1.5 year old Mini-Bernedoodle loves stealing shoes, but only when we're in the room
Title typo: Only when we're NOT in the room
Hey gang!
I did a reddit search and there were similar issues, but not much help in terms of actually remediating.
Here's the situation: Oliver is 1.5 years old. He took to training very well and we can trust him around the house more and more. His "leave it" command is super solid, even with food scraps on walks and whatnot. Very proud of him!
But! Sometimes he's a shoe guy. If we're not in the room with him to say "Leave it", he bee-lines to shoes and prances/marches away so happy. I think he's using it to play a game, because he gets so excited once he gets a shoe and can't wait for us to chase him. We've gotten the procedure down pretty pat and are able to get the shoe back with out engaging in much joy or fun. We've stopped trying to bribe him with treats to get him to bring it back, and try to joylessly take it from him.
He's got several toys around the house, and he knows which are his toys and which aren't. But for some reason, he just grabs a shoe for the thrill.
SO! The question in: How can I help him not grab shoes? Leave it works if we see it, so that's good. But he struggles with "drop it". I'm working on that but it's the first thing he's struggled to learn.
Are there any tips for helping reinforce that he's not supposed to grab shoes?
We've arranged shoes to be in rooms with doors now so we _can_ shut him out of those spaces, but that's not how we want to be long term.
Thanks for your time!