Glad I am not on my own, I will go and change his food my other thought was do you think he could be jealous of my grandson, Although my grandson was here first, There has been no nasty behaviour no aggression, like I say hes not got a bad bone in him.but some days they are both like 2 naughty boys and need to be kept apart. Anyone looking for a 3 yr old house trained and very polite. LOL.
It's a totally different issue when you have the pup around you all day. It means they expect your attention all day! Sounds just like my situation with my now 13 month old Alfred, except swap the grandchild with a fast growing kitten. Work from home so he's with me all day. Which means a whole days worth of getting my/your attention. Being around you all day, they learn quickly what does and doesn't get your attention away from your desk/computer/whatnot. Stealing stuff, chewing stuff, digging stuff... if you react, it works.
Funnily enough, I got the idea from when he's jumping on the cat for a wrestle, he actually pauses to look at me to see if I'm watching and if I will react (which I used to all the time -
get off the cat!). So I decided last month not to give him attention on demand any more. I decided I would only react if he was doing something dangerous, and ignore everything else (like stealing socks or tissues, whining or pawing at me etc). He only gets my attention when I choose to, and I've found the best way is to have constant breaks throughout the day (irregularly, so he can't figure out when they'll be) when you call him over, make him sit and then reward by giving a chew treat or going into the yard for a bit of play for 5-10 minutes and then back inside.
I'm far from an expert so it's still a work in progress so he still steals things, but just leaves them now after a few seconds when it doesn't get any attention. Another reason for doing what I've done is I also learned that giving him attention over stolen goods makes them high value and he was beginning to 'resource guard' them at around the 8 month mark with growls etc, which has since abated though not gone completely yet. As I said, still a work in progress for both of us, but it's coming along well I think.
I've since learned what I mentioned above is similar to the NILIF (nothing in life is free) sort of training. You're the leader, not him. Not the 'boss', just the leader as in you decide when you want to play and what's worth playing with etc, not him.
PS. I agree with the food thing. Some preservatives and colourings in cheaper foods can make some dogs hyper like red cordial to a kid, but most pups are hyper anyway so it's hard to tell!
