Maralynn Posted October 17, 2009 Report Share Posted October 17, 2009 Kenzi is a bit of a hoarder and has some resource guarding issues. Nothing too major so far and I'd like to keep it that way and work her away from it as much as I can. She is fine coming to sit for treats with my other two. I also will have her and Kipp sitting on either side of me and dole out pieces of kibble for calm behavior. This works very well and I've had zero issues with guarding doing this. Today I was at a friends house and there was a bowl of kibble on the floor that I didn't know about (I feed my dogs in crates to avoid any issues) Kenzi went in and started scarfing it down. I went in the room to set it up to avoid any issues and Miss and my friends dog followed me in. Kenzi got snarky with Miss over a couple of pieces that had fallen on the floor. I said a gruff "hey" to get her attention then redirected her to a sit and rewarded her (with food) for it. The other thing is she'll collect the nylabones and lay on them. It's not a huge issue but when she walks over to Kipp, he just drops his bone. So she grabs it and takes it over to her spot and poor Kipp doesn't have anything. I've been calling her over for a treat so Kipp can retrieve a bone. Since any food is higher value than a nylabone, she seems to do fine with this approach. Any thoughts/suggestions? Does this sound right or should I modify what I'm doing? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ejano Posted October 18, 2009 Report Share Posted October 18, 2009 Kenzi is a bit of a hoarder and has some resource guarding issues. Nothing too major so far and I'd like to keep it that way and work her away from it as much as I can. She is fine coming to sit for treats with my other two. I also will have her and Kipp sitting on either side of me and dole out pieces of kibble for calm behavior. This works very well and I've had zero issues with guarding doing this. Today I was at a friends house and there was a bowl of kibble on the floor that I didn't know about (I feed my dogs in crates to avoid any issues) Kenzi went in and started scarfing it down. I went in the room to set it up to avoid any issues and Miss and my friends dog followed me in. Kenzi got snarky with Miss over a couple of pieces that had fallen on the floor. I said a gruff "hey" to get her attention then redirected her to a sit and rewarded her (with food) for it. The other thing is she'll collect the nylabones and lay on them. It's not a huge issue but when she walks over to Kipp, he just drops his bone. So she grabs it and takes it over to her spot and poor Kipp doesn't have anything. I've been calling her over for a treat so Kipp can retrieve a bone. Since any food is higher value than a nylabone, she seems to do fine with this approach. Any thoughts/suggestions? Does this sound right or should I modify what I'm doing? Do you think she's kicking sand in his face or is she just playing a game and he's not quite up on the rules? If I give the pups each a new toy or bone , they'll spend about fifteen minutes ignoring each other in favor of said toy or bone, then like someone flipped a switch, they start eying each other up, figuring out a way to trade. Robin usually starts prancing around with this "Nah, Nah, see what I've got" attitude then three minutes later has lost it to some sleight of hand trick that Brodie pulls on him. Then he snatches up whatever Brodie left and they both feel like winners for another fifteen minutes or so and then they go another round. Brodie will pickpocket anything Robin leaves lying around unattended and many times I've seen him take a bone away from Ladybug without repercussions. But they've never seriously growled or snapped at each other because they "invented" the game and know the rules -- I feed in the crate too so they've never had a chance to argue over a food dish and they all line up nicely for treats. I was reading a pet training guide tonight that in addition to asking if the handler can take away food, treats, whatever, also asked if the dog will share with a best (nonhuman) friend, so I'm thinking this trading game the pups are playing is okay as long as there's no animosity. Under that logic, Kipp allowing Kenzi to take the bone is perhaps a good thing, especially if she returns sometimes return the favor? Do you think if Kipp really cared about the bone, he'd make sure Kenzi didn't take it? Is he taking advantage of your calling her off to get one back? What happens when she realizes he's got one back...does she go for it again? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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