Hi,

I have an 8 month old dog whom has never minded people taking things off her. When she was younger we got a lot of friends to come up and take toys etc from her and then give them back so she wouldn't become possessive. We were away with friends last weekend and she had a toy, a friend of ours (whom she has only met a couple of times) went to take it from her and she growled vey loudly at them. I immediately went over and took it from her with out any trouble. She has started to put her paw on items if she thinks you might take it from her but she has never growled. When we got home a couple of friends came over and she was fine with them, but she has known them since she was very young and they have taken things from her before.

I was wondering if anyone had any advise on how to get her to become less possessive of items, we certainly don't want her to start growling at people!

Thanks

It is a very common misconception that if you take things away from a dog it will make them more tolerant when in fact it is more likely to have the opposite effect.  If you read what you have written and look at it from your dog's point of view then you should be able to see why this is happening.  My advice would be to stop taking things away from her for now and just maybe talk to her and/or stroke her whilst
she has a toy until such time as she no longer feels that you are going to take it.  Avoid all high value toys and chews. Encourage her to bring toys to you and do the same, stroking and talking.  Eventually she will only guard possessions if she thinks you want them so pretend you don't but let her think that O.K. you would be willing to throw her toy again if she really insists. :)  There is a very good book called MINE by Jean Donaldson.

Possesiveness can often be over come by flooding the dog with things it may be possesive off - it can't gaurd all of them......

Unfortunately this theory does not always work and they can.............................

I did say 'can often' and not 'is always' - it's just another tool in the box ;)