Resource Guarding to other dogs not people

[Liz & Emma]

This past weekend I think we finally came to the realization that Emma has serious aggression to another dog when their is food, sticks, toys, etc around. We were at the football tailgate this weekend and a friend of mine gave her mini poodle a rib bone (emma didnt get one because they were too small for her i was afraid she'd swallow it) from that point on she turned (her and the poodle were playing for over an hour before this) and after she had a bone and Emma didn't Emma was lashing out at her- i was keeping her tight on her leash at this point. Then another dog just casually walked by and Emma just started growling!

She is so friendly and socialized. We go to the dog park twice a week and she goes to doggie day care once a week. She has a friend that lives next door and they play well together.

But once we started thinking about what happend yesterday things started adding up. Whenever we are at the dog park she'll take any dogs ball away from them because she wants it to be hers (never growls or gets angry at the dog park though) there have been a few times we thought that maybe her and the dog across the street had just played too much and thats why they were both getting a little rowdy but then we remeber that a stick was involved. And finally this summer when we are the lake wihth my bf and his mom and their family dog emma kept eating Brooke's food. I thought "ohh maybe shes hungry" but now that I look at all the other events im thinking that Emma just wanted the food - like everyhting- all to herself.

So we've started a few things that I'm hoping is in the right direction. We now have her toys up on a shelf where she can't get them anymore unless we give them to her and when we give them to her we say "take it" and then we say "drop it" at any point in time during her play. She NEVER has growled at us or another person for taking a toy or food away from her. 

What i would really like to do is work with her when their is a toy around and another dog but I would never want to put another dog in that situation.

Any suggestions?

[francie klein]

hi liz, i have 2 doodles and skye who i rescued has resource guarding issues. with her it is pretty severe as she was abused but i have done a lot of research and if you work with emma while she is still a puppy you should be able to have success. you are lucky she only does it with other dogs so you are ahead of the game. a book that explains all about it and is very easy to implement is called "mine" by jean donaldson. it will give you excersizes to practice and i think you and emma will enjoy it. skye is really proud of herself when she does things correctly and i tell her good girl. best of luck but from what i understand it is perfectly normal for dogs to resource guard as puppies and it is up to owners to work with them on it. francie

[Liz & Emma]

thanks so much!! it is very nice that she doesnt resource guard to me so I think this will help in correcting! I'm looking up that book right now!

Thanks so much!

[Kristine and Charlie]

I sent you a friend request because I had questions regarding this post.  Then I realized I could just reply to your original post (oh well).  We have a similiar situation with our 1 yr. old GD.  so I'm wondering how Emma has been since you posted a year ago.  Did you read the book 'Mine' or do any specific training with her?