Does your pooch tense up or get possessive when you try to take away his food or a toy? Or, does she growl or snap? Then you may need to implement some Doggie Fair Trade.
Doggie Fair Trade teaches your dog that it’s no big deal to relenquish a toy or a chew. But, before you proceed, be sure you can detect signs of stress in your dog because this is crucial to successfully treating this condition also known as resource guarding. If you have any doubts about the safety of doing this, you should seek help from a professional.
First, look for signs of stress before doing anything to your dog while he’s enjoying his toy or treat. The last thing you want to do is force your dog into a confrontation.
Resource guarding is a normal dog behavior that communicates “I don’t want to share”. However, when your pooch threatens to bite you when you want to take something away, this can be a problem! If this is the case, then you may want to teach your dog that people approaching him when he has a bone is “no big deal”- AND humans may even have something better. Really, all you’re doing is teaching that humans have lots of good stuff!
Each of the training scenarios below could take several weeks to implement, so remember, like so many good things in life, it will take time and patience:
HUMANS = GOOD THINGS. Teach Rover that a human approaching is a good thing! Practice first walking past your dog while he has his toy, and dropping a delicious treat like chicken or steak. Do this for several training sessions. NEXT, practice approaching your dog from the front and tossing treats while she has her chew. Do this over and over and over… If you see any signs of stress, stop training. You want to keep your dog relaxed at all time. The goal here is a 100% relaxed dog that looks forward to a human approaching. The next step would be to approach your dog and stop and drop treats. Keep dropping treats while you hang around and you might even sit. Relax a while. Don’t take the chew, just hang out together and relax…
FAIR TRADE WITH FIDO. The next goal is for puppy to WANT to give you his bone. Scenario: Give puppy a low value chew and let her chew on it for a while. Now, show her the delicious bone/treat you have. (Secret: what you have must be better than what the dog has.) Wait for her to drop her chew, and as soon as she does, show her YOUR bone, but hold onto it, while you pick up her bone. Next, drop your bone and let her chew. Now, take a coffee break & let her chew on it for a while, then repeat. You don’t want to stress her out by trading more than a few times per training session.
FETCH IT/DROP IT: If Fifi likes to fetch, you can practice tossing the item and after she retrieves it, have her drop it for an IDENTICAL toy. Once she drops it, show her what you have and then pick up her toy. Toss the new toy and repeat.
LEAVE-IT: Teaching your dog a good leave-it works wonders for many issues. You are teaching him impulse control and at the same time, getting control over his behavior. You can read about impulse control on my blog.