Originally posted by indy007
Wouldn't this train the dog to chew on things it's not supposed to whenever it wants its snacks out of the fridge? Never trained a dog, so that doesn't seam far off to me.
Well, what have we done?
We find him chewing the wrong thing and we take it away and firmly say "No".
He was "caught in the act" in an undesirable behavior and got "positive punishment", your sharp "No!".
That's the end of that lesson from our point of view and should be from the dog's.
You immediately shift gears and go into training mode, allowing the dog to do something "right".
Heel him to the kitchen, sit him in place while you walk a few steps to the freezer. He's properly doing "sit". (I don't teach "stay" because when I say "sit" it means "sit there until you get another command"; it's a steadiness thing for my retrievers.)
When you're at the freezer, you call him to you. You're teaching/reinforcing recall, another desirable behavior. You then sit him again, teaching reinforcing "sit".
You extract a frozen bone, which will feel good on his teeth and help you with the chewing/teething problem and give it to him, telling him "good boy" and "release" or whatever you use to release him to his own devices for a bit.
Now, the trick to keeping him from learning to manipulate you for a frozen bone is that you have to randomize this behavior somewhat.
If the ONLY time he gets a frozen bone is when he chews your shoe.... better lock up your shoes.
Run through this drill at least ONCE a day when he's NOT chewing something you don't want him to do. Start out your day with it maybe.
Remember there's a lot in play here. Giving him the frozen bone before he chews may well keep him from chewing up your loafers. He's already got a good chew toy. Later in the day give him another; in the evening, another. There, you got through the day with 3 bones, no valuables were chewed, you taught sit/recall/release and you helped him satisfy the need to chew during teething. Win/win.
An old truth in English style training: How do you teach a dog not to do things you don't want him to do?
Answer: Never let him do something you don't ever want him to do.
They go really slow, they anticpate, they control.
For example, odds are if you lose valuable leather goods to a chewing dog, you weren't watching the dog, right? Well, if you can't watch the dog closely, confine him where he can do no harm. Kennel him in an open wire crate in the kitchen if you're going to be wrapped up cooking a 7 course meal for you six guests. He'll see you, you can talk to him on breaks but he won't be able to do anything you don't ever want him to do.
