SoNotNic 🐍🐉🐈Things that you accidentally teach your dog. This is Gibbs and his towel. He would like to trade it for a treat. This is always successful. 1/4
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Gibbs came from his foster with a torn comfort blanket. When he would get anxious, which was often in the beginning, he would shred it. And that was okay. But then he would try to eat the giant pieces of fabric. And that was not okay. He would also try to shred other things like our blankets and our towels. And that wasn't okay either. But he didn't know commands like drop it or leave it or give, so we were prying open his mouth and pulling strips of fabric out of his ginormous throat. 2/4
He eventually learned to give up stolen goods on command, and we redirected his shredding habit to cardboard boxes (which he will also try to eat so this must be monitored) but in the beginning we were desperate to not pay for abdominal surgery, and once he realized why we were opening his mouth, he started clamping those jaws down hard to hold on to his fabric delicacy. So we often resorted to bribing him with treats to get him to open his mouth long enough for us to snatch the fabric out. 3/4
And then one day, he delicately swiped his drool towel from the back of the couch and turned to look at us with the brightest most optimistic eyes and perked up ears, and ever since then he can bring us his drool rag when he wants a treat. And he is so darn cute and adorable that he always gets a treat because he has trained us well. 4/4
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💿🌈🌻Alexander Worthington🌻🌈💿@SoNotNic Oh, what a sweetheart!
Cecilia Bell@SoNotNic I was able to train my dog to chew my slipper until it’s time to trade for a treat.🤦🏻♀️
AndyHMy black lab has a fetish for white kitchen towels, so we have to hang them on the upper cabinet handles.
Cwnidog@SoNotNic: Our Lab Molly grabs a shoe and holds it for ransom until we come across with a treat. She'll also grab one if she doesn't want someone to leave. Our son came to visit from Seattle and she had one of his shoes at all times.
Oh, what a sweet doggo!
SuddenGenesis@SoNotNic this is such an amazing story! Thank you for sharing, and Gibbs is clearly deserving of all the treats for towel exchange.
Joyful Girl@SoNotNic we trained ours to steal the best spot on the sofa until we HAND DELIVER him a treat. In our defense; it’s the corner of an L-shaped sofa…
That is the best spot on the sofa!
Sometimes when our teenager doesn't want to spend time with the parents, I will say, "If you join us, I will give you the good spot on the sofa." Otherwise that spot is mine.
Our giant dog, on the other hand, prefers to jam himself between two people.
@SoNotNic That’s hilarious! Gotta love a big snuggle bug doggo 🤣
Rai Aren 🖖✨📚🇺🇦@SoNotNic Omg, that is soooo precious & hilarious!! Give him *all the treats*! 😄 😍 ❤️
Mark Patterson, MD, PhD@SoNotNic
"A towel, [The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy] says, is about the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitchhiker can have. Partly it has great practical value. You can wrap it around you for warmth as you bound across the cold moons of Jaglan Beta... you can wave your towel in emergencies as a distress signal, and of course dry yourself off with it if it still seems to be clean enough."
Very smart dog!
Paranoid Factoid
Dream A Little 
@SoNotNic So cute! Our dogs train us very well.
KazzieJ@SoNotNic of course it always works! 😂