Is "Collector" a working title? - Page 1

My male is a collector.

For the most part he doesn't damage the things he collects, he just collects them.  I've had him in the house since he was lost (kidnapped) at the first of July and if I turn my back on him for longer than five minutes I come back to a collection.

Yesterday, I had him in the kitchen with a couple proper play toys and I went to my office to do some work.  Gone about twenty minutes and when I returned, he was curled up on the floor, happy as a clam surrounded by his collection.

He had:
All his stuffy toys.
A pair of sunglasses.
An over sized jute roll.
A t-shirt.
Shoes (lots of shoes!)
A singular swimmie
Two LEGO men
A blue blankie
My computer bag (with computer!)
A retractable leash

He hadn't hurt or chewed a single item, just had them all pulled in close around him and was sleeping with his head on my computer bag.

AAWWWWW!!!! SOOOOOOO CUTE!! I think he was just collecting his favorite things, fun things.... including things that smell like you, and your kids (assuming the LEGO'S belong to the kids and not you). As far as your laptop.... I think he was telling you to stay off it and play with him.....



Oh, and maybe he is saying put your shoes on, sunglasses (cause he is concerned about your eyes) and go out for a walk.... LOL

LOL!

Some days I wish the LEGO's were mine!  LEGOs, blue blankie, swimmie and a couple of shoes belong to my son but Eric also seems to feel that a covered flat surface should be cleaned off, so he usually plucks things off the cluttered surface of the kitchen table.

I'm like: "Dog!  I work hard to cover that flat surface with crap!"
Eric: "And I work hard to extract all the clutter off the flat surface, Mom!"

Cute! It would be cool if you could channel that natural trait in training.

I've actually toyed at times with the thought that he would make an excellent therapy/assistant dog.  He's extremely gentle, loves people and probably could be trained to open doors, fetch necessary items, phone and the like but I have no experience with such training and I don't need one myself.

Also he's still very much a puppy, I'm curious to see what happens when he hits his 'teenage' years.  Case in point, when I first got him at 5 months, he had no real interest in the ball or toys or playing tug but now at going on 11 months, he's 'woken up' and will about flatten me to get to the ball and can easily tug me off my feet when we're playing with the jute.

I'm laughing here because Drake does the same thing!  I know just what you're talking about, he's been doing it since he was a puppy and he's now 3.  He'd take socks and underwear (yuck) out of the dirty laundry and pile them up with other assorted items.  Socks are his favorite, but he doesn't really mess with shoes.  He never destroys anything, just sits with them.  As a matter of fact, I've made the dirty laundry off limits because I could never find all of my socks when it came time to wash.  Funny, yesterday I was in a hurry and left a pair of socks in the living room and when I got home from work late last night, he greeted me at the door with one in his mouth.  Had to laugh.

I personally think he's just telling you he's happy to once again be home and surrounded by those he loves .  That was quite a scare when he was missing!

GSDTravels,

Oh I know what you mean!  His all time favorite thing to snag is a slipper.  We constantly have to keep those out of reach but next to a slipper a sock will do.

One time we were sitting downstairs eating dinner and Eric was stretched out on the floor next to my son.  My son kept reached down and pushing at his head, while trying to eat with his other hand.  I finally got annoyed and asked him why he kept pushing the dog. 

My child looked up at me from over top his steak and said.

"Because he keeps trying to get my socks."

I sighed and said: "Well put them up out of his reach!"

My child, ever logical gave me an exasperated look.

"Mom, they're ON my feet."

Eric had been delicately trying to tug the sock off my child's foot.

That's hysterical!  I though you were going to say he wanted the steak.  NO, socks are much better!  ROFLMAO

Well of course he's a 'collector'--German Shepherd Dogs are gatherers, just as Beagles are hunters. 

Seriously, though--he's 'gathering' things he views as being important in both your life and his: everything you listed is either something you use while interacting with him (his stuffies, the jute roll, a leash) or something that's got your scent or the scent of your offspring fairly heavily imprinted on it.  It would be interesting to see what he'd do with ducks or sheep, if you made him understand that they were 'important' to you as well...I suspect he might make a fine herding dog.

And while you say you don't have any need for an assistance dog, and don't have any experience training one, you really ought to do both your dog and yourself a favor and do a little work in the direction--it wouldn't be hard to teach him to do a 'directed' retrieve of things you've dropped, for example, and that can come in very handy when you pull a back muscle or have some kind of surgery someday and suddenly *can't* bend over for a while.  You could also make use of that skill by teaching him to put his toys away in one spot.  Hexe was like your boy, and through trial and error I taught her to pick things up for me when directed and bring them to me, to put her toys away, and to take the dry clothes out of the dryer and drop them into the laundry basket or hand them to me for folding--if I had a front loading washer, I would have taught her to load it, too! She loooooved doing it, so it wasn't work for her, and it sure made doing mundane things like laundry and picking up around the house easier and a lot more enjoyable for me, too!

The shepherds know better than to get grabby with food, even steak on the plate of the small bi-ped.

Socks on the feet of the small, bi-ped however were free game!

Hexe you make some really good points!  Right now I'm just so happy to see his drive coming up, I've been letting him be a bit of a wild child, just wanting him to be crazy for the ball.  Once I feel comfortable that his drive is on track, I'll start working at harnessing it into more obedient acts.

Right now my little girl does as you say though.  I can send her out to pick stuff up for me and bring it back and that has come in handy now and again.  I didn't even think about it that way.