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Thread: tv remotes

  1. #1
    House Broken jules's Avatar
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    tv remotes

    I'm on my 4th television remote!!!!if i forget to put it in a place he can't reach ,it's gone ,soooo discusted,
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  2. #2
    Senior Dog Snowshoe's Avatar
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    LOL, there are courses you can take and things you can do to improve your memory.

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  3. #3
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    It is so easy to put down the remote and walk away. When Finley was 3 months old I briefly left the room and walked back in to see the tv channels rapidly changing with no human operating the remote. I glanced down and saw Finley on his bed mouthing the remote with his teeth obviously on the channel button. Except for a few scratches, it was okay but for just a few seconds I didn't know what the heck was happening to the tv.

  4. #4
    Senior Dog Jeff's Avatar
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    That's pretty much training. My boy leaves the remotes completely alone unless I drop them or knock them off the arm of the chair, sometimes I intentionally drop them. Then he comes running over and gently picks it up and hands it to me. Which he gets a lot of good praise and he gets all excited and runs over to the treat jar because he gets a treat for being so good. Same for socks as well. Now every night I have someone that picks my socks up off the floor and hands them to me.

    First you need to trap them in a room they can't run away from. Make sure you have a pocket full of yummy treats. Start dropping the remote, start dropping the socks when they grab them and start to run come over and gently take them away and as soon as they give them too you lots of praise and treat. Keep repeating this for about 15 minutes every day. For a week by the end of the week the moment you drop the remote they should be picking it up handing it to you as fast as they can to get the treat. Then keep repeating for a while out in house once a week or so for a few weeks.

    Remote and socks are mine, the minute they are returned to me means treats.

  5. The Following 3 Users Say Thank You to Jeff For This Useful Post:

    doubledip1 (01-06-2016), Maxx&Emma (01-06-2016), POPTOP (01-06-2016)

  6. #5
    Senior Dog smartrock's Avatar
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    One thing you could try, and I cannot promise it will work, would be to get a small mousetrap, set it, and lay it on top of the remote control when you are not using it and leave the room. Then when your pup goes to get the remote, he will get snapped by the mousetrap and you don't have to be there to call him away. I would have suggested putting the trap on the table where you leave the remote, but it sounds like you need to make the remote not appealing rather than get him to stop "counter surfing" the top of the table or wherever you leave it. This will require some work on your part, remembering to put the trap on top of the remote. Maybe if your pup gets snapped or snapped at a few times, he will decide the remote isn't worth the risk any longer.

    It is likely that you will also get snapped a few times during this training period. I'm talking about small mousetraps. I've used them to stop the dog from eating dirt out of plants, getting up on furniture, getting stuff off counters or table tops. Once the dog knows the trap will snap him, they will generally avoid an un-set trap as well. But he probably will need to get snapped a time or two so he knows to leave it alone and you will need to be consistent until the remote and the trap seem synonymous to him. If you can remember to do this for a bit without fail, maybe you can get him to just avoid the remote altogether. I'd say work harder on trying to remember to put the remote away, but it will still be attractive to him if you forget to put it out of sight. You want to try to make the remote itself less appealing.

    When people have dogs that like to counter surf, a usual suggestion is to keep the counters clear. I know for myself, that is an impossible ideal. I'd rather they learn not to get onto the counters in the first place rather than have them up checking out the counter tops if I forget and leave something out. I have tried training a dog to "leave it" and "drop it" with shoes or other items and they will absolutely do it when I tell them to, but that doesn't stop them from getting the item when I'm not there to stop them. They don't seem to understand that if I tell them to "leave it" now, that means leave it forever. It can be very frustrating.

    P.S. I'm all for positive training as well, as Jeff suggests, and I'd certainly try that first. But knowing myself as I do, I'd leave the remote on the sofa cushion and when my pup retrieved it and tried to bring it to me for his treat, I'd be in the bathroom or the basement or somewhere and he'd decide to chew on it while waiting for me to return and give him a treat when he brought me the mangled remote.

  7. #6
    Senior Dog Tanya's Avatar
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    life with dogs haha! I spent years without pockets (rocky chewed them all). I am more consistant about not leaving clothes out now.

  8. #7
    Senior Dog Maxx&Emma's Avatar
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    Lol! It is fairly easy to teach them to bring these kind of things to you, as Jeff described above. Maxx will seek out the remote and bring it to each of us, requesting a treat. (I bring a small bowl of frozen green beans to the den in the evenings.) He was so proud of himself when he learned this as a puppy. He got much yummier treats as a baby but he would weigh 200 lbs by now if he still got those every time. He loves green beans so he is happy.
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  9. #8
    Senior Dog doubledip1's Avatar
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    Been there ;-)
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  10. #9
    Senior Dog POPTOP's Avatar
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    Even when Bandit joined us at age 7, he managed to taste test a remote or two and DH's glasses.
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  11. #10
    Senior Dog CraftHer's Avatar
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    Remotes aren't Mocha's thing. Socks are. The first time I took away a sock, I didn't realize I was creating a game for Mocha. One of his favorite games! I like Jeff's suggestion of turning the game into handing the remote or socks to you for a treat instead of prying it out of his mouth. However, the sock game was an opportunity to teach "open" and "drop" Funny, open only works when he does not have anything in his mouth.

 



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