[fabrizio.del.gaudio8]

Hi, I have a Bassett Hound a year old Bassett Hound, male. Sometimes he steals things to get attention (like slippers, tea towels...). Unfortunately, however, when we want to remove them from his mouth, he attacks us ringing and sometimes biting. Does it happen to you too? How do you behave? Thanks, any suggestion is welcome.

 

[Mikey T]

define biting. Is he drawing blood or just snapping?

 

[fabrizio.del.gaudio8]

fortunately he just bites (snap) and has never caused any injuries other than a few scratches or teeth marks. But his attitude on those occasions is different from when, for fun, he uses the bit.

 

[Mikey T]

if HE was drawing blood the ability to correct the situation would be harder to impossible. The behavior you are dealing with is called resource guarding. It is a normal adaptive behavior in dogs give that the ability to control valuable resources makes survivability more likely. That said because it is normal does not mean it is acceptable when living with humans.

1. environmental control by preventing access to things he normally steals and guard. so he can no continue to practice and be reinforced by guarding behavior
2. Start exchanging less valuable items likes toys when he is playing for food. and then give him the toy back. start putting a name to the behavior once you can reliable predict the moment he is going to release the toy. such as "give"
3. move the exchanges slowly to move valuable objects to him. When doing exchanges you want to quickly fade showing him the food first because not always will you have something to trade when you want him to give you something so you might need to show the food the first few times to initiate the exchange but you need to stop doing that as soon as possible. I general just hang on to one or both ends of the object he would have in his mouth but not tug to remove it. (A dogs natural reaction to pressure is counter it so if you tug the dog will to. Soon you are engaged in a rousing game of tug of war which is fun for the dog. You need to make the object in the mouth boring. if simply holding the object steady over time does not cause the dog to release. you can try push the toy further into the dogs mouth. because of dogs natural reaction many will resist this action by releasing the toy"

https://www.cairnterrierclub.ca/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Resource-guarding-and-exchange-games.pdf

the best reference on this behavior in dogs is MIne!. Amazon.com : mine by jean donaldson

 

[klingeltondownload]

have a nice day!