Sweet dog or naughty dog?

[nymph]

It's been puzzeling us for a while now. On some days, Diego is this super sweet dog, so well behaved, other days, he's this neurotic evil dog!

Yesterday while we were attending the prenatal care class, he chewed my remote control! Batteries and everything! We actually deliberately leave a basket of papers just in case he gets bored and feels the urge to chew. In addition he has all these chew toys lying around in the house.

It's not like he doesn't understand chewing remote control is a bad bad thing. When we came back and saw the mess, he KNEW he was naughty, turned his head waaaaaaaaaaaaay back when I picked up the chewed remote and showed it to his face (it was actually pretty funny, but I had to remain serious). He went into his crate voluntarily and stayed there for a good 45 minutes to an hour. He has been super sweet since then.

So my question is: how do we enforce the rules around the house? It's not like he doesn't know the rules, he does and very well, but he breaks the rules once in a while anyway. And why does he break the rules? He gets plenty of exercise: he now jogs in the morning with daddy, and all three of us go for walk at night. On weekends he gets to play fetch and swimming. So why is he acting like this? Is this the dog's rebellious stage?

[Melinda]

welcome to the world of parenthood, they are just like kids....in my opinion anyways, kids know whats right and wrong...and usually follow the right path...but every once in awhile something just gets toooo tempting...and bam, if anyone has an answer on how to enforce the rules...I"m all ears!!

[Angeleyes]

I think ignoring their request for affection is the best way to "punish" a dog. After they do something wrong they are DYING for your affection to know that everything is okay. I think if you let them wait to get some loving/forgiveness without acknowledging them for a little bit (hour or so) it will be a good way for them to remember that what they did was wrong. Truly though, I think the method that works best varies from dog to dog.

I do know that Maximus become noticably devastated if we deny him affection- so it works perfectly for him.

[jessi76]

Originally Posted by nymph

Yesterday while we were attending the prenatal care class, he chewed my remote control! Batteries and everything! We actually deliberately leave a basket of papers just in case he gets bored and feels the urge to chew. In addition he has all these chew toys lying around in the house.

I think leaving things that are NOT toys for him to chew on "in case he gets bored" is sending a mixed signal. Honestly, I'd put tempting items up out of reach when you leave, and only leave his toys out. if you remove the temptation, he's less likely to get into trouble. his usual toys simply aren't as fun as your remote control. maybe get a couple new toys, that he only gets when you leave, and rotate them. hide them when you're home. so each time you leave, it's as if he's getting a new toy to keep him interested.

[Angeleyes]

ooooh! Ooooh!! I like Jessi's advice!

[nymph]

We did that last night, but it was sooooooooooooo hard!

Usually we'd feed Diego some watermelon when we are having it, but we didn't do it last night and he was drooling all over the place. Moving around the kitchen counter trying to grab our attention and sitting quietly like a good boy with his eager eyes staring right at us.

Then we usually cuddle before going to bed, and we didn't do that either. He was following me around, literally dying for affection, I would have caved in, but DH warned me repeatedly not to touch him or everything we did last night would be out of the window. So I went to bed without cuddling with Diego.

He is however super sweet today. Usually he would play with the leash for a short while when DH takes him jogging, he didn't do that at all. And when we were having breakfast, he didn't come begging for food, but rather stayed quietly under the table. So maybe the starvation of affection is working.

[Toby and Tracy]

I've come to realize that Toby doesn't destroy things because he is so well trained, but because I AM!! I just don't leave stuff out for him to get all curious about and make sure he has lots of his own toys and treats around to keep him busy.

The other night I did not leave anything particularily exciting to play with AND I left a small garbage bag hanging from a kitchen drawer...so I found canteloupe rinds on the couch.

How can I get mad?

[Toby and Tracy]

Originally Posted by nymph

Usually we'd feed Diego some watermelon when we are having it, but we didn't do it last night and he was drooling all over the place. Moving around the kitchen counter trying to grab our attention and sitting quietly like a good boy with his eager eyes staring right at us.

Then we usually cuddle before going to bed, and we didn't do that either. He was following me around, literally dying for affection, I would have caved in, but DH warned me repeatedly not to touch him or everything we did last night would be out of the window. So I went to bed without cuddling with Diego.

I really don't see how this will address the situation you described...do you think he actually knew why all of a sudden you weren't sharing watermelon anymore?

Withholding affection needs to last only a few seconds! Any longer loses the point. This is something I learned when we were in training.

Really, for destruction that happens when you are away (small scale, like the remote control), the best thing is to clean it up and make sure you keep things you care about out of his way.

[Angeleyes]

When Maximus was a puppy I worked from home and Keith worked nights... so no matter what we were always with him. I always said that I would never allow myself to have to constantly worry about leaving something out for my dog to ruin. So ever since Maximus was a puppy I would purposely leave those "tempting" things around so I could correct him before actually doing anything. Of course this had to be conditioned from a very young age- but Maximus never chewed anything he wasn't supposed to. Well- except for that bra incident but that was Keith's fault for turning them into a "toy".

See, I have my in house training down pat... in a controlled environment I'm very confident with positive reinforcement training/methods. It's outside/uncontrolled environments that are my weakness.

[nymph]

Oh Jessie, I like your rotating toy idea! My only problem is that Diego is a BIG chewer, if I don't get a durable toy, he'd destroy them in seconds, and durable toys are 1) not really durable under Diego's teeth, and 2) those that are truly durable are soooooooooo expensive, and he gets bored with them since he can't destroy them. Where do I get cheap toys like stuffed animals? He loves those!

I have a slightly different opinion regarding sending mixed signals, but I don't believe Diego's confused about what he can or cannot chew, he knows PERFECTLY well that somethings are just off limit to him. His behaviors following the bad incident clearly show that he knows he shouldn't have done that, yet he does it anyway, that's what I don't understand.

I also notice that, to some degree, on days that he expects us to spend time with him but we don't, he gets extra naughty. Like last night, usually we'd walk him after dinner, but we had to hurry to the class, so he made all that mess within 2 hours. During the day when he knows we are going to be out working, he's perfectly OK with that. This is a generalization, it doesn't happen all the time.