Resource Guarding

[Jennifer & Truffle]

Hi, all.

I posted the same discussion to "Puppy Madness," but thought the members of the training group might also have experience with this issue...

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Our 6-month old ALD puppy, Truffle, is absolutely wonderful most of the time.  We love him dearly. However, a nascent problem I thought I'd nipped in the bud a couple of months ago seems to be rearing its ugly head again now that he's approaching puppy puberty.  Over the last couple of days, he's started to resource guard again.  The first instance was when I gave him a new bone and the second instance was today when he tried (and fortunately failed) to get his teeth on my daughter's gum.

He's like Jekyll & Hyde when this happens.  This gentle, fun-loving pup turns into a beast - growling, proactively coming after me and biting.  I've seen the various posts about this issue here on the site and when I addressed it a couple of months ago by trading for high value treats, he did great - to the point where I could brush him peacefully while he was eating his favorite bone.  

The high-value treats aren't working as consistently anymore.  He knows "drop it" and "leave it" and usually listens, although he's rebelling a bit lately and we're doing a lot of reinforcement of the commands.  But when he has something he loves or covets in his mouth, it's like he can't help himself. Commands don't consistently work. When he got the pack of gum this afternoon, I was finally able to get him to come, tail wagging, using bits of hot dog (his high value treat), but not before he lunged and got his teeth on me and only after he realized the pack of gum wasn't so fabulous.  

I've reached out to our trainer about this and am confident we'll get it under control.  But in the meantime, I'd love to hear from other folks who've had this issue recur - not so much for advice on how to handle it (although advice is always welcome), but more for reassurance that those of you who've experienced this scary behavior have been able to get it under control successfully.  

Truffle is not yet neutered, and won't be until he's at least 9 months old (per our breeder contract) - I have no idea if this makes any difference, but thought I'd throw this tidbit in there in case there's is a correlation I'm not aware of.

Thanks, everyone!

[Jane, Guinness and Murphy]

I really think that we should continuously set up trading exercises throughout the dog's life where we trade high value treats for something that they have that they are coveting....that serves as a reminder that good things happen when they respond to the "give" or "drop it" command.  Guarding is something that comes fairly naturally to some dogs, so it's something that I think has to be worked with forever with some.   I do an exercise once or twice a day where I hold a treat in the palm of my hand right under their nose but they can't take it until I say okay....reminds them that I own the food and reinforces my "release".  That said, if I gave a "give" or "drop it" command and they blew me off, I would very calmly track them down until I got to them....and I would take the item away.  They may run, but just don't show any emotion and keep tracking him....believe me he will get tired.  When you do get to him I there's no more "trading"....that reinforces that he can disobey and run away with the item and he still gets a reward.  He needs to learn if he "drops it" when asked something good happens, if he doesn't...nothing good happens.  After getting him, I'd either crate or put him in a down stay for awhile...he'll be excited and he needs to calm down and process what happened.  Remember the key is not showing any emotion during this process...no talking.  I think different trainers will have different advice, but this is what I would do based on the training approach that I've used with my guys.  Good luck.

[Kyoko]

 I think Jane gave you an excellent guide. I just wanted to mention that, Xylitol which is used in chewing gum as sweeter is a life -threatening toxin to dogs....