Retraining Your Dog And Helping Him To Overcome Food Or Object Guarding

Both older dogs and puppies can display possessive behaviour through guarding their food, or other objects in a number of ways; for example, growling, showing their teeth, and in some cases attempting to bite, or actually biting those people who go near to, or attempt to take the object the dog is guarding.
Dogs that guard their food or other objects do so for many different reasons, therefore, before you can help the dog overcome his problem, it's important to understand first, why he is behaving possessively.
Dogs are similar to humans, in that we both rely on certain things in our lives which give us pleasure. For your dog, some of these things will include, food, the comfort of a certain chair in the house, toys, his or her basket, you - the dog's owner, and so on.
Some dogs display this kind of behaviour for other reasons, for example, a dominant dog may challenge his owner over resources, he believes he has a claim to, a dog who has developed behavioural problems, due to very low confidence, or quite simply, a dog who has been allowed to develop this kind of behaviour from puppy hood, due to being teased for example, either when eating, or playing with his toys. Certain breeds if not socialised adequately can develop guarding behaviours, such as Rottweilers, for example.
If your puppy or older dog has developed a problem in this area, then calm and consistent training are called for, in order to help him. Let us look at two of the most common situations when dogs display this kind of behaviour, and how you can effectively train your dog, new behaviours.
The first thing to remember is not to react negatively in any way to your dog showing this kind of behaviour, as it is counter productive. Shouting, smacking, or trying to force your dog to surrender his food or any other object he is guarding, will just intensify his actions, try understanding his motivation for his behaviour first, then move on. Next organise a plan of how you are going to help your dog, use a formula for training, as it will help you to break things into small stages. I have outlined a simple training formula for you to follow in an earlier post, but I will use it again here, to show you can apply it to a practical situation.
If your dog is guarding his food, remember, it is you who feeds him. Take control of and manage his food in order to retrain him. To give an example, prepare a small meal of boiled rice or pasta. This bland type of meal will have a low value for your dog, so he is less likely to become possessive over it if you go near him.
Next prepare some tasty food treats your dog will like, for example, sausage, liver or cheese. Put down your dogs meal of rice, and as he sniffs around it, or begins to eat it, drop the food treats by his bowl. Be guided by your dog's response, for example, if he begins to show possessive behaviour, move away to a distance he is more comfortable with, and throw the treats from there. Decrease the distance gradually over time, but always be guided by your dog's reactions.
If your dog behaves possessively towards you when he has a toy, use the same method as above. Take a toy, one that is large enough for you to hold safely, so as you don't come too close to your dog's teeth. Give your dog the toy and as he takes it, show him the food treat and at the same time give him the command 'out' or 'leave'. When he opens his mouth, take away the toy and give him the treat. Remember, you are only going to succeed here, if you offer him a treat he likes more than his toy, so find out what treats your dog really likes. Your dog will soon realise that giving something up that he has possession of, brings an even greater reward. When he is happy to exchange a toy for a treat, practice this exercise by exchanging different toys.