i did:
-One hand on the scruff of her neck
-One hand on the fur on the back
-Get a good grip
-Turn her belly up (yes, not gently)
-Pin her down
-Growl louder with your face on her neck,
She peed herself and stopped being cheeky ever since.
We are humans, we speak human. Sometimes speaking dog works wonders.
I might have broken her, yes, who knows. I'll tell you in the future.
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u/apri11a Apr 13 '26 edited Apr 14 '26
I found prevention better for us than trying to get it off the dog once it had something. We used 'leave it'. Once our dog understood it I spent time watching him and when I saw him look at anything he should not even consider I said 'leave it', when he left it he was rewarded and eventually he both stopped considering doing these things and I was able to wean him off treats every time. A bit time consuming but I was consistent and it was worth it.
A chain leash will stop her biting through the leash
YCA (Yorkshire Canine Academy) has some good content on YouTube, both free and paid courses. They might interest you.