Anonymous wrote:When we adopted our dog, we were instructed that if he took something he wasn’t supposed to have, we should trade him a high value treat for the item. How do you stop a smart dog from making the connection and stealing items to get a HVT? I guess you only make the trade if the item he’s taken is dangerous? So as long as OP’s dog doesn’t eat socks, they’re not a threat and she shouldn’t trade to get them back?

I think you are only supposed to use that as a stop gap. Meanwhile you train your dog on commands like leave it and drop it so they know that they are supposed to drop things they shouldn’t have. Eventually the dog understands what is theirs and what is not and that they get better treats for being a good boy so you don’t need to play this game.

Also if my dog takes something he shouldn’t have and then refuses to drop it, I just pry open his jaws and take it. I can understand why that’s not a great option with all dogs but it’s not an issue with my docile soft mouthed retriever. Weirdly he never does this with items on the house — only with pieces of paper and carbonara he finds on the road. He’s obsessed with sidewalk cardboard.

My dog would not be smart enough for this.

My spaniel growing up definitely would do this. He would steal something and go under the table waiting to trade it for something good. If you brought him something crappy, he would decline. I had this whole thing with him where I would put the treat slightly out of his reach and we could put the item under his paw and we would both try to figure out who was faster —if I could grab the item and get the treat back before he could grab the treat. If I put the treat too far, he wouldn’t go for it. know this is terrible training but I was only 4 when we got him and he had my grandmother gojng in circles with this puppy extortion of his.