Ball/Toy Aggression or Guarding

[PJ Brennan]

Our Gus is the perfect Labradoodle.  He is great with small dogs, big dogs, kids...all kinds of people.  He is very obedient and listens to strangers when they give commands.  Sure, he can be a little over-excited at times and jumpy - but it's all in the name of love.

That said, Gus becomes very toy/ball aggressive when another dog attempts to steal his ball or gets too close.  I wouldn't say he  bites, but he puts on a scary face, barks and chases the dog off.  I was just at the dog park and he did this with a new dog and the dogs owner got really uptight about it and immediately left the park....

Without interacting with other dogs, I'm not sure how to correct this behavior. Gus's brother will be visiting us for a week in July, so I was thinking this would be a great opportunity to test and correct this scenario...  What are your suggestions?

[Adina P]

There's not a simple answer to me.  As far as kids in a park, the kid who comes to snatch one of my kids toys, well it would make a difference if that other kid was 18 months or 5 years old.  Toddlers don't quite have the concept of sharing down for some time.  You work with  them, remind them, teach them, but most toddlers just don't grasp it yet.  They don't have the concept of not taking from others nor the concept of sharing with others appropriately.  Eventually they are developmentally able to both truly understand and practice it. 

Dogs are kind of different.  A dog may guard something that nobody is trying to take...a pre-emptive strike.  I've yet to see any of my friends kids or mine do anything like that in a play group or at the park.  When one person throws a ball for their dog, most nearby dogs jump in on the chase too.  And I've always been fine with it.  Taking a toy that becomes a group fetch is not the same as when one dog is chillin' chewing on a toy and another dog walks by to check stuff out.  Some dogs might just be coming by to check stuff out and another might be coming by to actually take the toy away--both dogs would get the same response from a toy guarder. 

I would LOVE a park like yours.  Ours is 2 acres...but 1/3rd of that is on a downhill slope so nobody stands on that and the dogs go up and down and you can't see them half the time.  I haven't been in over 2 years so don't know what the atmosphere is like.  But before we had a park we'd get together in a play group sunday mornings in school yards.  We all went for our dogs to hang out together AND to talk to each other.  It was fine.  When I've gone I've also gone to let my dogs run free, maybe find a play mate for the hour, and I'd throw balls when I'd get the chance if they weren't busy sniffing, playing, etc.  Later I went solely for training.

As far as off leash training, most people don't have dogs ready for that because their dogs aren't even obedient on leash.  So it's a great place to go when you are at that level, but it takes a lot of work to get there and from what I've seen...hardly anyone at the dog park here has true control over their dog.

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

Okay, so getting back to Gus. I guess I still don't see what he did in this particular situation that was so terrible it would cause someone to leave the park.

I have to say here that JD must be not only the most perfect doodle living, but a genius,too, because it was very easy for him to grasp the concept of "leave it", whether that was some dead bird on the ground or somebody else's ball at the dog park. And he also completely ignores any other dog who comes around when I'm playing ball with him, unless they actually make physical contact with him, such as running into him and thereby ruining a perfect catch. :)

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

Case in point:

 
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[Jane, Guinness and Murphy]

Yup, JD sees nothing but his ball.  What great focus.

[F, Calla & Luca]

It's interesting. The only time I've seen a batch of dogs and a few balls and no problems is when we have a romp at the beach. The dogs all seem to get along, they share and work things out without animosity. Maybe it's a doodle thing or the owners are good at not bringing dogs who have problems.

[Jane, Guinness and Murphy]

I can share what I do with my two Doods, although it is probably a little different than the context of a dog park.  Murphy has a tendency to guard the favorite toys.  The minute I see him acting inappropriately around the toy and trying to guard it or take it away from Guinness, I put Murph is put in a down/stay right next to me (I make it a point to actually take the toy and give it to Guinness).  It has really helped, unless I happen to not be in the room and then he'll give it a try.  They just need to learn that the toy or ball doesn't belong to them....you own everything.

[Adina P]

Does Murphy guard because historically Guinness will try to take the toy from him?

[Jane, Guinness and Murphy]

No, he guards just to be dominant.  He is smart enough now to know that I'm not going to allow it, but if I'm not around that's another story.  As an example....I just bought the boys two new toys (balls on squiggly ropes).  There was one with a big ball for Murph and a smaller one for Guinness.  I gave them the toys and they were each playing nicely.  I went into the bathroom, and when I came out Murph had both toys while Guinness was just laying next to him staring at his new toy.  Guinness would not try to get it back...there's no way Murph would let him.   Guinness knows when I'm there that Murph isn't going to take things away from him, and if I leave he will usually just take his toy under the bed where Murphy can't reach it.  I guess he wasn't fast enough this time.

[Jane, Guinness and Murphy]

We had a training session this morning and I asked my trainer for his opinion.  He said that when Gus's brother is visiting you should have a great opportunity to train him that this behavior is not acceptable.  The environment should be calm and controlled when the ball is out for them to play with.  His feeling is that for a dog that is already exhibiting a little ball obsession/possessiveness, the dog park scenario is just setting him up to fail.  There is just too much at play in that setting to actually teach Gus what is expected of him when he's around a ball and other dogs.  It seems right to me.