The Game Continues

We have eliminated most of the alluring objects from Guinness’s grasp – flowers, plants, wastebaskets, my shoes (he doesn’t bother Grant’s shoes), washcloths – making the house a temptation-free zone for him to roam. However, he misses the catch-me-if-you-can game. I left my closet door open this morning, affording him the opportunity to grab a shoe. Later, I heard him bouncing around upstairs, meaning that he has something he shouldn’t. Since the house has become sterile of his favored booty, the excited activity means that he has found something else suitable as a game piece – this time, a remote control.

The game now has a strategy: begin the chase in the dining room where he can run around the table making it impossible to catch him.
Solution: I close the door to the kitchen and chase him out of the dining room to the living room.
Alternatives: From the living room, he can escape to the – a) den, b) kitchen, c) lower level, d) upstairs.
Den: This means the game is over, because I close the doors and he has no where to go.
Kitchen: He has a smidgen of a chance here if he runs around the table, past me, and out the doorway again. Usually, I do corner him behind the table and game is over.
Lower level: This choice can extend the game a bit, because he can keep me at bay around the coffee table. That can also give him the opportunity to race back upstairs. More often than not, I am able to corner him and retrieve the prized game piece.
Upstairs: He will find himself closed in and cornered in any of the three rooms he chooses. The game does last a bit longer in the master bedroom, because he has learned that staying on the bed is defeat. If he runs in a dizzying circle – on the bed, off the bed, round the room, back on the bed, off again, etc. – he can prevent me from catching him for a while. But his latest angle is to stand in the master bedroom doorway and wait for me to catch up to him at the top of the stairs. At that moment, he dashes past me at top speed back down the stairs to another room.

Unless the item is valuable and in mortal danger, I am in hysterics before the end of the game.

The breeder suggested that the chase can be stopped by sitting in the middle of the room playing with his favorite toy. But he doesn’t have a toy that he likes better than the forbidden object! If I have no patience, treats will win the game, though, it does take coaxing for him to decide that a cookie would be a nicer end than to continue playing The Gingerbread Boy. Can you believe it? I treat my dog for stealing contraband!!!