chewing stuff

Oh no, you haev to punish him. I guarantee you that if you walked over to your dog with that sandal in hand without saying anything he'd know whats up. When I used to come home and Rory had eaten something she shouldn't have she would giver herself away before I even discovered what she ate. Instead of her usual tail wagging greeting she would hunker down and slink to the back door like " i already know I'm getting kicked outside". A firm "no" accompanied by a shake of the object infront of their face gets the point across. I usually immediatly go grab all her toys and pile them on her bed like "I know you know" brat!, ha ha!
     I'll never forget this one time I woke up, walked into the living room to see Rory chewing on my sandal, I grabbed it from her, did the whole "no bad girl" thing and went back into my room. 30 seconds later here comes Rory with the matching chewed up sandal and dropped it at my feet like "here you forgot one' and ran outside. Oh believe me they know.
Dogs also get bored with their toys, keep a heavy rotation, include some cow hoofs, nylabone, and they love those fake doggie tires. If it makes you feel better my girl ate my brand new ipod when she was a pup!

I don't necessarily agree that you should punish the dog, especially after the fact.  I believe that dogs don't really know that a shoe is off limits, they just know that the human is kind of acting scary by waving the shoe around and talking/yelling in a raised voice.  A trainer I worked with tells a story of an experiment she conducted that illustrates this - it's not about chewing, but getting in the trash.  She went to a friend's house who had a dog, and with the friend's ermission, the trainer spread garbage out of the can and around the kitchen (she also cleaned it up post-experiment!).  The friend's dog did nothing but watch.  Friend came home, "saw" the mess and "started" to get ready to give the dog a lecture.  The dog, having done nothing, shrank away, not because he had done anything wrong, but because he was reading the human's body language.  I think in many circumstances, the dog doesn't really know that the chewing or getting in the trash is "wrong," just that the human is going to act scary-like when they discover the damage!

I agree partly in what you are saying, that a dog does communicate via body language and that does have a huge effect on their reaction to us. In some cases I believe you are correct but I'm sure that if you wave the sandal infront of the dog in any manner they will remember enjoying that treat. Same as how dogs remember visiting a specific park or pet store. I'm sure many of you have witnessed the excitement your dog gets when driving or walking to a well known place they enjoy. And my girl greets me with pure joy everytime I come home except when she has eaten something she shouldnt have but I guess all dogs are different.
 

I know that I *used* to believe that a dog knew when it had done something wrong.  But I have to agree that the dog reads the humans body language and reacts to that.  Besides that if you punish a dog it should only be when you catch them directly in the act.  And even then the punishment shouldn't involve any hitting or striking of the dog, no "rubbing" their nose into it.  Dogs understand the *punishment* that the mother would give them...which involves body posture, eye contact, a curling of the lip, maybe a growl or two, but they do not understand "spanking." 

ORIGINAL: sheprano

I agree partly in what you are saying, that a dog does communicate via body language and that does have a huge effect on their reaction to us. In some cases I believe you are correct but I'm sure that if you wave the sandal infront of the dog in any manner they will remember enjoying that treat. Same as how dogs remember visiting a specific park or pet store. I'm sure many of you have witnessed the excitement your dog gets when driving or walking to a well known place they enjoy. And my girl greets me with pure joy everytime I come home except when she has eaten something she shouldnt have but I guess all dogs are different.

 
i think you have some good points here shep.  i wouldnt have thought of it like that.

Thanks for the acknoweldgment! Its hard when people have diverse ideas about things and you have to pick out which ones might work best for your dog. It is really tough to try to judge their awareness and what they might and might not remember but at least we can all agree on not spankin our fur babies! Hey its a start!