Kennel Garuding

[Haley, Yeti, and Phin]

Hello everyone!
We have always had an issue with Yeti guarding. First it started with a bully stick, which was easy to just take away and never give him again. For a long time that was the only thing he ever guarded, until he got ahold of a sock he wasnt supposed to have. Around this time he started guarding things he got that he wasnt supposed to have (socks, towels, paper, literally anything). We try to keep things out of his reach so again, this wasnt a HUGE issue unless he got ahold of something randomly. When we got Phin things remained basically the same. About 6 months ago, Yeti started guarding their food. Neither dog are overly eager eaters, so we free feed. I know it gets a bad wrap, but thats just what worked for our family at the time. When we brought Phin home, we started putting their bowls in the kennels because they didnt eat the same food. When we got Phin onto the same food as Yeti we just left the bowls out for them to graze throughout the day.  We kennel them when we are not home, so if we knew that we would be gone a long time without anyone to come over to let them out (hardly happens) we would throw a dish of food in their kennels just incase they got hungry. Randomly, Yeti started guarding his kennel. The only thing i could think of was he was guarding the food in his kennel, so we stopped giving them food in their kennel period. Yeti then started guarding his food outside of his kennel, which i have regulated by having 4 or 5 dishes of food out for him (reasoning being he cant guard all the dishes at once) This has helped, but if you get close to him while hes eating (sometimes) he will let out a deep growl. Lately, he has not been wanting to come out of his kennel. This is SO SO SO unlike him. He never used to go in on his own, seriously never has done it until recently. When we go up to his kennel and ask him if he wants to come out he gives us the same deep growl. Taking his kennel away is not an option, so I came on here to ask if anyone has dealt with similar behavior.  Any advice would be sooo greatly appreciated.

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

And that, my friend, is the"NILIF" program in a nutshell. You nailed it. :) 

[Laura and Angus]

Well then! Sounds like our trainer has the same philosophy as that program ;) It worked wonders to help our stubborn pup learn manners. 

[Becka]

I don't think this has been mentioned, but I would also caution you to be careful about what kind of playing you do with Yeti--avoiding games that involved tug or chasing. My friend's dog had similar guarding issues and increasing anxiety with visitors until he actually bit a repairman. Luckily nobody was injured, but it really freaked out everyone involved, and they got an in-home trainer who has been doing a great job training all of them. (Well, not the repairman.) I think the situation was similar--the dog was getting mixed signals from my friend and her husband and this resulted in insecurity and guarding/aggressiveness issues. And one thing they were told to put an end to immediately was any wrestling, tug, and chase.