"Kevin" stage number 2?? :-(

Hi All,

Any ideas would be gratefully received.....

Zane is my oldest GSD at 16 months old and the oldest dog I have here at the moment.

He's already been through the chewing, pinching, naughty stages that although very frustrating, I found quite amusing at the time.
Now he seems to be having his 2nd "kevin" stage if there is such a thing for dogs.

He will steal. ANYTHING!! From post off the table (I don't mind if it's a bill) to food (never been fed from our plates or fed at same time as us so I don't understandthis), to toys, to my law books (whihc at $£80 a go I'd rather he didn't).

I know the easy answer is to move things he can't have out of his reach but unless I put absolutely everything on top of my 6 foot bookcase, it's not possible because of his size.

Aside from that, I'm trying to teach him NOT to steal. He knows about 40 commands now, "no" being the very first one I taught him followe by "leave". I started to think he was doing it just for attention because he rally is a clingy mommy's boy, but he has more individual attntion than the others and there's been no change in his routine.

This has started since we came back off holiday when, because most of the family I trust to look after Zane were on the same holiday, he had to go into kennels.

do you think it's because he was in kennels? Or because I was away from him for a couple of weeks (even though rhe ahd the company of the others)? Or is ti anothr "silly" stage that young dogs go through.

All my dogs have had their "kevin" stages, but I've never had a dog do it more than once.

Laura xx

he sounds bored TBH. He`s still very young - GSDs don`t mature till 2+ in my experience and he`s full of life and eager to play probably. Maybe doing some brain-work with him - teaching him new things, new games, scent-work etc. would settle him.
I find it best to give a dog an alternative behaviour rather than tell him off for doing something. So when Shamus happily trots in with one of my shoes, I get one of his toys and have a little tuggy game, so he learns that toy = fun.

eta: you may well have a particularly intelligent dog BTW

I agree. I don't think dogs really understand that telling off, it's much better to distract imo. I would have thought (and I'm hoping too!!) that the Kevin stage would have long gone by the age of 16 months? Yes I know gsd's take longer to mature, but they're also the smartest dogs in town, and by that age, mine have always known what to do and what not to do. Have you done all the training classes with him, maybe you could take it a bit further perhaps, give him something to think about and instil good behaviour into him rather than bad which he could be picking up from the others? Bored is my answer too! Good luck! Boys will be boys I suppose, I only had girls, except for a rescue who was 5 when I got him, so who knows maybe it's a male thing?

Hi,

I did think about him being bored but dismissed it because of the amount of work I do with him.

He still attends formal training and I do about an hour (spreadover the course of an evening) with him every night. We practice everything he learns in obedience classes and we do scent work both there and at home. We also do training of some sort or other during the day too and a little bit f scent work in the park. I've found if I turn it into a game rather than something he HAS to do, then he sees it as a game to be enjoyed also rather than a chore and it does seem to keep his interest.
The training is alwasy in addition to his walks so I alwasys thought with the 2 combined he should be mentally an dphyscially challenged enough to satisfy him.

We also play hide and seek by taking the scent work to another level - the most recent game being trying to find Oscar, who will hide in the most obscure places!

He is particularly intelligent and picks things up incredibly quickly. I noticed this when he passed his gold Good Citizen award without any real effort. OK - I had to teach him what to do and not to do etc as we all do, but it seemed to come so easily for him.

Yes it's been hard to maintain his interest sometimes but I've found with quite alot of exercise and swapping things around during training so he doesn't get into the habit of doing things in a certain order, it seemed to keep him happy.

As far as bad habits are concerned, Ellie doesn't have any (never did have) and Yiannis has almost lost many of his bad habits because Zane has shown him. Yiannis and Ellie don't pinch things either.
I don't tell him off if he does something wrong, rather try to get his attention focussed on something more positive that I can encourage him to do. As you said, swapsies with a toy if he has something he shouldn't have etc. This in itself is really easy.

He's due to start agility in about a month's time but because I have a dodgy knee I won't be able to run him myself once he gets into it. To begin with I think he'll love it. But once he gets a bit quicker someone else will have to take over (unless I can train him to run a course himself with me standing still) and because he is SOOOO clingy, I doubt he'll do it. Although that's a different issue for me to deal with at the time.

I think I'll try to work on stimulating him more mentally and see where that leads us.

Thanks both.

Laura xx

Just one thought...

I do agree with the principle of swapping, but I think the very bright dogs can work out the steps i.e. stealing something leads to a game.

If he wants a game and brought a toy to you - would you play? If not, he might have worked out that the stealing is the only way for him to get you to play?

Hi,

I understand where you're coming from but that's not how it is.

We have play times throughout the day inbetween training, rest, walks, etc. It certainly isn't a case of only getting to play when he steals something.

If anything, he's been spoilt with play times.

Laura xx

To me he sounds like a very bright dog! (but also very normal!)

Blooming 'eck, you're doing it all with him aren't you???? You're doing more with him than I would ever be doing with any of my dogs, ever! I wonder if he's being OVER stimulated now???? Blooming 'eck that IS a lot of stuff for a dog to be doing day in day out.

I only say this because during the 10 days I had to rest Zena with her bad leg, it actually made her QUIETER and much more well behaved, she seemed to grow into an adult during that week, no zoomies, no naughties, just a well behaved dog all of a sudden and have to say, it's carried on even though she only gets one night a week training and not much else training wise, I just do bits when we're out and about, and she gets 2 half hour walks a day and that's it!

You know what they say, the more they do the more they need, and I'm just wondering if that in itself is causing the clinginess with you too??? In other words "come on mum what are you doing, you're supposed to be doing it with ME"! Lol!

You seem very well up on the training programme so ask one of the trainers what she thinks about how often you do stuff etc. perhaps?

just a quick question, how long ago did you get back from holiday? my friends GSD gets really miserable and naughty if she sees her mum preparing for a holiday, she doesn't go in kennels she has a dogsitter at the house she sees regularly. She'll be fine while mummy's away, but as soon as mummy is home its back to being stroppy and misbehaving for a couple of weeks. I know it sounds like humanizing the dog, but i've witnessed it first hand and it really does seem like she's misbehaving to teach her lesson about gooing away and leaving her.It's really very amusing. Just a quick thought.

Zane sounds really bright, do you not have any drawers you can put your books in instead? All i can suggest right now is just treat it as though he's going through 'that' stage agan, back to basics. I don't think distracting him with a toy is an option as i know my girl would immediately pick it up as a way to get attention. Bright dogs can be such hard work!!! even better yet you could teach him to put things back where he got them from!!
sorry i'm not much help. I hope it passes quickly for you

But you're already doing that for ONE HOUR every night, plus you say more during the day toboot? Surely that's enough for any dog to keep him mentally stimulated, I doubt whether a police dog gets that amount of mental stimulation does it???? I don't know about all this, I'm now on my eighth gsd and I can honestly say none of them have done any training other than their original basics, and my constant nagging, I've never had to actually tell them off, I could always leave a whole cooked chicken on the worktop and none of them would dare ever take it even from say one year old, they've always been well mannered and do what I ask first time, and I'm just wondering if you actually cause more problems for yourself by doing all this training business for over one hour every single day, or is that quite normal then??? How long a walk do you go on and how many times a day then for him to have a good old run and have fun with other dogs? Only interested, coz it might be that he needs that more than all this mind blowing stuff?! I don't know coz like I say,my dogs are just allowed to be dogs, I really don't buy all of this constant, constant training, they should know it all by that age unless of course you're taking up obedience or similar and you need to keep reinstating it all? I do hope I'm not going to have the same with my Zena, coz quite honestly, I have enough to do throughout the day to spend half of it on her, plus give up an hour of my evenings as well when I want to put my feet up with her lying down nicely! LOl!