Dog takes possession of baby's pacifier

#1

Originally published at: http://boingboing.net/2017/03/13/dog-takes-possession-of-baby.html

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#3

Wait until he starts finding crayons.

Are the dogs on to something? Are crayons good? No idea, but they love them.

#4

“Stop pestering me, human. Go find a toy to play with or something. Jesus.”

#5

As soon as your dog is well you ought to teach them the command “DROP!”.

Normally this is done by saying the command while they have something like a toy in their mouth and you hold out their favorite treat. They drop the toy while opening their mouth to get the treat. You praise them, take the toy for a few seconds, and give that back as well.

Progress from toys to treats (ones not as loved as the ones you offer for “DROP!”). Give back whatever they had before in this case as well. It doesn’t normally take long to get to the point where they are willing to drop pretty much anything because they know they get something tasty, and even the original thing back.

Once you get it trained, try to not use it to take something away “forever” very frequently. Make sure they get lavish praise and treats whenever possible. If you have to take away a toy (because it is coming apart into dog choking sized bits) give extra treats and a replacement toy.

#6

I’m guessing the dog noted the special treatment the baby gets, and decided to impersonate the baby.

#8

I have a minipin that will do it. A less obident breed may well exist, but I’ve never encountered it. (Minpins are reasonably smart, but use most of that smartness to figure out what they can get away with, not to figure out what you want them to do)

I’ll bet odds are pretty good you can teach this to any dog with enough time, effort, and probably chicken jerkey or freeze dried liver or something.

#9

I can attest to that. Used to have three of them, years ago. High intelligence, very low obedience.

#10

Another really good one is “LEAVE IT”.

I never knew if my dog had really learned that one until we were on a empty swath of the Oregon coast. I took her off her lead and she was having fun running around. We happened on some guys fishing and they had laid out a bunch of hooks that they had pre-baited with something that smelled good to her. She immediately dialed in on the “treats” and when she was about a foot away I yelled “LEAVE IT” and she immediately veered away and didn’t look at them again. Wew!

#11

That is a good one. Sadly the best I can do with the minpins is “LEAVE IT!” - that means “don’t touch it while a human is looking…but stay close because maybe they will look away and then we can grab it!” Fortunately they are amazingly fun dogs, mostly making up for being extremely disobedient little monsters anytime they think they can get away with it.

#12

Same for my dog. That command doesn’t mean I can leave pie out on the counter. It just means, don’t put that thing in your mouth before I can move it to a safe place.

#13

Fair enough. I did have one dog that saw a huge stuffed bear my wife had just acquired as TOY!. I told her to “leave it!” just once, and it was never a toy again.

However if I had said that about a bird, or other small fast moving creature she never would have heard me in the first place :wink:

As for the minipins “leave it” is also for grass in the back yard, all the oranges that fell out of the tree but I haven’t picked up yet, and parts for whatever I’m building. Some of those are not movable, others are but I wanted to move them on my schedule not theirs.

#14

Same. My dog was a rescue so I don’t know her exact genetic make up but she has a greyhound or whippet style body. Small fast animals throw her into hunting mode. She has snatched a few squirrels off the top of our 8ft wood fence. Caught a few rat’s somehow. Thankfully she doesn’t see cat’s that way and loves to cuddle with our cats.

#15

Mine was a rescue, about 45 pounds. Maybe had doberman and Shepard in her background. She caught birds from the air (they would have been ok, but they didn’t realize she could twist mid leap and effectively get a little steering going on), mice, and a possum that was over half her size.

She wanted all the squirrels, but she always got too excited and warned them. Plus while she could leap into the lower tree branches, they could climb well out of her reach.

Sadly dogs don’t last forever, and 13 years was all she got on earth. I’m glad she got to spend them with me (well other then the first ~18 months before I adopted her).

#16

I adopted my dog when she was two. That was about 6 years ago. She still looks the same today as she did then. People assume she is in the 2-4 year range. I don’t want to think about where all dogs go. :cry:

#17

Alright, lets not talk about it.

Go walk your dog, we have a while extra hour of daylight in the evenings now (Er, assuming wildly that you are in the USA).

#18

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