I find it helpful to teach my Yorkie the command "Give" with toys and when he actually get to things that he cannot have, I give him the command "Give" and when he does it, I give him a good treat. Usually, nothing in his mouth tastes better than a good treat and he knows he is giving whatever he has in his mouth for something better and he will. The other day, he had a small piece of carpet remnant (don't know where he got that from) in his mouth and he wouldn't give it to me and I said, "Give Siu Pao and Mommy will give you a treat!" When he heard the treat word, he dropped it and came to me and waited for his treat. It works 99% of the time! There is no need to smack them or anything. I believe a positive reinforcement always works better than a negative one. |