# Help she's constantly taking socks and clothes



## autumn's mom (Oct 9, 2012)

You are doing exactly what I would do, so failing that, maybe you should ignore her when she takes something. Or pick up your clothes .


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## Rainheart (Nov 28, 2010)

I would grab a high value treat and trade her. Something extra special so when she does that, she will eventually learn to come to you to exchange it for a tasty treat!


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## gretzky (Dec 1, 2012)

We use it as an opportunity to teach "bring it" by trading for a high value toy or treat. Or we pick up one of his toys and act very excited over that toy. Once puppy realizes we aren't going to chase him, he loses interest. The behavior has diminished over time ...


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## Mirinde (Jun 8, 2011)

This is probably horrible advice but we had to get creative with this sort of stuff because we had a resource guarder... We made everything he liked to steal noneventful. Your issue is not so much that she is taking it, but it's that she is running around with it and not giving you an opportunity to calmly teach her to bring you the things she finds or to just leave them alone entirely. 

So pretty much we just put the things he liked to steal on the floor a few times a day and let him get it out of his system and then we would trade, and then give it back to him, and then trade, and then give it back to him, and sometimes we would even play a game with it, and sometimes we wouldn't do anything at all and just ignore him. It very quickly became boring to go run off and steal something because it was more fun to bring it over, and eventually he lost interest in the items just like they lose interest in anything. This absolutely would never work with a dog that steals things to ingest them because it involves letting your dog have the item to a certain extent, but for a dog that is just trying to get your attention or just wants to go shred something up, it might work for you like it did for us? We're big on making bad behavior super boring in this house haha!


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## JayBen (Aug 30, 2012)

autumn's mom said:


> You are doing exactly what I would do, so failing that, maybe you should ignore her when she takes something. Or pick up your clothes .


lol I know right...lol. Seriously though its even sometimes when I'm just trying to put my socks _on_ she will grab them. Its hard to ignore her because as soon as she stops running she begins tearing apart whatever piece of clothing she has. I literally have only a few pairs of socks left that don't have holes in them. I thought about the treat thing but I thought that might encourage her more. I will try it out though.


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## Charliethree (Jul 18, 2010)

Consider teaching 'leave it' to stop her from picking up/grabbing stuff when you can. Also teach her to 'bring it' or come to you when she has something, then ask her to 'drop it' for you reward with praise, a treat, or even a quick game when she does. This does not reinforce her taking items she is not to have, but teaches her to bring the item to you, and 'drop it' for a reward rather than running off with it. 
Limit access to things she is not to have, as much as possible, especially while you train 'leave it' and 'drop it' , there will be times when she gets something anyway, trade her for it, rather than just taking it. The goal is to teach her what you want her to do, when she has something she maybe shouldn't.


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## laprincessa (Mar 24, 2008)

Pick up everything and don't get dressed when she's in the room. If she can't grab the socks, she won't run off with them.


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## JayBen (Aug 30, 2012)

Charliethree said:


> Consider teaching 'leave it' to stop her from picking up/grabbing stuff when you can. Also teach her to 'bring it' or come to you when she has something, then ask her to 'drop it' for you reward with praise, a treat, or even a quick game when she does. This does not reinforce her taking items she is not to have, but teaches her to bring the item to you, and 'drop it' for a reward rather than running off with it.
> Limit access to things she is not to have, as much as possible, especially while you train 'leave it' and 'drop it' , there will be times when she gets something anyway, trade her for it, rather than just taking it. The goal is to teach her what you want her to do, when she has something she maybe shouldn't.


We're working on "leave it" now but she's not there yet. Still working on getting her to back off of the food and look at me. The other day I put her in a down stay while I changed after work and she did great. I really appreciate all the help from you all.


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## Braccarius (Sep 8, 2008)

JayBen said:


> Recently our little 11 month old furbaby has been taking socks, shirts, pants, towels, and just about anything she can grab, and she runs around the house like a mad dog. *This is really the only bad thing that she does* but its time for it to stop. The only problem is I don't know exactly what to do. I've been just taking the sock, shirt, or whatever...out of her mouth and saying "NO!" I don't chase her around but I will walk over to where she went and grab the item from her. I think she thinks its just a game, and I can see why she would. What can I do differently?


I think you've got a wonderful dog... and if thats the worst of it at 11 months you're very very lucky.


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## swildt (Jan 23, 2013)

I have the same problem. Our golden luckily doesn't chew on much of anything, but he likes to carry things around. A lot of times, he brings it to me, which is nice I suppose. That retriever instinct. Other times, he carries around the house. If I tell him to bring it and drop it, he does, but I'm telling him to bring it about 50 times a day and prying things out of his mouth. My house is SO much cleaner and organized now because otherwise he'll find things to get into. 

I make sure to keep all the bedroom and bathroom doors closed when he is running around!

The one thing he keeps getting is paper, and that he DOES shred up. He gets paper from places I didn't even know had paper! Snot rags, napkins, paper towel, homework... he's obsessed with shredding paper to tiny little bits and rolling in it. I tell him no every time, but you can see from the big grin on his face that it is REALLY fun.


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## Doug (Jul 17, 2010)

Sorry but your pup is a baby. Babies like to put things in their mouths and play with them. You need to keep these things up high or in a basket. This is a serious issue as these things can cause obstructions. Remove the temptation.

Goldens are fun loving creatures my boy still loves it when I put my socks on. I wear large mountain socks in case he does get the odd one. When he does he parades around with it while thinking that he's the cat's meow. (Secretly cute)

As often as you can buy cheap soft toys from the charity shop. My boy has so many that he does not know what to do with them. This reduces the need to shred.

Don't worry, this phase will pass.


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## Tucker's mommy (Nov 9, 2011)

Our Tucker is almost two, and one of his favorite attention-seeking behaviours is to take things he shouldn't have and wait for us to retrieve it from his mouth, tail wagging. Just today, I was planting marigolds, and he pulled one up out of the ground and ran away with the whole thing, root ball and all. The neighbor watched as I chased him into the front year, yelling, where he went to the front porch, stood there and waited for me, whereupon he opened his mouth for me to take the flower back when I got there. And wouldn't you know it, there was no damage - I put it right back into the ground. 

We're at the point now that we know he will always steal things for attention, but we consider it a really good thing that he has such a soft mouth and is willing to give things back when we get to him. We worked with him a ton when he was a pup on the "exchange for a treat" game, which is why I think he still enjoys this silliness now. 

As your dog is only 11 months, in time things will get better. But, I think some of this silliness is what makes our goldens so fun, too, eh?

I only wish I would've had a camera to get a pic of him with the flower in his mouth!


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## Wenderwoman (Jan 7, 2013)

aw jeez my 6 month is constantly getting stuff. She seems to want very little to do with the baskets of toys we bought her. She likes anything she shouldn't have because her favorite game is catch-me-if-you-can. 

As far as socks go, she'll try to get them off your feet and she's actually quite good at it. She also loves to get the soles out of shoes. 

Unfortunately, nothing I've tried has been a cure all. I just keep taking them away or make sure she can't get at them.


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## Baker (May 24, 2013)

My 8 month old is the same way except he doesn't really chew on it he just holds it, but with him it was just a simple of fact getting a hand on it and telling him to drop it. His favorite toys are socks so we have to to it a lot, but normally he's pretty good about it.


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