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| This is my rescue dog Skylar. When I first brought her home she was possessive aggressive with my other young dog. After about a month of living here I had given all of my dogs a special treat of frozen yogurt. I bent down to take a picture of Skylar eating hers and she growled at me. This told me that her possessive tendencies were transferring over to humans and she viewed this item as high value. Up until then I had not had a problem with her. |
Possession Aggression in Dogs
Several times a week I do get customers whose dog is
snapping, growling or biting those that come near it when the dog has a toy or
valued item. However this is not limited
to dog treats, bones, or toys. The human in the dog’s life can also be considered an
item to possess, but the human believes that the dog is being protective over
them. Usually dogs that are protective do it in a silent way by staying near
the owner in a situation where the dog feels the owner may be harmed in some way, but they rarely act out until they feel it is warranted.
A dog barking at a stranger that approaches your front door, is more of an alert to you from the dog
stating someone is here, it does not mean necessarily that the dog is in protection
mode. If your dog is possessive over items such as those mentioned above then
it is likely possession not protection that you are seeing.
I once owned a Newfoundland dog named Chance and he was a protector of me though he and I seemed to be the only
ones that noticed this. He was a therapy dog and I often took him for walks
through town to keep him in touch with people, other dogs, and strange noises. One day while walking through town about 7:30
AM I saw a bicyclist coming up the sidewalk so I moved closer to the storefronts
and put Chance in a sit stay so the man could pass by safely. The man however
was not going to just pass by; I had actually stopped in the area where he was
going, which was a local Moose Lodge.
When he got off of his bicycle he began to talk with me and I could
smell alcohol on his breath. Chance must have felt the man to be a danger
because he began to pull me away from this man rather than greet him as he
would any other person. You can’t really stop a 170 lb dog if they want to
leave a situation! I also had a
situation arise when I went on a therapy visit. We did visits to the local
prison and on one occasion a guard brought a prisoner into
the room that we had never met before. Chance was laying on the floor relaxing
as he would do normally on these visits but as this prisoner came close to us to find a seat in
the room, Chance sprung to his feet, came to me and put one front foot on
either side of my seat, then leaned his whole body into mine, pressing me
against the back of the chair as his head followed this prisoner. Once the
prisoner took his place in the room Chance still did not want leave me. I had to physically push him off of the seat and that was no easy task! From that day on Chance never left my side
when this person was in the room. That
is protection. Never a growl, a snarl, or a bark came from him; it was his
actions that told me I should be leery.
Dogs that are used
for protection are taught to bark, lunge, and act out when a stranger
approaches such as you would see a police dog do.
That being said let’s talk about how to stop possession
aggression so no one gets hurt.
Training daily in commands will help and doing this in a
positive way will actually reward the dog for it’s good behavior as well as show
the dog you are consistent in what you expect from it. When humans are not
consistent then the dog feels the need to take over. Training
daily in conjunction with a the learn to earn program will help the dog to see
you as ( for lack of a better word) being in charge.
Some trainers will tell you to teach the dog to trade the
item that they have in their mouth for a higher value item but there are
problems with this.
A) The dog does not
necessarily have to have the item in its mouth to be possessive of it; the item
only needs to be in the same room as the dog. I have seen a dog shoot across the room and
bite someone because they accidentally stepped on the dog’s favorite squeak toy!
B) While using the 'trade' method may work for those that know the
dog is possessive aggressive, it will not work for the unsuspecting guest in
your home who does not know what to do. This well meaning person who goes to
pet Fluffy and does not know that Fluffy has issues and that Fluffy’s favorite toy is across the room, then this person suddenly becomes a threat to
Fluffy. Thus a bite can incur. Do you
really have time to explain to everyone that visits you how to “Trade” an item
with your dog and do you always have a higher value item on hand?
The best practice is to try to eradicate the possessive
behavior altogether so you don’t have to explain rules to guests. Children especially
are not going to fully comprehend what you are telling them.
What we want here is to tell Fluffy we are in control of the
home and Fluffy’s prized possessions so that Fluffy does not
need to take on that job.
Think how exhausted you
would be if you had to check every room in the home to see if any item was taken
from you while a repair man was there working on your pipes. It could take
hours before the repairman finished his job and instead of being able to relax you are constantly going from room to room looking for your prized possessions. That would be mentally and physically
exhausting. Having the items you treasure put away in one spot would be able to help you relax a bit more while the repair man is there.
Learn to earn for possession aggression
1)Pick up all toys, bones, food and put them out of reach
of the dog
2) Put the daily dose of food in a sealed tin on the
counter top
3) Pick up all food related toys and bowls. Leaving only
a water bowl
What learn to earn training means is that you are taking
charge of the dog entire life’s wants and needs. No more is free food put
down in front of them. Keep the daily dose of food in a closed tin in the area
where the dog is fed, call the dog to you and ask him to sit. When he sits, he
gets a handful of food. Do this throughout the day using any command that the
dog knows. The dog must obey that command in order to get some food. Feed
the dog its kibble by hand throughout
the day but when you call the dog to you not only should the dog obey a command
before getting food but the dog should see you eat something before you hand
over any kibble. So keep a cracker or something on the counter for yourself.
You will also take control of when the dog can play. The
toys, bones, etc. should be put away, then when you are ready to play take out
a toy and play with the dog, when you decide play is over, put the toy
away again.
Petting does not come to them just because they nudge
you, you decide when this takes place, which means you would call them to you, ask
that a command be obeyed and pet them at your discretion. If they nudge to be
petted, you ignore that, but you can give the dog a command at any time to obey
and reward that behavior with petting. Again you always want to reinforce a
behavior you have asked for. So even though you know the dog has nudged you to
be petted, you don’t have to totally ignore the dog, turn that nudge into a
trick or command and praise and reward the dog for that.
Anything your dog takes for granted such as you opening
the door to let it out, putting on a leash to go for a walk, allowing it to
walk though a door before you, etc. these are all privileges to a dog that come
naturally due to the human’s repetitive actions over time but many
humans don’t realize this. So, before you go through that door put
the dog in a wait command and you walk through first, then invite the dog to
walk through. Again this should be rewarded with praise. Before you put
the leash on for a walk you ask for a sit ~ stay.
Furniture is a big no, no for dogs that have aggressive
tendencies because it puts them in a higher charge over the others in the home,
especially children.
Dogs
should not just be allowed on the couch without specific invitation and
sometimes not at all if the aggression is severe. The need to be close and
cuddle is more a human thing than a dog thing. While dogs do like to be close to the one they
love, taking a few minutes to sit on the floor next to you will be enough to
please them. Remember that it must be your decision to sit on the floor and
then call them to you. Don’t sit on the floor if they are whining or pawing at
you for attention. Wait for that to stop then you can sit on the floor and call
them to lie down next to you. If you are sitting on the floor and the dog
begins to approach you without being asked, then give the command of wait and after
a few seconds give the recall (come) command.
This is not to say that no dog should ever be allowed on
a couch, it is perfectly fine if you have stable easy going dogs. It is when
there are problem dogs in the home that furniture should be off limits to all
dogs.
As mentioned above, in most cases dogs have developed
habits that the owner allowed over time but did not realize it. What
might be helpful to the owner is to sit and make a list of all the good things
your dog gets for free by an action that you have allowed the dog do for years.
This will help you to turn those free behaviors into commands or tricks that
can earn a reward.
When the dog tries an action to get the desired reaction
from you, stop and think. Did I call the dog over to be petted? Did I tell the
dog it is time to go out and that is why he brings the leash? Did I say let’s
play so that is why he dropped the ball in my lap? All of those actions
got the dog reactions in the past usually in a positive beneficial way to the
dog. So now it is time to turn that all around.
Dogs that are well balanced within a group to begin with
do not really need any of the above things to change; it is your right to spoil
a well rounded dog! It is only homes with dogs that have social
limitations around other dogs that should need the above direction.
Some of you may think that the above is cruel or negative
and how dare the human take these things away, however you are actually setting the dog up to
succeed by taking away any worry it may have over its possessions.
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| This is Skylar today. Notice how she is sharing her ball on a rope with Brody my other dog. In this video link below you can see plenty of toys strewn about which at one time Skylar considered hers even though they were here before she came to us. Though there are still high value things I have to control for now she is getting the message. It is always a work in progress and you have to do what is best for your dog and your family https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eNeLQi7cT_w |
