Kishan.T Posted September 7, 2012 Report Share Posted September 7, 2012 Hello all!!!! I've not posted on here in months!! been too busy with my fur ball! I promise pictures will come up soon!!!! lol Storm is now almost 6 months & he's a bundle of joy I just have one query about guarding, he will guard things like his bones carrots and chews, he lets you stroke him whilst he's having & if you want him to move or if it's his bed time he'll happily run away from it and do what he's told, it's just sometimes if I try to take it off him he really guards these things like growl.. Growl louder.. Snarl.. Then if I still try and take it a warning bite.. This may sound like a stupid question, but bear with me as I'm a first time dog owner, although experienced with huskies(gf had one for years) lol .. Is it okay just to leave him to behave like this or will it cause a bigger problem? He's fine with people touching him just trying to take it away from him. Thanks guys!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Leyka&Diva Posted September 7, 2012 Report Share Posted September 7, 2012 my personally i would allow my dogs to behave like this as i have children. i know that my children or myself can both take anything away from them without growling or snapping. i taught my dogs from the day i got them that me and the kids were higher in the pack order than them so if we want something we can take it away from them at anytime xx Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Elyse Posted September 7, 2012 Report Share Posted September 7, 2012 IMO, I think it will cause a problem. You never know, if you take him to a party and he's eating, a kid might try to take food from the dog and the dog snaps back!! Have you tried 'trading'? ie: give him a higher-value treat than the one he currently has. Let the 'trade' take place so your hand is touching HIS treat as his mouth is touching the treat your holding. You can later connect the action with the word 'Trade', or something similar, so he does it on verbal command. FYI, never correct him when he snarls/growls. This might cause him to think that snarling/growling was the problem, then he'll stop warning before he bites! This is obviously dangerous. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kishan.T Posted September 8, 2012 Author Report Share Posted September 8, 2012 thank for the advise!! I've been doing the trading method now, I'll make sure to consistently keep it up Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chewbacca_&_me Posted September 8, 2012 Report Share Posted September 8, 2012 (edited) I have removed my suggestion for the time being because I feel its the right thing to do. While I haven't had any negative reactions to this training when I did it or demonstrated it...I would rather demonstrate it in person than having new owners not being sure and accidentally making a mistake. Please understand I have a very specific way that I do these exercises and I have learned to modify them according to the responses from a dog during each step of the exercise. No midevil training by force is actually acceptable to me... I'm better with the action part than I am at explaining it with words but it's a work in progress lol Edited September 8, 2012 by Chewbacca_&_me Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chewbacca_&_me Posted September 8, 2012 Report Share Posted September 8, 2012 Use the trading method for now and if he stops responding try the exercise I posted. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jmscott Posted September 8, 2012 Report Share Posted September 8, 2012 (edited) I would start out small with trading. Just think of the red paper clip. You dont trade a paper clip for a new house, you trade it for something of only a little higher value and build up to the house. so find a toy that he doesnt really care about and work on trading that something he cares about only a little bit more. Put up his favorite toys and only give them as special rewards, and when he gets those rewards, no one tries to take them while he plays with them, so there is no need to guard them. Those are "his" toys, while all the others are "your" toys that you allow him to play with. You dont want him to think that all things can always be taken away at any moment; this can result in an even higher level of guarding. As has already been said, never correct him for growling. Some of the dogs I've seen with aggression have had their warnings corrected out of them so they simply use the only defense that was left to them, they are outright aggressive. Edited September 8, 2012 by jmscott Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chewbacca_&_me Posted September 8, 2012 Report Share Posted September 8, 2012 That's true I agree, so I'm not saying its for every dog please do add any other things you can think of to help so there are more options to be used. Sorry I did mean to say it is a "last resort" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jmscott Posted September 8, 2012 Report Share Posted September 8, 2012 Thats the difficult part of training, you can write and talk about it till the cows come home, but unless you actually do it and physically guide owners through the actions, it is very hard to do correctly. And, of course, every dog has different training needs, whether because of life experiences or breeding, so the copy+paste training that's found in most books wont always work. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kishan.T Posted September 9, 2012 Author Report Share Posted September 9, 2012 Thank you for the brilliant advise! The whole idea of having "his toys" and giving them to his as special kind of toys sounds great! I'll keep it up & let you know how everything goes Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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