rescued shar pei

Question
my mother rescued a shar pei recently and he nests and hordes in her closet. he steals everything from food to toys to clothes and hides them in there. it is getting to be more than just annoying. do you have any suggestions as to how to fix this or even why he does this? thank you

Answer
Hi Alanna,

You didn't say how recently your mother adopted this dog.

Hoarding can be an obsessive-compulsive disorder(OCD) and, as such, could indicate some underlying anxiety. Just arriving in a new home can be very stressful for a dog, so the hoarding behavior might lessen with time. If it doesn't, or if your mother wants to help her dog get over this problem more quickly, she should have her veterinarian evaluate the dog, to see if medication would help. Examples of dog anti-anxiety medications include: Clomicalm, Prozac, or Elavil.

Your mother should work on prevent the hoarding behavior as much as possible by distracting her dog with another activity such as pop quizzes of obedience commands, play, or offering the dog a suitable toy when she sees the dog about to hoard something.

Dogs REALLY like structure in their lives. It means stability to them. Your mother's dog might really benefit from a simple program called "Nothing in Life is Free". It's based on how dogs perceive the "pack" structure, and how they fit into a pack, or their human family. This training program will put your mother in the role as "Alpha", or the pack leader. When there is a well defined pack leader in a dog's life it can remove anxiety. You can read about how the Nothing in Life is Free program works here:

http://k9deb.com/nilif.htm

Your mother might benefit from working with a dog behaviorist, if she can't get her dog to stop this habit. The longer it goes on, the harder it will be to break the habit.

Best of luck,

Patti