my dog steals things and only relinquishes them with a treat - i have caused this

[MrsLargeEmbodied]

how do i solve this?

only for me, she drops them immediately if DH appears

You need to figure out what you are doing differently to your DH.
He is giving off different non verbal cues to the dog.
Stop doing what you are doing and copy his example.

deep voice?

Ignore the unwanted behaviour. Don't give any more treats, don't acknowledge the stolen stuff as high value, don't engage with her at all whilst she has the stolen item, break the chain she has learned.
Hopefully she will get the idea quickly, especially if she doesn't associate your DH with this type of action-reward.

What does your DH do differently to you? Not just in that scenario, but day to day. My dogs don't do what my DH tells them, largely because he's inconsistent and very soft with them. I treat them much like toddlers - firm boundaries, consistency and they know I mean business when I tell them to do something, so they generally do what I ask. Are you consistent with your dog otherwise? Have you fallen into the trap of bribing them whenever you want them to do something (not just drop items) so they're always doing it for the bribe rather than because you asked them to?

A deep, calm voice does help. I'm usually quite high-pitched in my day to day voice, but I have a low rumble I can pull out with the dogs when needed. Becoming shrill tends to turn things into a game and wind them up more.

it is often a remote control
a lighter
and these cannot be left with her

yes, thank you, i will lower my voice and my attitude

My dog does this too. Clever ..! She will come and show me whatever she has found.
I have not attempted to retrain her, maybe I should. She is the only dog I’ve had who has worked this out, the others all learnt to “drop it” on command, but a few years ago ddog worked out that if she found a random thing and picked it up, I would tell her to drop and then give her a small reward, so if she can she brings me things, cotton reels, bottle tops, bits of stick, anything really.

@DaleTrimont
cute

She will look at me and sort of theatrically roll the item around in her mouth..

ha ha
i have to give ddog attention also, she finds it quite disappointing if i dont react

She sounds lovely. Sorry that isn’t much help if it is an annoying thing . Sounds as though she enjoys the interaction with you. Is she “your” dog more than anyone else’s? As my dog will bring the item to me mainly, she doesn’t do it to DH.

oh yes, although she spends a lot of time with dh she loves me best

Dh is boss. You are friend..
Never in 11 years did i get my rottweiler to drop anything.. Dh just looked at her!!
Even loved a hair clip!

ha ha @Bunnybingesoneggs

I'm sorry but you've trained your dog to steal with treats!

Is he like this naughty lot?

edition.cnn.com/travel/article/monkeys-barter-humans-scli-intl-scn/index.html#:~:text=The%20paper%2C%20published%20in%20a,exchange%20for%20offerings%20of%20food.

ha ha
absolutely

My advice would be keep things out of reach.

I sympathise. I inadvertently did this too. As a young pup she would bring slugs and snails in the house. I got her to drop them with a treat but then she started to actively hunt for them so I'd give her a treat 🤦‍♀️ I broke the habit by just ignoring her and putting up with the dead bodies for a few weeks 🤢

Unfortunately (as you know) with dangerous items you can't just let her have them as she could put herself in real danger.

Personally, for now I would just continue what you're doing - there are worse habits for her to have than dropping stolen items for a biscuit or two.

I find our beagle listens to me much more than DH - because I'm more consistent and don't let him get away with stuff. For example, while I eat, he sits on the sofa and waits nicely. When DH eats, the dog pesters him, whines, jumps up and has even jumped up ON the table while he eats

I suspect there is something your DH does differently - that could be his body language, the volume/tone of his voice, his timing or the overall control he has over the dog. Without seeing what you both do in person, it'll be impossible to tell one way or another.

Train her to drop it before you give her the treat. So she comes to you, you get her to drop at your feet on command, then she gets a treat. Do it more and more (with toys etc) and sometimes just give physical/verbal praise rather than a treat. Then only praise for items she should be bringing (her toys)

Can't you just put the important/ dangerous stuff out of the way? Our dog chewed the TV remote once and then it went up on a high shelf ever after.
We also got a box for shoes because those are also his favourites.
Basically if I don't want it chewed then it has to be put away.

He will also steal items but not for a treat more because he likes the game of you chasing him to get it back. He always takes DHs hats because he knows DH will then interact with him to get them back. Any attention is good and is a game from ddog POV. It needed an expensive 1:1 dog trainer to point that out to us

We basically had to extinguish it by never treating or chasing him for any stolen items so therefore we just had to prevent any stealing of dangerous stuff.

We taught him 'drop it' as part of a sanctioned game with his own toys instead. He gets a treat or a swop for a better toy if he drops the one he has on command. You start by just saying 'drop it' when he is dropping it anyway to get the better thing. Now we can get him to drop stuff in an emergency but we try not to routinely reward him for stealing and then dropping our stuff.

Same thing happened with jumping up on counters or furniture. He started to do that in order to be told to get down and get a treat for getting down so again we started to just ignore it (having put all dangerous stuff out of reach) and he quite quickly gave up doing it.