A Solution For Food and Object Guarding

So… you say your dog won't let you near his food bowl? And, he won't let you take something out of his mouth? Oh my goodness, he's growling at you or biting you when you do try to take something away from him? Well guess what? Your dog is just acting like a dog! His survival instincts tell him that giving something up that's valuable to him isn't normal behavior for dogs. Okay, we need to talk:

Before we tackle the guarding problem, we need to work on gaining your dog's trust and respect. In order to do this, you'll need to implement an everyday training regimen with him called "Nothing in Life is Free" (aka NILIF). This program is very simple, it doesn't take much time or additional effort to work with it, AND, you will probably see some nice results before the end of two weeks, or less. Any dog that is food or object/toy guarding has to be considered as on the verge of biting whenever someone interferes with his ownership of his possessions. I know you'll agree that this is a potentially dangerous situation, especially if you have young toddlers or small kids in your home. Nothing in Life is Free is going to teach your dog that he owns NOTHING! Everything belongs to you, and if he wants anything, like his meals, cookies, toys, petting, going for rides in the car, going out of the door, etc., he has to earn that privilege FIRST by sitting for you, or by doing some sort of obedience maneuver that you command him to do. If you're "free-feeding" your dog by leaving food in his bowl all day long, STOP THAT. If your dog's toys are scattered all over the house, STOP THAT. If you go over to your dog and pet him for long periods of time, STOP THAT. Here's a list of things you'll need to start doing to teach your dog that all good things start with you and end with you:

1. Feed twice/day - command a sit before you place his bowl on the floor.
2. Don't approach your dog for petting. Call him to you, command him to sit, pet him a couple of times, then stop!
3. If your dog wants a toy, take one out for him to play with for awhile. Command a sit before you give it to him. When you determine playtime is over, take the toy and put it away. All toys belong to you! Keep them out of his reach.
4. When taking your dog for a walk, command him to sit nicely before putting his leash on. Put the dog in a sit and you go through the door first, and then invite your dog to follow you out.
5. If your dog demands your attention by barking at you, or if your dog nudges you under your arm when he wants you to play with him -- fold your arms across your chest and look away from your dog. Don't talk to him or even look at him. However, praise him when he goes and lies down quietly. Never respond to your dog when he demands your attention. If necessary to stop barking or other attention-seeking behaviors, get up and walk out of the room.
6. Avoid giving your dog rawhides or pigs' ears (ugh, very unhealthy stuff). These are very valuable items for dogs, and if your dog is guarding things, avoid giving him things to guard in the first place.
7. Don't give your dog ANYTHING that you know he'll become guardy with.
8. If your dog has been aggressive with you, do NOT allow him on ANY furniture. He must be on the floor, sleep on the floor, and never let him be above your children's level. Keep children on the furniture when playing with your dog!
9. Never physically punish your dog! It is not necessary to physically dominate a dog, no matter what behavioral problems he has. Physical punishment is a human form of aggression. You cannot cure aggression with more aggression. Force training dogs is abusive. You will NOT gain compliance from your dog if you use force.

10. BE CONSISTENT IN YOUR TRAINING!

Once you implement the above program, you'll notice that your dog becomes more compliant. He'll begin to look to you as being a benevolent pack leader. He'll realize that you are the giver of all good and important things in his life, and that he doesn't have to worry about anything; you're in charge of his life and will protect him and keep him from harms way. This will be the beginning of establishing a more trusting relationship.

Let's get down to the heart of this matter - FOOD AND OBJECT GUARDING. We'll start working with the food bowl. These are exercises for ONLY THE ADULTS OF A FAMILY. TEACH YOUR CHILDREN TO LEAVE THE DOG ALONE WHEN HE'S EATING! This goes for ANY DOG! For the next week, hand-feed your dog every piece of kibble of each meal (feed your dog twice/day). During the second week, place one kibble in the dog's bowl, command the dog to sit, and then place the bowl down for him to eat the kibble. Your dog is going to look at you as if to say, "hey, where's the rest of my dinner?" Take the bowl and put another piece of kibble in it, and put it down for him to eat. For the third try, place a small piece of chicken, beef or cheese in the bowl, along with another piece of kibble, and give it to your dog. Then, take up the bowl, and put just kibble in again. When the dog's almost finished this meal, put in another piece of really good food. What this will do is teach the dog that sometimes (not always!) when you take his food bowl away, he gets something even more delicious to eat. You're making it worth his while to take his food bowl up. As each day goes by, begin increasing the amount of kibble pieces you put in the bowl, while continuing to take up the bowl. Also, randomly continue putting in various goodies into the bowl with the kibble. Go slowly with these exercises, especially as you keep adding more food to his dish. During the last stages of this training technique, you'll want to start making a few exchanges by tossing a treat away from the food bowl, while you pick up his bowl that STILL has kibble in it. Do not attempt to do this unless you're confident that the dog will leave the bowl for the better food. Of course, put the bowl down immediately afterward.

The following play/training games should be played as often as possible, and the sessions should be kept to no more than 5 minutes. Each session should end on a positive note, as all training sessions should end - where the dog has done something well to earn a reward. Here are the games you need to be playing with your dogs NOW:

PLAYING LEAVE IT
1.Put dog in a sit or down in front of you.

2.Place a treat in your right hand and another treat of greater value behind your back.

3. Hold out your right hand to the dog and show her the treat.

4. When she tries to take the treat, close your hand and say to her, "LEAVE IT" in a NEUTRAL voice. (don’t sound angry)

5. Do this repeatedly until dog turns his head away from the treat. Then give her the treat you have hidden behind your back and say to her, "TAKE IT." Praise with a “good take it.”

6. Continue playing this until dog catches on 100% of the time. Now switch hands and do the game with your left hand holding the treat and hiding the more valuable treat in your right hand. She must know leave it means leaving it no matter what hand you are holding the treat in.

7. After awhile you will be able to up the ante by placing treats under your feet, or on the floor, or even right on her paws.

8. Take the dog for a walk onleash, and begin tossing food items or toys on the ground. As you throw the item, call a leave it. If he goes for it, say, “too bad, no treat,” and continue walking toward the next item. Don’t forget to reward with a hidden treat when the dog does leave the item alone. Make a huge fuss over the dog whenever he leaves the item, especially if there are outside distractions to contend with.

What you will gain from playing Leave It is a dog who will actually turn away from the item he’s to leave. So make sure when you’re playing a lot, and the dog is getting really good at it, that the dog begin to turn his face away from the item, not just his eyes. Play, play and play somemore!

TEACHING DROP IT
Make sure you make all training games a lot of fun for the dog. Start simple training with something that the dog likes, but doesn’t consider too terribly valuable. Play with him by making exchanges, first by exchanging an item with a food treat . When you’re first training, you want to work with items that ARE NOT very valuable, like tennis balls, or other non-food items! If your dog is a serious food/object guarder, toss a treat a distance away from the dog so that you will have enough time to pick up the item that was in his mouth. As soon as you see the dog open his mouth to drop the item, SAY “DROP IT!” That way, he’ll begin to learn that you want him to spit out the item, even when you don’t have a food exchange for him. When your dog comes back after retrieving the treat you’ve tossed for him, GIVE HIM BACK THIS TENNIS BALL OR OTHER NON-VALUABLE ITEM IMMEDIATELY! This will help you establish trust between your dog and you; he will learn that you’re not going to forcefully make him give something up, and that when he DOES give something up, YOU give him something even better (he gives up a lousy tennis ball, but gets a piece of cheese in exchange - woohoo!!)!

When the dog is really dropping the tennis ball quickly, you can start hand-feeding him the food treat by holding it out to the side so that the dog’s face is not right in front of your own. As he’s eating the treat directly from your hand, pick up the tennis ball and be ready to give it back when he’s finished eating the treat.

If you’re now able to command a DROP IT, and your dog DOES drop a toy from his mouth when you command it, it’s time to up the ante and begin working with more valuable items. Start all over again and repeat the process as you did with the tennis ball. As the items become more valuble that you’re working with, exercise caution that you don’t get bitten.

In addition to this, please play the LEAVE IT game as often as you possibly can. Also, read the directions for playing tug of war. Playing tug is one way to get your dog to have a bomb-proof DROP IT. Play by the rules!!

Rules for Playing Tug of War
1. Start the game off by making the dog sit or down
2. Ask the dog, "wanna play tug?"
3. Command a "take it." and then give it to her
4. Play for a little while, and then ask for a "drop it." The dog should have a bomb-proof drop it and should release the toy immediately. If the dog doesn't release it, just hold onto the toy and don't pull on it or look at her. She'll realize that "well... this is boring" and then should release the toy. Praise her for the release, but put the toy away.
5. You can re-start the game in about 5 minutes or so (this serves as a time out for her ignoring the drop it command).
6. Play again, and then ask for a drop it. If she drops it, PRAISE HER and GIVE HER THE TOY IMMEDIATELY with a take it command.
7. It's recommended that once in awhile, after commanding her to drop it, that you do a couple of obedience maneuvers before re-starting the game.
8. With any dog who has shown aggression toward an owner or other humans, NEVER LET THAT DOG WIN A ROUND. If you find that sometimes the dog has gotten the best of you and was able to pull the toy out of your hand, let her think you planned it that way, AND SAY "TAKE IT!"
9. Whatever toy you choose for playing tug should ALWAYS BE PUT AWAY and out of the dog's reach. REMEMBER THAT IT IS YOUR TOY, as are all others. Put the toy away until YOU decide when to bring it out again.
10. If the dog makes any mistakes, like touching your skin with her teeth, the game ends immediately, the toy gets put away, and she gets ignored for about 3 minutes or so. Wait several hours after a mistake like that before re-starting the game. Put the toy away.
NOTE: If you are playing tug with a puppy, DO NOT PULL TOO HARD. Your puppies teeth are not strong enough yet, and you do not want to strain or sprain any of your dog’s muscles, tendons or ligaments.

Written By Renee Premaza

Renee Premaza
Dog Obedience Trainer & Behavior Consultant
(609) 280-9338
www.jerseydogtrainer.com

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