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Can't disagree with the great advice of Betsy.
In most instance we know exactly how are dogs are going to act. Rather than be dismayed when the do so it is far better to use that information to our advantage.
The only thing I can add is don't wait till lilly has something she is not suppose to to trade. Start by trading lower value articles like one of her toys. Also in this type of trading you can establish the concept of the Two-fer. Trade the toy for a high value item and then also give her the toy back. It sets up the senario that some time a trade is not an either or proposition but some times both.
The reason this is important there will be a time when you will not have access to something more valuable to the dog than it already has. What do you do then. If the dog has a reasonal expectation instead of a this for that swap it might end up with both it is more likely it is willing to trade.
The other thing to remember about resource guarding is often what is stolen has little value to the dog it is your reaction that is valuable. I will use Mariah, My mothers dog, as an example. She is a sock stealer extrodinaire. If you were to try and extract the sock from her without trading there is a high likelihood of ending up with at least one rather nasty puncture wound. She will happily trade however. After stealing a pairs of sox, I conducted a bit of an experiment. I ignored her and her sox. She would come up to me growling with sox obvious in her mouth trying to get me to notice. I continued to ignore her. In a couple minutes the sox were abandon since the soxes themselves had little value to her under thoose conditions. What was valuable was either engaging in the fun game of keep away, or as leverage to gain an extra treat. Mariah is still an exception sox stealer, except now she runs directly to Mom who will still trade with her because of fear of an obstruction should she swallow one.
If the dog slinks off and disappears to a remote location with the stolen loot it is most likily highly prized. On the other hand if she is more obvious about her loot I would suspect that the value of the loot is not the loot itself but what she can extract from it. Ignoring her while watching to be sure she is not harming the stole item or putting herself in danger with the object is another viable option.
It may not be that Rosey is protect in you but rather reacting to the growling of lily. It is why even if you deside to try ingoring (of course this has to be decided on an individule case by case base taken into account the risk involved) the stolen object. You still need to keep Rosey and Lily separated. The actions of Lily indicate she has a vaulable object. Possible reason for Rosey's reaction range from protection to curiousity to getting the object for herself. It does nothing to solve the problem to know the motivation of Rosie.
For a more in depth step by step approach for dealing with resource guarding I recommend MINE! A GUIDE TO RESOURCE GUARDING IN DOGS while it is not without fault, being dry and techincal being one of them a fair review of the book can be found here
"Donaldson presents resource guarding as a normal, adaptive behavior and rejects notions that resource guarders are not "nice" dogs or are "dominant aggressive". Instead, she focuses on a behaviorist approach to conceptualizing and remediating such behavior.
In a nutshell, this primarily involves classically counter-conditioning a "conditioned emotional response" where an owner's approach is associated with high-value food treats, rather than representing a threat of loss or punishment. Initially this is done in the presence of little provocation, but incremental advances proceed until the dog can happily be approached when in the presence of whatever he formerly guarded most fiercely.
...Although the book is decorated with oddly cutesy clipart, it appears to be written more for the dog trainer than the owner himself. Donaldson repeatedly refers to the dog's owner as a third party, implying that the owner is not the target audience of the book. Similarly, her writing style maintains a quasi-academic aloofness. This is unfortunate, because a more approachable writing style and tone geared more towards the owner himself would make the book more welcoming for the reader who really would benefit from reading it. "
[ January 29, 2006, 11:41 PM: Message edited by: Mikey T ]
In most instance we know exactly how are dogs are going to act. Rather than be dismayed when the do so it is far better to use that information to our advantage.
The only thing I can add is don't wait till lilly has something she is not suppose to to trade. Start by trading lower value articles like one of her toys. Also in this type of trading you can establish the concept of the Two-fer. Trade the toy for a high value item and then also give her the toy back. It sets up the senario that some time a trade is not an either or proposition but some times both.
The reason this is important there will be a time when you will not have access to something more valuable to the dog than it already has. What do you do then. If the dog has a reasonal expectation instead of a this for that swap it might end up with both it is more likely it is willing to trade.
The other thing to remember about resource guarding is often what is stolen has little value to the dog it is your reaction that is valuable. I will use Mariah, My mothers dog, as an example. She is a sock stealer extrodinaire. If you were to try and extract the sock from her without trading there is a high likelihood of ending up with at least one rather nasty puncture wound. She will happily trade however. After stealing a pairs of sox, I conducted a bit of an experiment. I ignored her and her sox. She would come up to me growling with sox obvious in her mouth trying to get me to notice. I continued to ignore her. In a couple minutes the sox were abandon since the soxes themselves had little value to her under thoose conditions. What was valuable was either engaging in the fun game of keep away, or as leverage to gain an extra treat. Mariah is still an exception sox stealer, except now she runs directly to Mom who will still trade with her because of fear of an obstruction should she swallow one.
If the dog slinks off and disappears to a remote location with the stolen loot it is most likily highly prized. On the other hand if she is more obvious about her loot I would suspect that the value of the loot is not the loot itself but what she can extract from it. Ignoring her while watching to be sure she is not harming the stole item or putting herself in danger with the object is another viable option.
It may not be that Rosey is protect in you but rather reacting to the growling of lily. It is why even if you deside to try ingoring (of course this has to be decided on an individule case by case base taken into account the risk involved) the stolen object. You still need to keep Rosey and Lily separated. The actions of Lily indicate she has a vaulable object. Possible reason for Rosey's reaction range from protection to curiousity to getting the object for herself. It does nothing to solve the problem to know the motivation of Rosie.
For a more in depth step by step approach for dealing with resource guarding I recommend MINE! A GUIDE TO RESOURCE GUARDING IN DOGS while it is not without fault, being dry and techincal being one of them a fair review of the book can be found here
"Donaldson presents resource guarding as a normal, adaptive behavior and rejects notions that resource guarders are not "nice" dogs or are "dominant aggressive". Instead, she focuses on a behaviorist approach to conceptualizing and remediating such behavior.
In a nutshell, this primarily involves classically counter-conditioning a "conditioned emotional response" where an owner's approach is associated with high-value food treats, rather than representing a threat of loss or punishment. Initially this is done in the presence of little provocation, but incremental advances proceed until the dog can happily be approached when in the presence of whatever he formerly guarded most fiercely.
...Although the book is decorated with oddly cutesy clipart, it appears to be written more for the dog trainer than the owner himself. Donaldson repeatedly refers to the dog's owner as a third party, implying that the owner is not the target audience of the book. Similarly, her writing style maintains a quasi-academic aloofness. This is unfortunate, because a more approachable writing style and tone geared more towards the owner himself would make the book more welcoming for the reader who really would benefit from reading it. "
[ January 29, 2006, 11:41 PM: Message edited by: Mikey T ]
