# Is this still puppy behavior?



## dainnj (May 3, 2009)

Luna is going to be 1 year next month. She's a great dog with a wonderful temperament and is great with obedience things like sit, stay, come and such. But we still aren't able to give her free run of the house. My issue isn't potty training, but that she'll chew anything left on the floor or on the coffee or end tables. If she finds my daughter's bedroom door accidentally left open, she's in there immediately to grab a toy, then runs out before anyone catches her. Same thing with the laundry room, except there it's to get to the cat food or worse, the litterbox.:hungry: She'll chew on books, papers, pencils, pens, crayons, any sort of wrapper. Oh, and any clothes. Sometimes my daughter comes out with clothes so I can help her get dressed and it's a race to see if I can get the clothes on before Luna runs off with them.:frusty: She knows 'leave it', but that only works if I'm there with her - it doesn't work to deter her when I'm not around.

So I guess my question is, is this a phase that will pass, or do I need to start diligently working on this? Right now, we just keep her rooms puppy proofed.


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## HavaneseSoon (Nov 4, 2008)

Is she getting plenty of exercise....I mean running around, tiring her out? 

A tired puppy is a good puppy!

It was almost a personality change with Dexter....I was thinking....What is going on? He has gone crazy with ENERGY and HYPER with everything. My cure was to take him outside and have Dexter run off some energy by running from the front yard to the back yard between my husband and I. We would have tiny treats to get Dexter to run back and forth. It probably took less than 5 minutes to tire Dexter. It worked!


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## dainnj (May 3, 2009)

Hi Linda,

Thanks for the advice. She gets lots of exercise. If we can't take her for a walk we'll do the same thing you do with Dexter, only inside the house. My older kids are good at getting her to burn off some energy. This morning I took her for an extra long walk. We walked for an hour. When we got home I let her follow me to my daughter's room and she promptly made off with a toy then went off to check on the cat food.

I don't mind waiting it out if it's a phase. I'm just afraid of letting it go when I should be doing something about it.


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## good buddy (Feb 20, 2007)

dainnj said:


> I don't mind waiting it out if it's a phase. I'm just afraid of letting it go when I should be doing something about it.


You should be doing something about it. It could be a phase, but why chance it? She could eat something that's a danger to her or a bummer for you, so I would say to get the whole family on board with the leave it command and the drop it command. You can relace what she has with acceptable toys too. Remember to keep things picked up that she will get into to make it all less tempting.

Mine went through this type of thing much younger and we worked on it then when it was first happening. They didn't do this at one year?


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## mellowbo (Aug 12, 2007)

I agree with Christy. 
Are you providing her with plenty of her own toys? How about flossies? When ever she takes something that isn't hers you need to be taking it away and replacing it right away with something that is hers. Everyone needs to be on board and be consistent.
Also, is she really bored a lot? That can really lead to this kind of behavior. Another dog for her? Is that possible?
I didn't think this was normal for a year old to still be doing this but from the other posts I guess it is very normal. Good luck and hang in there!


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## dainnj (May 3, 2009)

Carole and Christy, thanks for your input. We are going to start working on this. She has plenty of her own toys and chews. I think part of the problem is that it has been so easy to keep her out of our stuff that she never got the chance to learn not to touch it. She knows leave it, but will ignore me if the temptation is too strong. I've tried to work on this with treats, but then she'll ignore anything around her and just focus on me because she knows I have the good stuff.

Any ideas on how I go about this? Should I do short training sessions in those rooms or just go about my day saying leave it whenever she goes for something?:help:

Carole, I would love another dog, but I have an 18 year old cat that's not very happy with the situation as it is and I'm trying to be fair to him. He's my first baby who has turned into a very grumpy old man.


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## krandall (Jun 11, 2009)

dainnj said:


> Luna is going to be 1 year next month. She's a great dog with a wonderful temperament and is great with obedience things like sit, stay, come and such. But we still aren't able to give her free run of the house. My issue isn't potty training, but that she'll chew anything left on the floor or on the coffee or end tables. If she finds my daughter's bedroom door accidentally left open, she's in there immediately to grab a toy, then runs out before anyone catches her. Same thing with the laundry room, except there it's to get to the cat food or worse, the litterbox.:hungry: She'll chew on books, papers, pencils, pens, crayons, any sort of wrapper. Oh, and any clothes. Sometimes my daughter comes out with clothes so I can help her get dressed and it's a race to see if I can get the clothes on before Luna runs off with them.:frusty: She knows 'leave it', but that only works if I'm there with her - it doesn't work to deter her when I'm not around.
> 
> So I guess my question is, is this a phase that will pass, or do I need to start diligently working on this? Right now, we just keep her rooms puppy proofed.


The trainers I work with all say the same thing... a one year old dog may be physically full size, but they are far from mature. You will still have lots of "puppy behavior" until thy are at least two. Kodi is the same age, and is still horrible about the clothing grab-and-run, as well as chewing up anything he finds around. Worse... in his case, he actually EATS the stuff!!! (fortunately, he can't get to our cat box) I know that Sylvia has the same trouble with Kipling, as do others with similar aged pups. Not ALL of them do it, but many do.

We just keep him confined to "safe" areas, and realize that it's our own fault if he gets into stuff we don't want him to.


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## krandall (Jun 11, 2009)

HavaneseSoon said:


> Is she getting plenty of exercise....I mean running around, tiring her out?
> 
> A tired puppy is a good puppy!
> 
> It was almost a personality change with Dexter....I was thinking....What is going on? He has gone crazy with ENERGY and HYPER with everything. My cure was to take him outside and have Dexter run off some energy by running from the front yard to the back yard between my husband and I. We would have tiny treats to get Dexter to run back and forth. It probably took less than 5 minutes to tire Dexter. It worked!


Kodi gets TONS of exercise and training... class 3-4 times a week and an hour walk most days. It doesn't keep him from chewing things up.


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## kudo2u (Mar 7, 2009)

Bandit is the same way. He was a rescue who we brought home at 9 months of age. If you go back and search through my threads, we struggled for about two weeks to come up with a name for him. We agreed on Bandit because it was fitting....

We've had him since November, and things have not gotten even the tiniest bit better. ALL other problem areas have been addressed and corrected (he's now housebroken, doesn't jump up on people, doesn't bark continuously, no longer aggressive toward other dogs....seriously, ALL other issues are better). But for whatever reason, he's still a Bandit Thief! He grabs anything he can and runs off under the bed with it.

We have at least been able to stop him from eating the furniture (throw pillows were his favorite snack), so I'm taking that as a REALLY good start! 

He gets plenty of exercise, lots of socialization (we have 4 dogs, plus he goes to day care once a week), and tons of toys/appropriate chewing items, etc.

So I've done what has been mentioned here - just keep the house extremely well organized, and keep everything out of his reach that is not OK for him to have.

When I do have something that is "desirable" - for example, when I'm putting my socks on in the morning - I leave it within reach (my reach), I make him sit until the object is gone (on my foot), then give him a small food reward for behaving.

But yes, that is still very much a puppy behavior. I would say he'll eventually grow out of it, but that may take another 1-2 years, depending on how much fun the game is to him.


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## sprorchid (Mar 30, 2010)

My little guy is not a rescue. Ollie is, and I think will always be a thief too. I call him Ollie bah bah (and the 40 theives).

Shoes and underwear are his thing. Once in a while he'll branch out to a bra or some sweats, sometime a tank top. whatever I've just worn or is going to be washed.

he knows he's not supposed to do it. He's so bad, he'll actually look at me first to see if I'm looking to catch him, if I'm not looking he'll make off with it, if I am looking he'll re-direct himself, as if he wasn't going to take it. HA! and when I'm taking a bath, he waits till I get in, and then SNATCHES whatever clothes I was wearing.

He doesn't do anything with it, just takes it to the doggie bed or where ever and sits with it.

When he was 9 weeks old, he somehow made off with one of my hiking boots. I mean the thing was bigger than him! impressive to say the least.


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## dainnj (May 3, 2009)

Ollie bah bah - love it.ound:

It's good to hear there is at least hope that she'll eventually grow out of this. I did a little training this afternoon with her - I "dropped" a pencil and we practiced leave it. Well, the little bugger was on to me and would go for the pencil just to get the treat. I stopped treating her and she eventually left the pencil alone, but it took a while.

We'll just keep working with her and hope that it will pass. Thanks everyone for all your stories and help.


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## Mojo's Mom (Jun 6, 2009)

It will get better. I noticed a big difference just between Mojo at 11 months and Mojo at 13 months. Particularly the last month, he has been leaving more things alone, and much more easily giving up the things that he does grab. Just today I discovered that I had left the top off the plastic container that holds my granddaughter's hair accessories and it had stayed untouched for the entire day. Two months ago, it wouldn't have lasted 15 minutes.

We haven't done anything differently, Mojo is just maturing. I wouldn't expect ever to be able to leave around pieces of paper, cardboard or anything plastic. He is, after all, a Havanese, and has an image to uphold ;-)


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## waybrook (Sep 13, 2009)

Mojo's Mom said:


> It will get better. I noticed a big difference just between Mojo at 11 months and Mojo at 13 months. Particularly the last month, he has been leaving more things alone, and much more easily giving up the things that he does grab. Just today I discovered that I had left the top off the plastic container that holds my granddaughter's hair accessories and it had stayed untouched for the entire day. Two months ago, it wouldn't have lasted 15 minutes.
> 
> We haven't done anything differently, Mojo is just maturing. I wouldn't expect ever to be able to leave around pieces of paper, cardboard or anything plastic. He is, after all, a Havanese, and has an image to uphold ;-)


Congratulations - sounds like he's growing up!

Panda will be one in early June. She will steal the socks off your feet if possible! Nothing is safe or sacred - shoes, clothes (particularly underwear) are fair game for her. She will snatch it and then look to see if you see her - then RLH! It takes pulling out a snack, making her sit/stay and then picking up the item to get it back.... Hopefully she'll outgrow this - it sure has made my housekeeping easier - everything gets picked up!


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## pjewel (Apr 11, 2007)

Ruby is a pain in the butt when it comes to . . . anything. She seems to have a curiosity the boys never had and a need to grab and destroy anything that looks interesting. She just chewed the ear hook off my expensive Motorola ear piece for my cell phone. She stole it out of my handbag, one of her favorite things to do. I have to remember to zip the whole top of the bag when I come home. No dog of mine has ever done that. I want to kill her when she does stuff like that. 

I really hope she outgrows it because it's hard to have loving feelings for her when she ruins so many things.


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## SMARTY (Apr 19, 2007)

dainnj said:


> Luna is going to be 1 year next month. She's a great dog with a wonderful temperament and is great with obedience things like sit, stay, come and such. But we still aren't able to give her free run of the house. My issue isn't potty training, but that she'll chew anything left on the floor or on the coffee or end tables. If she finds my daughter's bedroom door accidentally left open, she's in there immediately to grab a toy, then runs out before anyone catches her. Same thing with the laundry room, except there it's to get to the cat food or worse, the litterbox.:hungry: She'll chew on books, papers, pencils, pens, crayons, any sort of wrapper. Oh, and any clothes. Sometimes my daughter comes out with clothes so I can help her get dressed and it's a race to see if I can get the clothes on before Luna runs off with them.:frusty: She knows 'leave it', but that only works if I'm there with her - it doesn't work to deter her when I'm not around.
> 
> So I guess my question is, is this a phase that will pass, or do I need to start diligently working on this? Right now, we just keep her rooms puppy proofed.


This was normal for Smarty too. Nothing was safe from her, once she decided she could get on the kitchen counters and ate several things she should not have we had to crate her for a while. She would get our shoes and then run with them because of our homes lay out it would take 2 people to corner her. She loved ink pens, which are not good for carpets.

Smarty did this pretty much until we got Galen when Smarty was 2, now Galen does it with paper. She is not as bad as Smarty or has learned quicker which items don't make Mom as mad, but I think it is normal puppy for some.

What I have found interesting is Smarty never destroyed any of her things she played with certain toys but never chewed them up. Our stuff she massacred. Galen on the other hand has been like a demolition team on the toys and their baskets, but so bad with our things.


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## Redorr (Feb 2, 2008)

When Lola was up to a year old she did this sort of thing - chewed a few bluetooth ear pieces and eyeglasses. Then I gave her "chew stix" - flossies or bullysticks - and with age she has grown out of it completely. She doesn't run off with clothing at all. Doesn't take the TP off the roll. She just doesn't get into anything any longer. Unless it is food. She will climb for chocolate, nuts, any food. Freaks me out as she has consumed chocolate covered coffee beans! But she has come through them all fine, and now I am certain to keep food out of her reach. BUt I leave her home with run of the house and she does not get into any trouble. Just staring at the door.

Here's hoping all these havs will outgrow this behavior.


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