Remote control!

[tryingsomethingnew]

DPup has suddenly gotten into the habit of stealing remote controls and biting in them. He's 8 months and never take. Them before. Once was an accident and we were surprised. He's taken another one today! Chewed the bottom of that. We obviously chase him straight away and manage to get it off him. Now we are putting them away or up high. Any advice? Is this normal behaviour?

Very normal

Keep reinforcing
Keep stating boundaries and teaching him what he is and isn't allowed to do
Remove remote controls and hide them!

Ps just to reassure you he will grow out of it with regular and consistent gentle reinforcement

Ours chewed shows. Cables. Clothes you name it. Now we can leave him for several hours (rarely, but has been done) and he patiently waits. The one thing I haven't persuaded him to stop chewing is the oost. But you can't win them all?!!🤷‍♀️

You've turned it into a great game

In pups head, it goes like this:

I'm bored and want attention
If I steal this, they get up and chase me!
I get attention and a fun game of chase
So I'll do it again
And again

The solution is to hide tempting objects and make it boring when he does steal it.

Thanks. He doesn't go for them when we're sitting on the sofa. We'll be in the kitchen and notice he's grabbed it off the coffee table.
Okay, I'll remove them to up high, but reinforce No....Leave it. Those sorts of things?

"No" isn't really a command that makes sense to a young dog because it means so many different things in different situations.

I would work on a "leave it" command for when you see him heading towards the remote, and a "drop it" command for when he actually has it in his mouth.

Just keep anything you don't want him to have out the way. If he chews anything it's human error not dog error.
He'll never make a habit of anything he can't practice.
Yes teach leave it but you'll get much more success when short on time just working on prevention rather than training.

Thanks all x

Ours went through a phase of that at about the same age. I think they are a perfect size for a dog's mouth and make a very satisfying crunch. We just kept ours up high for a good while. She has lost interest now so we can leave it on the coffee table or lying about again.