So training a rat-terrier has been a new experience for me, and I get excited when I find something that works.  I got this advice and tried it and it worked like a charm with Murphy:

Problem:  Getting into trash or tearing up tissues or paper.

Training:  I dropped a wadded up piece of paper in the middle of the room, with Murphy off of his lead.  Murphy immediately went for it, nub wagging.  I said "No."  A word he knows quite well, and he backs off but is keenly interested in it and he won't be able to resist long.

I then go over to the tissue and scold it, finger out and shaking.  I really let that tissue know how bad it was. How dare it get on the floor!  It makes the house look messy!  It's a bad, horrible tissue and I will hates it for ever, my precious!  I went on like this for about a minute, until I felt too self-concious and silly for what I was doing.  I then walked away, but watched Murphy from the living room.

Murphy watched this whole production with his head curiously cocked to one side, the way he does when the wheels are turning.  He slowly walked toward the tissue, barked at it once that funny RT bark of his, and he came into the Kitchen with me and I praised him.  The tissue stayed on the floor all day, and he didn't touch it.

I repeated this with the trash can.  That was it, I haven't repeated it.   It's been three days and he hasn't torn up any paper or gotten into the trash since, although the trash can does seem to have lower self esteem now.

I've read many people teach their dogs not to snatch things off tables (food, paper, whateer) with this technique.  Sounds like your dog is proof it WORKS!  Congrats on a job well-done! 

Luckily, my girl Button doesn't do this too much anymore but was real bad about it as a puppy.  Zipper, my rescue, has never really snatched things off tables since we've had her.  Has neer really paid much attention to tissues either. 

Alright! I just pulled a muscle laughing! This is too much! Are you serious? I can't take it. Ooooo....I feel lightheaded now.

When someone told me to try this, I was SURE they were pulling my leg.  "Should I stand on my head while doing this?  Perhaps dress as a clown first?"  But yep... it worked.

I tried it again last night because I wanted to see if Murphy would join in and bark at the tissue again, but he just looked at me like... "Dude... it's a tissue!"  I guess he's moved on.

OMG!!!! It actually works! Since reading this thread two days ago I have been waiting for Yaz to try to take something she isn't supposed to have. Hmmm....when did she get so well behaved? So finally today she took Daddy's slipper. We were standing right there in the bedroom having a conversation, in comes Yaz, Hey guys...I'm here, pay attention. No? Okay and she takes the slipper and bolts. I calmly follow her into the living room. She has dropped the slipper. I go up to the slipper and tell it how it is a very bad slipper over and over again. Yaz hid under a table! I swear I could hear her thinking, "Holy cow she has gone plumb crazy." I told everyone don't touch the slipper. It stayed right there.

That is awesome, Amy!   Did you feel as ridiculous as I did, scolding a trash can?

Not so much ridiculous. I mean I have three young kids, I do ridiculous things all the time. I had a really hard time not laughing. It was so funny. Not just the fact that I was yelling at a slipper but her reaction. I wonder why Murphy barked at the tissue but Yaz ran and hid in fear of the crazy lady.

Murphy is pretty bold... stupidly fearless, really.  And he gets mouthy and barks when we play with him, too (more of a "rowrel" kind of noise, really) .  So the bark might just be a Murphy thing.  I tried to get him to repeat it the other day, and he was only marginally interested and didn't bark at all, while I, on the otherhand, felt like a moron yelling at a tissue on the floor.

So as I've been doing this over the past couple of weeks - walking around the house, scolding various inanimate objects in front of the dog, it really seems to have lost it's effect.  Murphy now wants to help chastize the object.

"That's right, Dad!  Tell that shoe who's boss! Yeah... here, I'll tear him up for you!"

Maybe not such a great training technique, but it was a kinda funny story.

Last night, Murphy tried to get into my can of Diet Pepsi while we were watching TV.  I used the bad bad tissue technique and man, I let Diet Pepsi really have it... it tastes bad and isn't good for you and I hates it forever etc.

Then, every time I would pick it up to take a drink, Murphy would bark at it... like crazy barking.  If I moved it close to him, he would jump back and bark at it even more!  I chased him around the room with it and he really wigged out, running and barking and getting really wound up.  Funny dog.  I'd like to catch that on vid.

I have to try that with Tazz, She loves to take our shoes and pull the insoles out, We have just been keeping them up out of her reach but soon we will have to hang them from the roof ( she started climbing the shelf in the mud room).

But now you can't enjoy your Diet Pepsi anymore.

But seriously, I need to give this a try tonight. I have a couple of very bad pairs of shoes that need a good scoldin' while Fredo watches.