I have a 9 month old silky who has a mind of her own. If she puts something in her mouth that she should not have, ( paper, piece of plastic, ) she will not drop it, the only way to get her to drop what ever it is , I have to get her liver treat box, shake it and she will drop it, otherwise she will keep chewing.

Also we have to chase her around the house to put her up at night.

Any suggestions?

You walk her daily, yes? Regular exercise will help reduce destructive behavior, such as re-decorating the house with an entire roll of tissue paper. But what we've done with our dog is simply go right up to her, give the "drop it" command, while at the same time pry her mouth open and take the forbidden item. Then we praise with "Good Drop it." She is a lot better about not taking forbidden items now, except for Legos-- of course, she's five years old too, so that makes a bit of a difference. Now, as for her toys-- she likes to fetch and retrieve, but she will not retrieve to hand. She will make like she's going to give it, then as I reach to take it, she takes off. She wants me to chase her for it! It's her favorite game, but not mine. If I just shrug and walk away, she will come after me and shove the toy into my hand, trying to get me to tug for it. My preferred strategy is to sneak up on her and steal it back when she's pretending not to look. To be honest, I've never tried offering a treat in trade for retrieving to hand. I've been meaning to, but I always forget. Oh-- but one thing she'll do is, if she picks up something nasty on our walk, I give the leash a little shake and say, "drop it," and she will, immediately. She also knows "leave it."

[mightymite]

Silkies are known for being "super terriers" - they are super smart but very "opinionated." Not an easy dog for a first time dog owner. Some would say they think they are smarter thian their owners!

The simple solution to this problem, however, is to teach your dog a "release" or "give" command. DO NOT chase your dog if she takes something into her mouth that shouldn't be there. If you do the latter thing, you will soon make it a game of 'keep away" which is equally annoying.

To teach a release command, take some time out of the day and in a controled environment, such as a small bedroom. Present your dog with a low value toy. Low value - meaning it's something your dog could easily ignore if you weren't presenting it to her. Let her have it, play with her with it. Then present something of a higher value - her favioriate toy. SHow her the better toy, wait for her to open her mouth to take the better toy, when she does say 'good release!" and give her the better toy. Then play with the better toy. Then present her with a super food she would not get in any other situation - I mean stuff like liver, cheese, etc. Present it to her, when she lets go of the super toy to take the super food, ,again say "good release" and give her the food.

Practice this every day for at least a week for five minutes or so at a time. You want to get to the point where she anticipates the exchange and automatically opens her mouth when you say "release" - she should be expecting that she's about to get something even better than what she had a moment ago. IF your dog understand that giving something up does not mean you are taking the "fun away' but simply makinig an exchange, your dog will be more willing to give up something in her mouth. Once you have this concept trained, then will simply become a matter of:

Dog stole your stocking
You say "release"
Dog releases stocking and you exchange said stocking for something the dog IS allowed to play with - say a bone, rawhide, chew toy etc.

Make this a habit and you can win this battle

One thing - I warn you not to pry your dog's mouth open. Terriers have teeth designed to KILL rodents and small game. Even if your dog doesnt' intend to hurt you, if she tries to clamp down on the object that is in her mouth that you are trying to remove, you could end up with a nasty bite.

I agree with Mightymite except for two things. When you present the dog with a more desirable object, give the release command just as the dog opens her mouth. She has to be conditioned to open her mouth when you say the word.

And I wouldn't say "Good release" when she does open her mouth. For two reasons. First of all, "release" didn't do anything. I say "Good dog" or "Good boy" or Good boy followed by the dog's name.

Second, dog's don't use language the way we do. They don't put words together in sentences, which is why we use single word commands, or run two words together as a command, like "Findit" If you say "Good release", they hear it as good, followed by a second command to release. It can confuse them; you're telling them to do something they already did.

Oh, I forgot the second question. Stop chasing her. Teach her to come when called. In fact, get her into an obedience class and teach her to sit, come, down and stay.

If it's time to put her up for the night, I'm assuming you're crating her. If that's the case, get a treat she really likes, call her to you, and toss the treat in the crate. She'll go in to get it. Problem solved.