Barney'spal

Due to my stupidity I managed to turn Barney into a topnotch guarder...I thought that I had the "trade" down pat...it did work but in the process, created a monster. I would throw the treat away from him and when he went after, I'd grab what he had.....this only taught him to think that I was always taking everything away from him...in desperation, I downloaded Jean Donaldson's book titled Mine....Although you have to wade through alot of technical wording, it gives the directions on how to recondition him to start thinking that it was good that I was coming after whatever he had. We're now on day 4 and I can see a great improvement.....but as warning, it's gonna take a long time to get where I can take the real high value stuff. If anyone wants a short version of the training, PM me, and I'll try to condense it or maybe Mikey has a link.

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Vectisvagrant

What does he guard?

Barney'spal

He guards everything that he can steal which is just a game for him....and which I trained by playing the game and throwing treats to get things back..if I ignored him, he'd eventually give it up. My mistake was never teaching the drop lesson. After 4 days I can now take medium value things away..(which I return to him) and he only gets the treat AFTER I have it..As far as high value items, bones, kongs, etc., it's gonna be awhile but it took me 22 months to create this thief so it's not going to be a quick fix....any suggestions?

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pebbles

No advice, just empathy !!

We adopted Max at age one year and he had this same behavior. We taught our golden retriever pup to "leave it" when she was young and she will drop anything, including a dead gopher we found on a walk the other day. I've had no luck with Max, our basset. If I distract him with another treat, he will scoop
Up the treat with the item still in his
Mouth. I will check out that book u suggested. Good luck and pls let me know if you've made any progress.


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Mikey T

the trading game can create thiefs . that is the dog that steals stuff then comes running up to you to say see what I got come trade with me. The only way to prevent this is for You to understand you are the control of the game and you decide whether to trade or not. When a dog starts doing this ignore them and don't trade it is unlikely the will do anything to put thenselves in danger the value of what is stole in in what it can be traded for not the item itself. you can always watch them just to make sure.

FranksMum

Typical pack-hound mentality. What's mine, is MINE and YOU can keep off. My best advice, and what works best with this, with our hounds, has been to avoid/prevent. Which is why you'll find minimal things lying around in my place and when it came to food time, the bowls went down in the same order, and in the same place, every time, or there would have been bloodshed. As we started to get oldies, who didn't eat up as fast, I'd have to stand guard so the youngsters didn't try to get at their bowls. And the moment the bowls were empty, they came up.

Bones - with multiples no. Too fraught with the potential for a battle. Mine weren't really into toys although that may have been because I wasn't encouraging any. Luckily however, if they did get hold of something dangerous, I was able to open mouths and remove. If one got up on a chair/sofa and started resisting 'off', I'd use a slip lead to avoid any potential for snapping, and they'd come off.

To be honest, unless something mine managed to get hold of was going to be dangerous, I'd resist the temptation to make an issue of getting it off them. I found ignoring ended the guarding pretty fast because otherwise, 'it' became more important to the hound, than it actually was.

ps Not to say teaching the 'drop' or 'leave' command shouldn't be attempted, even with a Basset.

Mikey T

FWIW most people I know with resource guarders do not try and change the behavior with anything other than resource guarding objects with humans. They manage dog v dog resource guarding, like you suggest.

M. K. Clinton

I have these Basset Hound Property Laws on my fridge. #1. If I like it, it's mine. #2. If it's in my mouth, it's mine. #3. If I had it a little while ago, it's mine. #4. If I take it from you, it's mine. #5. If it's mine, it should never appear to be yours. #6. If it just looks like mine, it's mine. #7. If I saw it first, it's mine. #8. If it's edible, it's mine. #9. If you have something and put it down, it's mine. #10. If I chew something up, all its pieces are mine. #11. If I get tired of it, it's yours. #12. If you appear to be having fun with it, it's mine again.
Bentley hopes that this clears things up for y'all!!

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