Toy Obsession

[sugar]

Maryellen, I'm def. planning on doing the two-week shutdown ( to give him time to adjust), but yeah the trainer said no toys (or else Chubs would use it too much as a crutch and really delay his adjustment period).

[sugar]

So i gave him a black Kong (shelter said rubber toys were his fav, next to the soft rippable ones). He was like a little crackhead (his eyes got soooooo wide and time stood still,lol). He seemed too hyped up so I put it on the counter until he calmed down a bit. Then I gave it to him, and he tried to run away with it at first but I kept the leash near me. He settled down and began to chew like crazy. Periodically I offered him bits of cheese, but only if he dropped the toy and sat down (which he did!!!)
Occasionally I would hold the treat in one hand and hold the toy with the other and at first he would cover the toy with his chin, but eventually he would look down at my hand touching the toy and would stay in the sit anyway to get the cheese. He would then bat it around and didn't care if it rolled over to me. I gently pushed it with my foot and we could pounce on it and roll it around again. At one point he looked up at me and smiled! He SMILED! I have never seen him do that and I seriously almost cried.
At the end of the night I showed him a bit of ham and began walking upstairs to my room (where his crate is) and he droped the toy (and left it downstairs) to follow me and when he got into the crate he got the ham.
To be fair he did bark for a bit in his crate last night (20 minutes around 12am, so my folks weren't too happy) but this was such a huge day for both of us. He used to never ever ever let go of toys at the shelter, and would freak out if he couldn't carry one everwhere. And he just left it. I'm on cloud nine today,lol.

[suziriot]

Sugar, that is AWESOME! Good job doing the trade off with him. Just taking the toy away without offering something of high value to him would be really negative and just make his toy obsession worse or even lead to resource guarding. Sounds like you are doing a really good job of paying attention to his behaviors and learning to read him. Chubbs is so lucky to have you!

[loverocksalot]

Wow Good Job Chubs and Sugar.

[sugar]

Any tips on how to proceed with getting Chubs to "leave it" when he has a prized toy?
Yesterday we passed a bunch of kids playing basketball on our walk and Chubby yanked me over to the fence and just sat very quietly and very very still watching the ball (and bouncing his head at the same time to ball bounced). He wouldn't take treats from me at all and it was a big old hassle to pull him back to our walking route away from the bouncing ball.
Same this happened this morning one a walk. Different area. Kids playing basketball (they also had a little white dog tied up on a leash) and Chubs was pulling with all his might (and he has might!) to get over to the ball (the kids thought he wanted the little dog). I finally get him away and walking and about 50 yards up the sidewalk I notice the little dog was following me and Chubby! I tried to grab the little dog (sidewalk right near busy street) but he would back away to I had to stand on his leash while trying to wave down these kids (Chubby, being the gentleman he is could care less about the dog, still trying to look for the ball!)
One kid finally runs over "OMG, I'm so sorry. I didn't know he got away from us" and I just smiled and said "Its ok, no worries just be careful to tie him up tighter". Then the kid looked at Chubs uneasy and I told him "He's dog friendly, its your ball he really wants"
With that the kid laughed and said he could see that now, and then took his dog back to the basketball area.

Now, while he was very good around the other dogs (he was about 6-8 inches away from this doggie), he is NOT good around balls, or toys we find on walks. What can I do do get him less nutso about this stuff (also if you have a toy he wants and aren't being careful you can get "sharked"). Normally if I have the toy, I make him sit-stay (with the toy right in front of his snout) and he will wait until I say "ok" so I know he has the potential to learn.

[maryellen]

try something like hamburger , steak, chicken, something REALLY high value that he never gets ..

[sugar]

Thx, but also how do I stop the "sharking"? I just fear that one day he will see something he wants and try and grab it and it be known as a "unprovoked vicious pitbull attack", you know?
He once got a basketball in my house (before I knew how bad it was, also me thinking "its not like its small enough for him to put his mouth on" and ripped it to shreds in minutes) so I know its not a "I want to play" thing.
Like how to do desensitize him? Or is that even the right way to go?

[maryellen]

you can teach him patience, its going to take some time, since this is all new to him so you are going to have to go slow.. just because he shreds something doesnt mean he doesnt want to play... some dogs love to destroy toys, hell rufus can destroy a stuffed toy in less then 3 minutes (i have timed him lol)..
getting a dog to not obsess over certain objects can take time, so you have to be patient.. you can teach him manners that its not polite to grab stuff out of peoples hands, and start there.. you just have to find something that he wants more, if he is food motivated try stuf he never gets, hot dogs, liverwurst, steak, chicken, hamburger patties, stuff he will NEVER get except at training.. there is a book out for fearful dogs (which chubs isnt ) but it has great training techniques for teaching a dog from a distance of what the dog fears to learn to deal with it, so since chubs is obsessed with balls you could use the training techniques in the book to work on his ball obsession by starting with a ball far away and getting his attention on you and rewarding for that, and then SLOWLY working closer and closer to the object.. the book is Help For Your Fearful Dog by Nicole Wilde,its on amazon.com i would give you mine but a friend in MD has it..

there is also Click to Calm, i have that book, it is more for dogs with bigger issues but that might work for you, i can mail it to you if you want to borrow it and give it a whirl.. let me know and i can mail it out to you tomorrow when i go to work since its home now and i am at work

[maryellen]

ok i sent an email to my girlfriend who has my Help for fearful dog book and asked her to mail it to your work address if she is done with it, so if you get the book with a maryland return address it came from me from my friend Erin. she is also going to send you my other book she borrowed from me called Control unleashed, that might help you too.. you should get both books next week use them for as long as you need them

[valliesong]

Sounds like things are going great, and you are doing a wonderful job. (Oh, and Roscoe might give Rufus a run for his money with stuffy shredding speed.)

ME, I think I have a few of your books that got lost in the shuffle when I left PBP. Should I mail them back to you? I just have to figure out which ones they are...

[maryellen]

omg val i dont remember the books lol that was such a long time ago... if any are training books mail them to sugar first, she can use them and then when she is done she can send them back to me.