Hi
I know that it is difficult to give out behavioural advice over the internet but thought that someone out there may have a few bright ideas.  If not a recommendation for a good reliable behaviourist in the West Lothian area would be great.  A brief background to myself.  I have been training dogs for obedience, agility and flyball for a number of years but can honestly say I am struggling with this one.  I have a GSD X Collie who has a real problem due to resource guarding items from other dogs.  I purchased the book "Mine" by Jean Donaldson but found that it seemed to deal with problems between owner and dog.  Luckily I do not have a problem with this.  He is generally obedient, although he can be a bit wilful if he has managed to steal one of my other dog's balls and is playing the game of "Ollie Two Balls".  He certainly would never challenge me for possession of a resource.  Ollie although very friendly has a very low bite inhibition with other dogs which means that if he feels in danger of losing his resource, (me, my other dogs, his toys) he over-reacts completely.  This is something I would really like to tackle but I think that I will need specialised advice and if anyone could recommend a good behaviourist with experience of this type of aggression it would be greatly appreciated.  I have been working on flooding him with toys which is having some success but I am not sure if I am moving in the right direction.  He is an agility dog and it is not uncommon to find yourself swamped by a hoard of border collies when in the exercise area which always causes my heart to raise and at the same time I feel that after working he deserves to have a bit of fun and freedom.  Any help with this problem would be greatly appreciated.  I was looking at purchasing Click To Calm and Fight but wondered if anyone had any opinions to offer.  Thanks HJ

Hello H-J.

Don't have the answer for you, sorry, but I do have some understanding!  I had a pup which tried guarding balls from an older dog.  I got more out and she ended up with 12 balls under a chair with her guarding them!  I was allowed to have them but not him.  He was wise old boy so he just walked away and it only ever happened the once - there might be a message in there somewhere from him about lowering the value of the resource being guarded, I don't know.

So whilst I don't know the answer, as a first-aid measure I would say don't put him in a hoard of border collies for the moment.  If it's putting your heart rate up, it's probably doing the same for him and that's not a lot of fun.

Hope someone comes along soon with a recommendation for you.  There is a section in Fight! on Dog to Dog Resource Guarding.

Hi

Thanks for that.  Did you find Fight enlightening.  I did read Mine but have to admit I found some of it to be out of my depth.

H-J

I did struggle a bit: 'Er ... which ones operant and which ones classical conditioning?'  That sort of thing.

But I've looked at the Dog to Dog Resource Guarding bit in Fight and it's really clear - very practical not theory based, so if you could get a look at that, I would.

Great.  Crosskeys website was down earlier on but I will try again when I come back to work on Monday.

H-J

Oopsy gets a bit counter-conditioning and operant conditioning later on but I still think it's worth it.  Good luck!

Er, you might just also make sure it isn't really similar to what you read in 'Mine', which I haven't read.  Perhaps someone else has read both and can advise? 

Also, the remedial strategy uses food guarding as the problem, but you might be able to adapt that to toys etc.

Fight would be useful to you I believe, I have both books by JD.

I would suggest that some of the recipes in Click to Calm could be, in the hands of some, potentially ill advised at best.

Which ones, Tohme?  I'm genuinely interested.

I can't quote off the top of my head but where you have a very difficult dog and the body touching for example, I think you need very experienced handlers and a very reliable stooge dog.

Personally I think some of these situations should only be handled in the presence of those who know what they are doing and really understand the dog(s) involved and their behaviour as they are potentially a recipe all right, for disaster..........

Agreed.  It would require tip top timing and observation.  Some of the earlier stuff is probably easier though, so I suppose at least you can be working by yourself on clicking the absence of aggression whilst you spend ten thousand years looking for your really good trainer! (Can somebody please tell me how to do smileys?)

Thanks for the replies.  I will order a copy of Fight today and then try and get my sensible head on to go through the more complicated bits.  Are there any other books either of you would recommend and lastly does anyone know of a behaviourist with relevant experience in these problems in the West Lothian area? 

No, I think I'm done on the book front.  Hope you find what you're looking for.  Keep us posted!

Hi - I'm in Edinburgh and I have a dog with aggression problems, however, not the same as yours.  My vet referred me to Donna Brander at the Dick Vet who is a very highly recommended specialist for behaviour problems in dogs.  You can't make appointments direct, you need to be referred by your vet (as far as I know).

It isn't cheap (£85 a session) and I think I needed a heap of sessions for my dog, which unfortunately I couldn't afford.  However, I have followed their advice in the report that you receive and there have been improvements.  And for me, however small the improvements, it was worth it :)

CG

Hi - Thanks for that.  Donna has done work for the website that I work for so I will try contacting her.  I am going to the vet's tonight for a repeat prescription for my old boy so I will see what they say.  Keep your fingers crossed.