Fed up with your dog stealing your shoes, your kid’s toys, food from the table, and anything else he can grab in his mouth or lay his paws on?
You are not alone. Let’s find out how to put a stop to your canine thief!
CONTENTS
- Why do dogs steal
- My dog growls when he steals
- How to take something off your dog
- Get your dog to drop something
- How to prevent your dog stealing food
- Punishing dogs for stealing
- Teaching leave it
- How to avoid dogs stealing
- Training dogs not to steal
- Stealing when you are out
- How to stop your dog stealing – summary
Coping with a dog that keeps stealing your things is a big problem faced by many puppy parents.
Which dogs are most likely to steal?
It varies of course, but most canine thieves are under two and a half years old. Mature dogs can’t usually be bothered.
Gundogs are often the biggest culprits because they are quite ‘mouthy’. We have after all bred them for generation upon generation to carry stuff for us. So perhaps we shouldn’t be too surprised when they do!
Stealing in young dogs tends to peak between six and eighteen months old. Often when the dog has grown big enough to put his paws on the table or kitchen counter
If you are having to pursue your dog around the house to get your car keys back. If he has chewed the laces of your best shoes this week and it’s only Monday, or if you’ve been to the vet’s twice this month because he has swallowed a sock, the chances are your dog falls into this 6-18 month age group.
And the chances are you want the stealing to stop!
Help! My dog is stealing my stuff!
People often post up in the forum about stealing and are sometimes at their wit’s end
“I can’t put anything down” they cry “without him taking it as soon as I turn my back!”
And to add insult to injury, the dog appears to be raising two fingers as he makes off with the results of his latest raid.
“He deliberately takes stuff that isn’t his then runs around taunting us with it!” is a very common complaint.
And the owners are understandably frustrated and upset.
Canine stealing styles
Stealing is a very common problem, and different dogs have different approaches. Some are very sneaky, and will very carefully slide your knickers off the radiator when your back is turned.
Others are quite brazen and prefer a smash and grab technique. Some only steal when you are out of the house entirely.
Many retrievers just love to parade around with your stuff in their mouths, offering it up, tail wagging furiously, almost giving it to you, then ducking away at the last minute.
Some dogs make straight for their bed or dive under the sofa where they will attempt to beat the world record for dismantling a TV remote.
Others will run round and around in frantic circles whilst you attempt to catch up, until you either trip over and smack your head, or lose your temper and begin screaming hysterically.
If this is a regular event in your house, it is probably time to take action.
Stealing and growling
A common additional problem in our canine thieves is the dog that growls or snaps when you (quite reasonably) try to take your stuff away from the him.
So what is going on here? Why has your adorable puppy turned into a bad dog with criminal tendencies.
Is this adolescent disrespect and insolence. Does the dog think he is in charge, is he a juvenile delinquent, or is he just plain weird. Let’s find out
Your things versus his things – do dogs understand possession?
The first thing to consider is the concept of ‘possession’ or ‘owning’ stuff. The problem for dogs is, they don’t know what ‘mine’ means.
There are things that dogs want (food, bones, cheap toys, your socks, throw pillows and fancy shoes) and things that they don’t want (such as expensive toys bought especially for them). You can have those!
So a dog that is stealing things, is actually simply taking stuff he wants. He is not making any kind of assessment or judgement as to whom they belong. They could be his. They could be yours. It’s all the same to him. It’s just that you notice (and mind) when they are yours.
Getting him his own toys may help(paid link). Especially if he really likes them. But you still need to keep your stuff out of his way. He doesn’t really understand the difference between them.
Is stealing a sign of disrespect in dogs?
It is common to hear people use the words “deliberate, defiant, disrespectful and dominant” when it comes to canine behavior. This stems from outdated theories about pack leadership, and the ‘alpha’ dog.
We used to think that dogs formed a pack with a leader or alpha dog at the top. And we used to believe that in your family, if you own a dog, you needed to make sure you were the alpha, and your dog was at the bottom of the heap.
Domestic dogs don’t form packs, nor do they value status or rank.
What dogs value is ‘stuff’.
Resources. Things they would like to be theirs.
That’s why a dog that guards food may be completely cool about you climbing all over his bed or pulling his tail (not that you should do this).
It isn’t about rank or leadership. It’s much more simple than that. It is about the things your dog values or is most afraid of losing.
So, if your dog is not being disrespectful, or trying to take over your family, why is he stealing your stuff!! Including boring things like your kid’s pencil case or a note you wrote for your other half?
He doesn’t want them, or need them. He often just ends up breaking them. So why does he do it?
Let’s start at the beginning. With puppies.
Why do puppies start stealing?
If they want something, most puppies and young dogs will try and take it. This is normal.
Remember, although we call it stealing, it isn’t really stealing because dogs don’t understand our rules of possession.
Puppies pick up things that smell interesting or appealing, just to find out what they taste like or feel like. Like babies, puppies explore the world with their mouths.
Because of what happens after they take something that doesn’t belong to them, some dogs then get into the habit of constantly picking things up, and running off with them.
Why dogs keep stealing
Dogs keep stealing because they get some kind of reward out of it. That reward may not be obvious to us at first, but there always is one.
In one way or another, when your dog steals, he enjoys the consequences.
It’s important that we understand why our own dogs steal because that will help us create the right system for stopping them from doing it.
The rewards that dogs get for stealing can be varied, and often fall into one of three main categories. Your dog’s stealing may be:
- Intrinsically rewarded
- Rewarded through attention
- Deliberately rewarded
Let’s look more closely at those.
Intrinsically rewarded stealing
Sometimes the item stolen is rewarding in itself. Food, including the contents of your bin (yeah, your dog regards that as food), plus things that squeak or roll and that can be chased are very rewarding to most dogs.
Items that smell strongly of you may also be attractive. Underwear and socks tend to fall into this category!
And don’t forget, a dog can smell human scent on items that have been through the washing machine – many times. So being clean isn’t going to save your garments from his loving attentions!
Stealing that is rewarded with attention
Many dogs value human attention highly. We have bred this kind of temperament into some of our most co-operative and trainable working breeds. Especially our gun dogs and sheep dogs.
Often the behavior of the humans around the dog after the theft are very rewarding. Especially to these dogs, because they focus a huge amount of attention on the dog.
This kind of behavior includes shrieking and yelling (from children and adults) chasing the dog, and tackling him to the floor. All good fun activities for a healthy young dog. Fun that is, until he starts to get scared or feel threatened. We’ll look at that in a moment.
Deliberately rewarded
We should probably just briefly mention the dog that is being taught to retrieve. This is a common problem in homes where we train young retrievers.
The dog realizes that retrieving is appreciated by people and often rewarded, and starts retrieving everything in the house that is not nailed down.
We’ll look at how to fix stealing in a moment, but first let’s look at a more serious problem that often goes together with stealing. And can even result in dogs being abandoned or destroyed
My dog growls when I take something off him
Most people’s response to the sight of a dog running off with their precious stuff is to chase after him and try to wrestle the object from his jaws. Unfortunately this is highly rewarding to many dogs and makes the stealing problem even worse.
Once the family has chased the dog around the room a few time and pinned him to the floor, this is when problems can really start.
What many people do at this point, is try to force the dog’s mouth open, pulling his jaws apart to retrieve the offending item.
Initially the dog probably just clamps his jaws together, but eventually if they are forced apart and the object removed, this will influence his future behavior. Some dogs will even attempt to defend themselves against this perceived assault.
It is not at all unusual for dogs who expect to have their prize snatched away, to progress to growling and even snapping. This is because they feel threatened and are afraid of losing their new possession
Many dog owners, quite rightly, see growling as a serious issue in a dog. And a few incidents of this nature can buy a dog a one way ticket to the local shelter.
This is a great pity because many perfectly nice and safe dogs, will growl if physically attacked. Most owners never discover this because they never get into a physical conflict with their dogs.
It is important therefore, to make sure that we know how to take something safely off a dog who wants to keep it.
How NOT to take something off your dog
You should not try and physically remove an item from your dog’s mouth except in the most dire emergency (if he is choking for example).
The reasons for this are twofold
- Next time the dog may guard his mouth – ie growl or snap at you
- Next time he may try to swallow what he has in his mouth.
If a dog really does not want you to have what he has got in his mouth he has two options. He can put it where you can never find it – in other words in his tummy- or he can fight you for it.
Dogs that pick up tiny things like coins and little stones, can be quite a worry. Puppies often do this out of curiosity. It’s their way of exploring the world.
Occasionally a puppy will pick up something dangerous – a tiny battery for example
The last thing you want to do is teach a puppy to swallow the things they put in their mouths.
What you want the dog to do, is spit it out. And we’ll talk about teaching that in a moment. But for now, how do you cope with a dog that isn’t trained to drop an object.
Don’t forget, you should also refrain from chasing your dog, because as we have seen, many dogs find this highly rewarding and it reinforces the stealing and encourages the dog along his pathway to a life of crime.
The right way to take something off your dog
Supposing your dog has made off with the TV remote or the book you just bought your granny for her birthday.
If you can’t chase the dog, or physically take your things back, how do you retrieve your property with the least possible damage
When a dog is holding something in his mouth that you want. And has not been trained to let that article go, you have two choices.
- You can ignore the dog
- You can swap the item for something he wants better
Ignoring is a great strategy if the dog is just trying to get your attention by picking up your stuff.
If he is about to destroy something valuable, you need to head straight for the fridge and arm yourself with several tasty snacks(paid link). This is for the dog, not for you!
How to get your dog to drop something he has stolen
If your dog is a veteran thief, the first few times you do this, you may need to actually push the snack onto the end of the dog’s nose before he will drop the item he is holding.
Make sure you have another snack ready!
(paid link)As he drops the item to pick up the first snack throw the other snack where he can see it, but further away from his prize. That way you can remove the prize without him trying to grab it again.
If he was carrying something dangerous, put your foot on it as soon as it hits the ground to be absolutely sure he cannot pick it up again. Then throw tasty snacks well away from you while you dispose of the dangerous item.
What if your dog won’t swap!
With dogs that have a history of stealing, swapping can sometimes be hard because the dog doesn’t trust you.
He is used to being chased and grabbed at, and won’t come near enough to focus on the swap you are offering. Instead, he dives straight under the sofa and proceeds to demolish your favorite shoe.
In this situation, you need to have your dog wear a houseline
How a houseline can help you
A houseline(paid link) is a great way of managing a dog while you work on training him or improving his behavior.
It can help with dogs that jump up at visitors, dogs that run off with your shoes, dogs that won’t get off the furniture and so on.
(paid link)It enables you to move the dog to a safe place without getting up close and personal.
With thieves, it enables you to bring the dog right up close to you so that you can give him a massive reward for letting go of his prize.
He is not going to hang on to your shoe if there is a piece of roast beef right under his nose and he can’t move away from you.
Using a houseline
A houseline keeps things cool between you, and avoids physical tussles and chasing.
You can simply ‘lead’ the dog away and put him in another room or behind a barrier while you think about what to do next and how to manage the situation better in the future.
When you get up in the morning, just put a harness on your dog, he can wear that for the day, and attach a houseline to it. Take the houseline and harness off at night and anytime he is left on his own in the house, so that he can’t get tangled up in anything while you are out
“But but!” You cry “what if food is what my dog has stolen, eh? What then!”
Dog that steal food
When a dog is stealing food on a regular basis, you have a different problem.
Partly because he will probably swallow it immediately, and partly because you’ll struggle to find something more valuable to him than the cake you baked especially for your in-laws.
Food is what we call a primary reinforcer. A survival essential.
Some dogs, no matter how hungry, never take food from tables or counters. My chocolate Labrador is like this. It simply has never occurred to her to take anything off the table.
She is in the minority
Many dogs will steal food whenever they think they can get away with it, which is usually whenever you are not looking.
The answer to that in the short term, if you have not guessed already is not cure. But prevention.
If your dog is making off down the garden with your filet mignon, well, you had better kiss it goodbye, because even in the unlikely event that you retrieve the item almost intact from his mouth, I doubt anyone is going to want to eat it.
The truth is that stealing food left lying around unsupervised by humans is so common in dogs of all breeds, as to be regarded as normal.
How to prevent your dog stealing food
In most families, the best solution is to make food inaccessible to dogs. This can be achieved in one of several ways
- Putting food away
- Gating areas where food is prepared and served.
- Training a dog to lie in a designated place during food preparation or consumption
With a new puppy, if you make sure there is never any food within reach of your puppy in your kitchen or elsewhere, then eventually, as he grows and matures, it will never occur to him to look for it or take it.
You can teach the ‘leave it’ command with respect to food. And we’ll look at that in a moment. But, food is such a powerful reward that teaching dogs to ‘leave it’ whilst you leave the room is time consuming.
It is probably simpler just to get the whole family to put food away..
One thing we haven’t talked about yet, is punishing dogs for stealing
What about punishment?
Punishment is often one of the first things people try when their dogs start stealing. Punishments vary from smacking and scoldings, to ‘time out’
But there are downsides to punishment that make it a generally rather unhelpful tool when it comes to stealing.
Punishment makes dogs sneaky
The first problem is that it is difficult to deliver punishment accurately – at the exact moment that the dog touches or makes a move for, your stuff.
Even if you succeed in accurately delivering a punishment once, dogs are persistent and unless the punishment is so devastating as to cause them actual harm, they are likely to try several more times before giving up.
And next time they try, they will be careful to do it when you are not watching.
So, while punishment may make your dog spit out your stuff this time, it will also make your dog more secretive and evasive in the future.
Punishment doesn’t solve your problem
You are much more likely to end up finding your favorite hat mangled under the table if your dog has been punished for stealing, and much more likely to find him bringing it to you undamaged if he has been rewarded with a swap.
In conclusion, punishment probably won’t stop him stealing.
Punishment tends to affect the way the dog deals with the things he picks up, rather than stopping him from picking them up in the first place
What about teaching ‘leave it’
We talked earlier about training the dog not to touch food intended for humans. While prevention should be your first line of defence, you can, if you wish, teach your dog not to touch food until you offer it to him
Here is an excellent kikopup video that you can watch to give you an idea of what is involved.
Remember, If a dog growls when he is holding something, it doesn’t mean he thinks it is his. It just means he wants it, and he is scared of losing it.
Or that he is just plain scared because you are acting all weird and shouty.
Next time your dog steals something
It may not even occur to your dog that the shouting is about what is in his mouth, or that dropping the thing in his mouth will end the shouting.
So try to see things from his side, back away, and find him something yummy to exchange for your mobile phone.
Let’s sum up what we have covered so far. We need a two pronged approach to deal with stealing
- Management
- Training
Good management of your puppy or dog can prevent a stealing habit getting started and help an established stealing habit die.
Training can help by teaching your dog not to touch things, and to let go of things. Both very unnatural behaviors for a young dog, but trainable if you have the time and enthusiasm
How to avoid dogs stealing with good management
The first step is to reduce conflict. A small battle is easier to win than a bigger one. You need to:
- Get your family to pick up their stuff
And/Or
- Restrict your dog from accessing some areas of the house.
For example, if your dog is a cushion thief, or a TV remote thief, put a baby gate across your living room door so she cannot go in there without you.
A baby gate across the bottom of the stairs prevents dogs nipping up and removing teddies from the children’s bedrooms, or dirty laundry (a favorite target) from the hamper in the bathroom.
A baby gate across the kitchen keeps the dog out of reach of food when you are preparing or consuming it.
I know this seems really obvious, but its surprising how many people have their problem virtually solved by this simple method.
Bear in mind that gates probably needn’t be permanent, most dogs grow out of stealing eventually
How to prevent dogs stealing through training
Preventing theft while you are supervising your dog is possible with the ‘leave it’ cue.
This means that as your dog approaches your best silk cushion and extends his neck towards it you can simply say ‘leave it’ and he will turn away and amuse himself elsewhere.
If you train hard, you’ll also be able to say ‘leave it’ and place a container with food within reach of the dog, and have him obediently ignore it.
Dogs that steal when you are out
People often have high expectations of how dogs should behave when they are not there.
For example: you would not tell your dog to ‘sit’ before you left for work, and expect him to be sitting in the same position when you got home three hours later. Yet people expect a dog to do this with ‘don’t touch’.
Some cues, or commands that we teach dogs are time sensitive. Duration is a part of them. ‘Leave it’ (or ‘don’t touch my stuff’) is one of those cues.
Duration is simply how long you expect the task your dog is carrying out, to last. It is something we need to purposefully teach our dogs. This applies to ‘leave it’ in the same way that it applies to sit, or down.
What we are expecting when we want a dog to ‘not touch stuff’ whilst we are not there, is a cue with infinite duration. Which simply isn’t reasonable.
Relieving boredom in canine thieves
We talked earlier about dogs that steal because it gets them a lot of attention. And about dogs that steal because they have a huge urge to carry things around. The two are often combined.
You can help a dog like this by making sure he has adequate attention at other times and that he is getting sufficient mental stimulation and physical exercise during the day.
If your thief is a gun dog and loves to carry something in his mouth, make sure he has his own things to carry.
Spend some time retriever training with him too, so that he fulfil his urge to carry things and learn to do so in a disciplined way.
It will relieve his boredom, satisfy his instincts, and may help reduce his enthusiasm for your cushions too.
How to stop your dog stealing – a summary
The best way to get your stolen things back, relatively unharmed (apart from some drool) is to swap the thing in your dog’s mouth for some really tasty food.
- Don’t chase dogs with stolen objects in their mouths as this encourages them to steal again.
- Punishment leads to evasive dogs and to dogs that swallow potentially harmful objects.
- You can’t prevent most normal dogs stealing food without a lot of training. Do the training or put your food away.
Clearing up prevents other kinds of stealing too. Nine times out of ten, dogs steal people’s possessions because they have been given too much freedom in a paradise of other people’s clutter.
Keeping a young dog out of family rooms that aren’t fairly tidy, and crating young dogs that steal, when you have to leave them alone in the house is often a temporary solution that enables you to break this annoying habit.
Dogs are opportunists, and it is important for your relationship with your dog that you stay friends and pick your battles carefully.
If you can remove some opportunities for your dog to steal using baby gates, life will be more pleasant for you both.
Does your dog steal? Or did he steal as a puppy? Tell us what his favorite item is, or what you do to keep your things safe at home.
More information
For more information on every aspect of training your dog check out: Dog Training, Obedience, Good Manners And Fun! Want to know more about recall training for your dog and keeping him out of mischief? Then check out Pippa’s best selling dog training book Total Recall(paid link).
Total Recall is a complete recall training programme packed with dog training advice and help.
If you enjoyed Pippa’s article on stealing – you’ll love this book and you’ll feel like an expert by the time you get to the end!
Raymond Hasey says
Dogs definitely relate to other dogs and to people within canine complex dominance relationships. On this ranch the working sheep dogs do have a pack dominance structure that can clearly be perceived. The articles linked to make the good point that dogs are not wolves but they do not support the opinion that dogs do not form dominance relationships with people, or that training effectiveness is impacted by the relationships that are formed. That said, bullying a dog in order to become an “alpha” is not effective and this will reduce the dogs respect for the trainer.
Our sheltie will only steal my wife’s dinner when the opportunity arises but has never stolen mine. He will allow me to take things from his mouth, he will drop it when told, but will he will refuse this with my wife. Why? I can only speculate on his thoughts and motivations. The point is that his training compliance varies depending upon who is making the command.
Gaining and maintaining this respect within the training relationship is essential and this might be the subject for a future article?
“We used to think that dogs formed a pack with a leader or alpha dog at the top. And we used to believe that in your family, if you own a dog, you needed to make sure you were the alpha, and your dog was at the bottom of the heap. We now know this isn’t true.”
Emma says
Like others in the comments, my dog seems to have learnt that he should steal things to get a treat. Swapping him for a treat has only made the problem 100 times worse.
I’m currently working on “drop it” (in general, with various objects) in the hope that I’ll eventually be able to get him to drop stolen items and break the cycle.
I’m also working hard on “leave it”, but he tries to steal things 50+ times a day, and it’s exhausting.
I have no idea what is going to fix this. All I can hope is that he’ll get bored of it as he gets older.
Stephanie stokes says
My 17 month old cockerpoo is exactly the same. He steals mainly socks, gloves, and woolly hats. He refuses to let go. We have tried ignoring him, and the treat method, and around 50% of the time it works. It depends what mood he’s in, as to whether he let’s go or not. Some days he’s adament he’s not letting go, and will growl if challenged. We are also hoping this is something he will grow out of.
Catherine says
I have a 1 year old (just barley) English Mastiff Black Lab mix and I love him to death but he is CONSTANTLY stealing my pillows and the stuffed animal that I sleep with he help keep my back aligned every chance he gets. only these things, 2 pillows and 1 stuffed animal, though the stuffed animal rotates depending on my mood. I can’t get him to quit doing this and today while I was busy doing house work he stole my animal and managed to rip it’s clothes off of it and tear a hole in the bum end of it about the sizes of a quarter and pull half the stuffing out. I can close the hole but the stuffing is in too small of pieced to clean up and put back in. How do I get him to stop this behavior? He knows the commands “leave it” and “drop it” and I have tried showing him the animal or pillow and telling him “NO, bad” and also holding the item and swatting him on the bum or nose; not enough to hurt him but enough to make him understand he was bad, I have also crated him immediately after catching him going this behavior. But he still does it. I always crate him if he is going to be home alone but if there is some one here with him he is USUALLY fine so I don’t have to worry about it… usually. He has plenty of toys of his own, rubbed squeaky bone, fetch bone, ball, his own animals that squeak crinkle and rattle and a kong type toy designed for super chewers (different brand and shape and honestly better made as he has killed 3 black kongs and has had this one for 2 months and it is still almost pristine. He also has 3 different bones to chew on (one beef feamer one pork feamer and one sheep feamer I get from the butcher) So I don’t understand why, when he loves his other toys, he has to insist on stealing my bed things. PLEASE HELP!
Raymond Hasey says
I might try a bit of pepper on attractive objects, and for some impermeable objects, pepper mixed with a bit of petroleum jelly to get the pepper to persist. Even a very tiny amount might work.
However you cannot pepper your entire home so this may be limited to a few especially attractive items.
Catarina says
Hello : )
I have a 8 months Estrela Mountain Dog.
Normally she stays in the kitchen and back yard.
Every time I come home I find some litter splatter on the floor of something she took from the counter.
There’s no food around and this one time she took a box of pills.
We put a camera to see what she does all day.
when we are home she knows she’s not allowed on the counter or on chairs but when we are out of the house, we’ve seen her go on top of them, with her paws and try to grab whatever picks her interest.
When we get home she knows shes been bad but keeps doing it.
We tried to teach her all the time, not to chew the bed not to go up on the counter, but it’s to no use because when we are away she does it.
What should I do ?
Ashley N Evans says
So after reading this what I got was just let my dog steal my kids toys and chew them up. Dont run after him b/c he will think its a game. Ok..got it. but how does that teach him to not steal toys etc..? Its not ok for him to chew on my kids toys or pacifier..but if i dont get it he will eat it..How does that work?
Sahar says
Hi, I have a 7 months bordoodle who has started stealing other dog’s balls in the park and run very fast around the park, while he doesn’t usually care about his own ball!
I tried swaping with treats but he doesn’t want the treats at that moment. The first tome he did stealing was when he found a tea bag in the park and I troed to chase himand he was eating it while running. I know I made a mistake cahsing him but I was scared and didn’t know what is that he was eating! It might have beed a bag of chocolate!
After that I guess he found it fun and rewarding and steals everything he finds in the park that isn’t his.
He doesn’t listen ‘drop it’ as well. O’m frustrated and don’t know what to do.
Please help me.
Abi says
I wonder if using a long line would work? Basically a training lead like the house line spoken about in the article. They can usually go up to 10 mtrs or so and you can tie them together to make a longer one too, so he can still enjoy a run around and exercise. but if your pup steals something at the park if you have a long line you have a way of MAKING your dog come close enough to swap whatever he stole with a reward? And if he can’t play chase with it bc of the long line then the next most rewarding thing is probably a tasty tidbit of hot dog or chicken and a “good boy!!!” for giving you what he stole 😉
Jessica says
We have a five year old Shepard mix. In the last few months, he has started stealing food off the kitchen counters – from bananas to bags of chips and crackers to a package of m&ms.
However, he does not eat it or tear into it. You can’t even see a tooth mark in the packaging. He seems to be very gentle with it. He leaves it sitting on the couch, in same spot every time, waiting for us when we get home.
When we get home, he has the “dog guilt” look and “knows” he is in trouble.
Any ideas on why this behavior has suddenly developed?
Neaka says
I have 2 13 month old German Shepard, one is very well behaved won’t steal anything including food. The other is a bandit, she is very sneaky and finds anything to steal and quickly snatches it then runs out the doggy door, when I go to the backyard to find the item she gets super excited as if she’s playing a game of hide and seek and yay mom found it. I have tried everything with her and she just won’t stop. She’s very sneaky when she takes the item and tries her best to get past you without you seeing she has stolen something. I dont even know where to start with her and breaking this habit.
Fiona says
Hi, my 6month old lab loves to steal clothes, especially socks. I realised he loved the chase so now as soon as he has a sock or something I ignore him and go straight to his box of treats and get one out. He immediately drops the sock (or what ever he had grabbed) and comes trotting over to me waiting for his treat. The problem is, I fear he’s learning that ‘hey if I steal something she doesn’t want me to take then i’ll get a treat’. So now he appears to be stealing things ‘on purpose’ in order to get me to give him a treat. I.e he has trained me to give him a treat on demand!
Is there a way to break this cycle, or will he get over this eventually.
Do you also have any tips on teaching him to stay off the sofa?
Thanks so much! I loved this article!
Louise says
Hi, we have an 18month lab and he is a thief. Anything. We now make sure when he’s left that nothing is accessible for him to pinch. What we still have a problem with is when he’s in the garden. He pinches flower pots (complete with the flowers) and runs round the garden with them, pulls up plants, and eats the bark mulch. Any ideas?
Angelica says
I’m in the same boat with my 15 month old Lab. She takes everything! Including our neighbor’s packages. It’s embarrasing and getting expensive! We don’t have a fence to keep her in but we have a large pen that’s fenced. I just feel bad leaving her in it all day. Good luck!
Pippa says
Stealing clothes from the washing line is always a challenging problem, but the best solution is always to find a way of preventing the dog getting access. So either supervise the dog when she is outside and there are clothes on the line, or, put some kind of barrier around the line so that she cannot reach the clothes.
nikita says
Hey Pippa,
We have an interesting case of what I believe is stealing behavior in our 2.5 year old pup. He’s been doing it for as long as I’ve had him, and it seems to come in waves, but recently it’s picked up again. He only steals from our pantry, which is in the kitchen where he is never allowed, and only does it when we leave the house. It’s not every time we leave the house though. It’s only the times that it is clear that he is unhappy about us leaving him. As soon as we then leave him anyway (like going to work, or going to buy some groceries, these are not optional), he goes straight into the pantry and takes the first thing he can find, food or not. He then takes this to the center of our living room and destroys it primarily, and eats it secondary. When he’s done, he heads right back to the pantry for a new object to destroy and eat.
Something you should know about our dog is that from day one I’ve had problems with him. When he was not even 9 months old he had to have surgery in his shoulder, and was forced to spend 6 weeks without running or jumping, which drove him up the wall, since even then he was already a high energy dog who required a lot of attention, and had a huge amount of pent up energy.
Now that he’s finally reached maturity, he’s died down a bit, but these stealing sessions are very random, and tend to come in waves. He could have come from a long walk, and will do it when I go to use the restroom as we get home. He can do it when we’ve been playing with him to tire him out, and then leave to do god knows what. Some part of me believes he is doing this out of spite for having stopped giving him attention.. some other part of me thinks he does it because he has some weird attachment issues..
Either way I’d like to hear what your take on this is, we’re getting desperate since we regularly train him not to steal (he is no longer allowed to walk free because he will eat food from the street, he no longer steals food from out plates, and no longer steals when we are in the same rooms as him)..
Any tips?
Pippa says
Hi Nikkita, in this situation, the best solution is to make the pantry inaccessible with a dog proof latch or catch of some kind. Good luck, Pippa
Sierra Salvo says
Thank you,
My dog is a lemon white beagle. She is 15 months old and ever since we’ve got her she has been a stealer. But lately it has gotten a lot worse. But, the problem is that she doesn’t do it when my parents are around, but as soon as she leaves she won’t stop do it. She takes stuff and just runs. I’ve tried to swap and I’ve tried to ignore her but if I do that she just continues to eat it. I don’t know what to do.
Please any advice is welcome.
Tracy Swearingin says
I spent over 3 hours making a Christmas sugar cookie tree in 3D. My 6 mth old red bone coon hound left my side foe one minute. When I found him he was in my kitchen eating it. It was for my 7th year old son’s school Christmas party. I was so upset. The next night he chewed right throught the wires on my electric blanket. He has stolen several other food items since.
LESLIE says
If it makes you feel any better, I went to make cookies and had a stick of butter on the counter softening and yep…my chocolate lab ate the whole damn stick of butter. Then there was the huge tray of uncooked homemade gnocchi that he demolished in about 10sec…and the whole steak that was about to be put in the pan…and the chicken fillets that I turned my back on to get a pair of tongs. And the 6 pairs of reading glasses, the 3 pairs of raybans, and two remotes and a pair of designer shoes. I am slowly learnin. He is training ME! haha
Meredith says
I have an 8 mobile old lab/hound mix whose desire for attention leads him to stealing anything he can find. No matter the amount of excercise, or interaction he gets he’s just unable to calm down. We keep him on a leash during meal times in order for those eating to be left alone. If we crate him or separate him during meal times he barks relentlessly. Other then distracting him with kongs and treats are there other suggestions? I’m getting close to my wits end just trying to keep him away from my kids while they eat! We’ve been through training and he knows a lot of “tricks” but nothing will make meal times peaceful again,
Ashley N Evans says
Did you ever find something that would work for your family with this? Currently going through this with our dog.
tyson says
my boxer takes things outside without me even knowing. how do I stop that?
Heather says
My 3 yr lab mix has always been an attention seeking theif as well as a garbage theif. We have managed to train him away from most of this behavior except stealing paper towels or napkins, or the occasional food scrap if garbage is left too accessible. Our faukt. HILARIOUSLY,when I’m using one bathroom he’ll go steal the TP from the other bathroom and bring it to me. I’m not sure I want him to stop that one…might come in handy some day????
Megan says
Could you please help me understand something:
If they are stealing because they know they’ll get a treat when they give it up, how can I stop the stealing in the first place?
Pippa says
There are two sections in the article that deal with that Megan. How to stop stealing through management, and how to stop stealing through training. You’ll find them if you scroll down. Let me know if you have any questions
Heidi says
My 8 month old puppy likes to steal shoes off of my kids feet. To the point where she will try to drag them around trying to get them off. Many times it hurts them. Help!!!
Lori says
We rescued a 5 year old black lab about 4 months ago. She is aggressive and has snapped at only me (mom). It usually occurs when there is human food around, which she wants, and I am trying to keep her away from. I am beginning to become afraid of her and don’t know the best way to correct this behavior.
Corey says
Our goldendoodle is a THIEF!! He does it simply for the thrill of us chasing him. Sandals, shoes, socks, beer bottles or cans or their koozies, beans bags during cornhole – anything he knows will rile us up. Last night, he stole my friends unopened Coors Light and 3 of us chased him around the yard for 10 minutes. He probably had the best time of his life…
Pippa says
He probably did! 🙂
Vicky says
I have a jack Russell he is 15 months who steals socks, shoes pants, I’ve tried giving him something to drop but it doesn’t work he likes the chase, I walk back in but he destroys the item…. any other ideas please?
Pippa says
Hi Vicky
With dogs that have a history of stealing, swapping can be hard because the dog doesn’t trust you. He is used to being chased and grabbed at, and won’t come near enough to focus on the swap you are offering. In this situation, you need to have your dog wear a houseline
A houseline is a great way of managing a dog while you work on training him or improving his behaviour. It can help with dogs that jump up at visitors, dogs that run off with your shoes, dogs that won’t get off the furniture and so on. It enables you to move the dog to a safe place without getting up close and personal. With thieves, it enables you to bring the dog right up close to you so that you can give him a massive reward for letting go of his prize. He is not going to hang on to your shoe if there is a piece of roast beef under his nose.
A houseline keeps things cool between you, and avoids physical tussles and chasing. You can simply ‘lead’ the dog away and put him in another room or behind a barrier while you think about what to do next and how to manage the situation better in the future. When you get up in the morning, just put a harness on your dog, he can wear that for the day, and attach a houseline to it. Take the houseline and harness off at night and anytime he is left on his own in the house, so that he can’t get tangled up in anything while you are out
I’ll add this to the article – I know I have already written about this above, but just a reminder – you really need to put stuff like underwear and shoes where the dog can’t get it. He’ll probably lose interest in these things as he matures, but right now, it is not worth having a daily battle over. It’s annoying, but you’ll be happier if you just put these things out of his reach. 🙂
Amy Crosbie says
My 1 year old labrador has always enjoyed carrying around stuff in his mouth and greeting me with a toy in his mouth . However, he has recently started clearing everything off my kitchen work tops whilst I’m out. Somethings he chews it up, sometimes he takes it to his bed. These have included pots, pans, drinks bottles, paperwork, sunglasses, tissues….whatever is up there! I created him as a puppy whilst I was out, and stopped using it when he was around 8 month old. He has only started doing this in the last few weeks. He has 2 long walks a day and my children love playing games and doing tricks with him. So I feel he gets plenty of exercise and simulation. Another thing that has happened is he was castrated 2 months ago and I have found him more greedy since. I’m worried he is stressed when I’m out. And I don’t know how to stop it. Also, I find it difficult to greet him in a happy manner when I come home to destruction, so I usually ignore him until I’ve tidied up. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thank you. Amy
Pippa says
Have a look at this section Amy https://thehappypuppysite.com/how-to-stop-your-dog-stealing/#out in the article above. You may need to clear your worktops before you go out, or go back to crating your puppy for a while in order to break the habit now.
Jane says
Thank you for this article. My 11 month working cocker Bonnie doesn’t let a day or evening pass without “stealing” some item of clothing , footwear or food . She is quite brazen about it and does it in full view in order to get attention and some kind of reward. When I tried ignoring her she would come up to me and whine loudly at me with the item in her mouth -, sometimes tail wagging -until I reacted in some way. We have lost at least six pairs of shoes and slippers in total in 9 months. Most of them she chewed holes in or shredded to pieces – right in front of us. Even her favourite treats aren’t good enough to make her stop or drop things. . Occasionally a piece of chicken or cheese will suffice but often I am left waving a treat helplessly at her while she gobbles down my slippers like they’re cordon bleu cooking. I am thinking we need more management advice ! One of the problem is that slippers and shoes are so accessible for her .. she passes them on the shoe rack in the porch 10 times a day on her way in and out the house. Its too easy for her when you’re changing shoes, taking coats off etc to make off with something. Now we keep just the essential pairs in the porch and the rest in a box in our bedroom. which has improved things but she’ll still try it. I’ve seen her slip up and sneak my slipper off my very foot while I’m watching tv with my feet up! We do have to sometimes try and wrestle things off her …the last clean pair of pants drying on the radiator , the last slipper , pens, bits of stones she’s picked up outside etc .. and at times she has growled and made snapping gestures which really worries me. She’s such a friendly girl at other times and it is very wearing to constantly be on guard with things. I used to let her in the bedroom if I was going in for something but now I’ve banned her because 8O% of the time she’d leave with something she didn’t come in with . Now she sits and whines till I come back out. Very lovable, very entertaining and BFF 7O% of the time, absolute pest for the rest ! She’s due to start the Bronze level Kennel Club training on Monday and I’ve contacted one of the trainers to start actual level 1 Gun dog training. I hope this will help .
Pippa says
It is really important with a dog that doesn’t like to give things up, to have plenty of tasty treats to hand, so that you always have something good to swap. Good luck with your training
Claire says
One of the solutions you say to swap with a snack however this would be rewarding.. They will learn if I steal I get a treat.
Try the ‘leave it’ command with a short leash, then and only then when they stay still with a slack leash, praise and reward.