Growling when taking away bully stick.

[Jennett Pulley]

YIKES!! 

Lolli had a great first lesson today at Siriously Canine here in Richmond, VA.  :)

We learned sit/stay, down/stay and on/off (the couch).  We did a practice session at home and she did great!  After, I gave her a bully stick to chew on and when kid2 went to pet her, she growled.  I immediately went to take it away from her and she attempted to run while growling at me.  She didn't seem as if she was going to bite, but I will NOT chance that.

Does this mean we can't give her these treats any more?  Do we try again in a few weeks?  Thoughts?

[Adina P]

I would take such high value treats and toys away, temporarily. When she is further advanced in training and will readily give valuable stuff away with a 'drop it' then she can have them back. Also teach kids to not bother doggy when eating or chewing on special bones and treats.

[Jane, Guinness and Murphy]

I agree.  I would also share this with the trainer.  What did you do when she attempted to run away while growling at you?

[Oliver & Elizabeth]

I'm not sure if this will help, however, in puppy class we were taught to prevent food/object guarding by giving them a treat when you are around them and their special object (and always giving them a treat when they give you their special object). For example, to get Oliver comfortable with us around his food bowl, we would walk by him when he was eating and drop high value treats in his food so that he would associate people around his food bowl as a positive thing. Perhaps you could apply this to the bully sticks by dropping teats next to her while she is chewing on her bully, and working up to trading the bully for treats. The giving method worked well for us, as Oliver loves people around him while eating and sits next to us while he chews on his treats.

[Amy, Cubbie & Ollie]

my trainer had us to the same thing when Cubbie started resource guarding some of his chews.

[Jennett Pulley]

Thank you both! 

Kid2 is 12 and an active part of her training.  We have always taken food and toys out of Lolli's mouth since she came home with us because she needs to know that everything is OURS, not hers.  Growling at us will never be acceptable so I will definitely talk to our trainer about this.  We will be working on drop it soon!  :)  She already does this well with toys, but nothing of "high value". 

I like the treat trade idea.  This is usually what I do when she has stolen something (she loves rolls of tape!) simply because I will not chase her and teach her that game.

Thanks again!

[Anne]

My trainer actually worked on this in puppy class last week.  She handed out bully sticks to all puppies and had us drop high value treats about a foot away from puppy. When puppy dropped bully stick to get treat, we took stick and praised puppy.  Then gave bully stick back.  Good luck!!

[Jennett Pulley]

Our trainer is awesome!  She said that we could call/text her with any questions and last night I posed this same question to her.  She gave very similar advice and said that we will work on this next class.  We chose to do individual classes so we can really work specifically on our needs which is fantastic.

[SAS]

Our puppy started growling at my husband husband when he came near her when she had high value chew toys. Now, we had (and are still working on) and whole list of issues, but to get the puppy used to us being around her and high value chews, we also practiced trading her favorite treats for the chews (I was always on hand to correct her if she growled). We also started doing this with squeaky toys to prevent her from trying to snatch them from our hands during play sessions.