My Border Collie Eats Everything! Help!

[sandyfanny]

Help, please...my very sweet blue merle Border Collie, six years old, eats everything. She's a super-fast sneak thief. She grabs and gobbles the object of her interest up or shreds it: rolls of toilet paper, paper towels, lip balm, and, most recently, a remote. One of the batteries had to be fished out of her mouth. She's always very ashamed when caught, but not enough to stop. She has loads of chews and safe toys, so that's not the problem. I'm so afraid she's going to harm herself. I've tried to Libby-proof the house, but everything can't be on the ceiling. While I'm at work and she's alone, she seems to behave herself. The bad behavior's most evident when I'm at home. What's going on in her spotted head? And how can I teach her to "leave it." Unfortunately, I didn't teach "leave it" and now I'm really sorry. Help, please...

[Sue R]

Welcome! This is a great place to get good advice and information about Border Collies.

 

The "leave it" command is (as you note) a great one to teach. This is how I was taught to teach it. Stand or sit in a room (like the kitchen) with a solid (non-carpet) floor. Drop a treat on the floor and, when your dog approaches it, cover it with your foot and say, "Leave it" in a quiet voice.

 

Let the dog sniff around your foot and the moment she looks up at you instead of trying to get the treat, praise her (or use the clicker, if you do clicker training) and give her a treat (preferably, some more desirable than the one under your foot).

 

Repeat this a number of times, using different locations, different treats (or other items she might desire), and different feet (well, the right or left foot). What you are doing is teaching her that she may see something she'd want but when she "leaves it" to pay attention to you, something even better will be forthcoming.

 

Eventually, when she becomes solid with this, you can wean away from the reward treat (as in all treat training, that's the goal).

 

Now, using "leave it" about certain things may well work when you are present to say the command but I wouldn't necessarily depend on it to guarantee that she will not be tempted if you are not alert and giving the command when she spots something interesting.

 

It's not easy to "dog proof" your house but you may find that, since she has developed the bad habit of chewing on things that are not hers to chew on, you may have to make more effort to pick up and put up.

 

Also, she might possibly be doing this to get attention (even negative attention can be better than no attention at the time) so make sure to make her toys and chews desirable by only having a few out at a time, playing with her with them (or playing with them yourself - nothing like that to make a toy interesting to a dog), and rotating the toys (a few today, different ones tomorrow) to maintain the novelty.

 

Best wishes!

 

PS - I think that the reason she seems to be "ashamed" is not that she's truly ashamed but that she realizes that the result of her actions will be your displeasure.

[ejano]

Help, please...my very sweet blue merle Border Collie, six years old, eats everything. She's a super-fast sneak thief. She grabs and gobbles the object of her interest up or shreds it: rolls of toilet paper, paper towels, lip balm, and, most recently, a remote. One of the batteries had to be fished out of her mouth. She's always very ashamed when caught, but not enough to stop. She has loads of chews and safe toys, so that's not the problem. I'm so afraid she's going to harm herself. I've tried to Libby-proof the house, but everything can't be on the ceiling. While I'm at work and she's alone, she seems to behave herself. The bad behavior's most evident when I'm at home. What's going on in her spotted head? And how can I teach her to "leave it." Unfortunately, I didn't teach "leave it" and now I'm really sorry. Help, please...

 

Not much help here, but a great deal of sympathy!

 

I've had a similar problem with my Robin for quite some time (Like, since the moment we brought him home and he's 20 months old!) As with your pretty girl, he seems to chew things only when he is with one person - my husband. As DH sighed once when Robin was found lying on the couch in the TV room with inexplicably, a untouched bulb of garlic that most recently had been seen on top of the kitchen counter, "Do you TRY to get me in trouble?"

 

It seems so deliberate that I'm certain there's also some malice aforethought at play . If I am working in the study and Robin is not lying quietly on his bed beside me, or in the mudroom in his crate, it's a safe bet he's thinking up something that will end up trouble for my poor husband ...

 

Absolutely, I endorse Sue's methods for training the dog to "leave it." and our dogs most certainly will do so when asked, but for Robin, nothing but the closest supervision works and even then, we've got an unacceptable failure rate...

 

I swore to DH that he would return Robin to the crate when he's not under close supervision and DH swears he has finally learned to not let him out of his sight when he's out of the crate. Since we've implemented this new plan, I've only lost one sweater in which he absentmindedly chewed a couple of new armholes -- and that new pit on the arm of the couch...He's a sneaky creature that red dog of mine... leaving me to ask poor DH, exactly which end of Robin did he have in sight?!

[Sue R]

Crating, when you can't have her under your close eye, is a great option. I should have mentioned that. Also, you can tether her to you with a leash to keep her by your side. That's a radical approach but it may beat the alternative - her chewing something(s) irreplaceable or hurting herself chewing something harmful.

 

Frankly, if these were my choices, I might try tethering but I expect I'd opt for crating when I could not be interacting with her directly.

[urge to herd]

Leave it and crating are wonderful, you might think about adding a couple other things. First, if you're not training her at all right now, she might be bored and wanting some interaction with you. My Shonie dog is around 15 and I still need to work with her at least a couple minutes a couple times a day, or she lets me know. Trick training is fine, or training her to help you with chores around the house.

 

The second thing is to teach her to settle - either in her crate or a on certain mat or rug where she is to relax and chill. Training her to stay on her mat or in her crate and rewarding her with things she can chew - a filled kong or stuffed bone - might help her settle more when you're around.

 

Ruth

[rushdoggie]

Another thought, because she is inclined to chew up and eat things she shouldn't, is to teach her to trade items she pilfers for a treat, which cold then help you train her to retrieve stuff on command, which could help you cut down on the behavior.

 

Add a good "leave it" and suddenly you have a useful behavior and a dog working cooperatively with you.

 

I would put some thought into the "why" as well...if shes only doing it when you are home, when does she do it?

 

Has she had some exercise at that point? Does she do it when you are occupied in something else (at the desk, in the kitchen, watching TV)? Is her mind tired? Does she seem edgy when she starts pilfering? Does she show it to you and run off, or does she quietly take it and chew it up? Have you been home for long when it starts?

[Ms.DaisyDuke]

Just a comment as to the "why". My young male frequently steals things like shoes (well, mostly shoes) when he's bored. He's looking for attention and with this boy, any attention is good attention. He will also get into things... knocking stuff off shelves, counter surfing etc. when he's bored. If he's doing this stuff, it's usually my cue to either play with him a bit or do some bits of training. Even my 6 year old will find herself trouble if she want's to do something with us humans.

[arf2184]

A bored dog goes looking for entertainment...not usually something we want them to do. I'd definitely make sure your dog is getting lots of mental and physical exercise. I'd also rotate out the toys...wash them, soak them in broth, or do what you have to do to make them more exciting than the other object in the house.

 

'Leave it' and 'drop it' have been life savers (or at least object-savers) for my lab mix. He is 10 years old and his entire life he's always had to have something in his mouth. Fortunately he doesn't swallow too many weird things these days, but I do still have to tell him to 'drop it' on a regular basis to keep him from destroying things. I can reach into his mouth and take things from him, but I find that he's much more likely to 'leave it' and not go try and find 'it' again as soon as I leave the room if he willingly set 'it' down on his own. Obviously if your dog doesn't have a solid 'drop it' and you need to get it before its swallowed, then this may not be the best option.

 

I found some tips for teaching 'drop it' and 'leave it' here: http://www.petexpertise.com/dog-training-article-drop-it-and-leave-it.html

 

One thing that was stressed in a beginning obedience class I took was that when teaching leave it, the dog should look at your face, not just look away from the object. It makes it so you can use 'leave it' in more situations...not just with objects, but also with distractions.

 

Also make sure you give the dog something good in return for dropping an object...a treat, toy, lots of happy excited praise, etc. Anything to let them know that 'drop it' is fun and to help them forget about what was just in their mouth.