I want to talk about possessive or resource guarding behavior in dogs. Riggs is very possessive and most definitely guards his stuff. For Riggs, his resource guarding is genetic; something I didn’t know until seeing a video of his Father after Riggs had joined our family. He is not a biter or growler but he most definitely freezes and hovers over his possessions. He is a green eyed monster and if Elsa is using a toy of any kind, he cannot think straight until he gets it.
Now, resource guarding is only a problem when a dog puts a high value onto an item. For Riggs, his biggest issue with this behavior is his balls. Balls are not left out, and ball time is extremely structured. Will he ever grow out of this? Probably not.
He has never growled to keep his possession but he will run away from us in attempts to keep the item. For this reason there has been a method to playing with balls. In order to fulfill his strong drive, he gets to play ball almost daily. But there are many rules within the game and much time has been taken to instill positive association to it all. The biggest thing is that he is always rewarded for giving up a ball. This can come in the form of having the ball thrown again; or getting a high value food reward when I actually get the ball.
Because of this Riggs has 3 different verbal cues surrounding balls. “Leave it, drop and give,” are the words used to get possession of the balls. “Leave it” is used if he happens to put it down and I am going to get it. “Drop” is pretty obvious, but if he has the slightest idea that it may be the end of the game, he does not drop. This made it important to give him another verbal cue for me taking it out of his mouth; and surprisingly he is very good at it. Once my hand is on the ball in his mouth, I say “give” and he releases his grip.
But the absolute best way to end a game is in the midst; when he is retrieving over and over. I will very purposely will NOT ask him to bring it when I am going to stop the game. He is in the swing of retrieving and I simple don’t throw it again. Both Elsa and Riggs have also learned that when the game ends they are told as much. “That’s all,” is a very clear and precise…”game over.” This is also useful for dogs who would retrieve and catch 24/7. Once they hear that verbal cue they go and lay down.
In the above video I am trying to get Riggs to drop “his” ball long enough to eat a tossed treat (freeze dried liver.) Normally he will not drop his ball for anything, even another ball. So I am working on this and today he actually dropped the ball but did not stop hovering.
When Riggs was younger (he will be 4 years old in October) he would take the ball from Elsa constantly. Now he has his own ball and he knows that he is not allowed to touch her. He follows rules to the tee unless of course his genetic need for toy ownership kicks in. It also took him a long time to learn that if he gave us the ball, we would throw it again. He has come a very long way and is doing amazing…but it is a s&%t ton of work.
In his mind, the ball is everything. He will drop a bone, steak, bully stick or anything for a ball. So we continue the work and today I was very happy that he actually dropped the ball momentarily. He is insanely intelligent and if I ask for the ball and then tell him “Mommy will throw it,” he will give it to me.
A very important thing to remember is that you cannot lie to your dogs. Especially when they are highly tuned to everything. I have to use my gray matter to help him with his. :)
Questions?