@dreamwolf You asked: “well for the timing part. I did hold the trap in front of him, that was destroyed, so do you think he has a sense of what was wrong then?”
Imagine that you have a condition where you only have awareness of what is going on right this minute. You have been placed in a foreign country where you don’t know the language. You did something, for example, touched a strange thing on the floor. Then someone yelled at you and then hit you. Now they are waving something in front of you. You understand that they are angry, but you don’t understand why they are angry. You understand they are waving this thing around in the air in front of you. With a human brain it is even confusing, “don’t touch this thing I am touching and showing you” really doesn’t make sense.
That it was “destroyed” is only meaningful to you who knows what it is supposed to look like. The dog doesn’t have a concept of “destroyed.” This is no different than a child who colors on the wall. The child doesn’t have a concept of $25/gallon paint, the time and effort that will go into repainting the wall, they have to be taught not to color on the walls. With a child as with a dog, you redirect them into doing something they are allowed to do (coloring on paper or playing with an appropriate dog toy).
The instant your dog’s nose touched the glue strip or when the dog started moving toward the glue strip was the time to correct the behavior. The dog cannot (with his current training) understand why you are waving this thing in front of him and can’t guess how you wish he would change his behavior.
If my dog moves toward something off limits, I make a noise and draw his attention back to me. I say “leave it.” I train dogs that search for human remains and it is critical that they do not mess up a crime scene by moving any objects (however delicious they may look to a dog). When I say “leave it,” they have been trained as to what the command means and they know not to touch or move the object.