Pets Keepers Guide Forums

We have a white German Shepard Dog called Silver. He will be two years old in May. Silver steals the license plates of our and our visitors cars. It is getting so bad that I have place outdoor chairs in front of the cars, against the license plates so that he cannot steal it.

We have tried everything to let him stop stealing the plates, hot sauce, lemon juice, pest away and ever thorn branches. He carefully takes the branch in his mouth between his lips and just pulls it away. Silver doesn't eat or chew the plates, he just takes them off.

At first I thought he might be bored, but he has lots of toys and another dog to run and play with. They have enough space to run and play as well. It is not a lack of attention either, we make sure to spend as much time as possible with our pets. And Silver and my son is inseparable. If you are looking for one of them you just find the other and they both will be there.

Can you help me with other possible solutions I can try to stop the thieve?

Silver must be pretty strong to pull off bolted on license plates. lol

I try smearing cooking oil over the license plates, it might make them too slippery to get a hold of.

We used cooking oil on our birdfeed pole to keep the squirrels out of the feeder, so it is possible it would keep the dog from getting a firm grip on the license plates.

# 2, Use the cooking oil with lots of hot pepper sprinkled on it might break the habit.

Let us know if it works.

Wow, that is pretty incredible that he is able to do that! I would definitely do whatever you can to stop him, even if the solution is a hassle like putting a chair against your car every time. The cooking oil idea isn't bad, but even with access to the plate at all I'm just afraid he could damage his teeth on the metal. Sometimes you just have to go through a hassle while a dog is in a phase and likely soon they'll outgrow it and lose interest. My dog had a phase where she would rip up her pee-pad all of the time while I was at work. Since I wasn't home I couldn't stop her, and every night I'd have to come home and clean up little bits of cotton all over the apartment. It was a hassle, but eventually she outgrew it. Good luck!