not sharing at dog park my dog is a bully
I have taken Chloe to the dog park a few times. She has one behavior problem, she gets possessive of toys there. Sometimes people leave balls or other toys there. Chloe will get a hold of it, and if another dog wants a turn she snarls and snaps. When I have observed this behavior I correct her, taking away the ball, roll her over on her back pining her down. The last time it happend I corrected her and immediately left the park. I do not like it when people bring treats for their dogs because that can cause problems, but apparently balls do too.
Do other Corgi owners ever run into this problem?
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Beth on
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Jack has snarled at me exactly twice, and both times I was trying to get him to leave a prized item when another dog was lurking over his shoulder. To a dog, possession is the law and Chloe doesn't think she's doing anything wrong. In fact, the dogs who want her to "share" are the ones overstepping.
Put yourself in Chloe's, er, "shoes." Imagine you are at a buffet luncheon, and you sit down with your plate and another paying guest comes over and tries to take it. You say "Hey! What the heck are you doing?! Get your own!!"....
....and the manager escorts YOU out and says since it's a buffet, you should have just gotten a new plate.
To Chloe, this is what is happening when you correct her for guarding the found item: she found it, and tennis balls are after all a great prize. She got one all on her own, using her own incredible wit and tracking ability, and now another dog is shouldering in on her turf, and out of the blue (in her mind) her owner backs up not her, but the strange dog.
Now, this is something you can work on, but you want to work on it with the understanding that it goes against Chloe's understanding of the world; even the lowest ranking dog has every right, by dog rules, to defend what she is in possession of.
What you want to do is start in a non threatening setting to sharpen up your "leave it" skills. Toss a tennis ball, say "leave it" and trade up for a treat or something she really likes, then immediately throw the ball again. Then work on trading one tennis ball for another one. Start in your house with balls she already has, then go to a (non-dog) park of field and do the same.
Then you can up the ante and strategically place a tennis ball outside along your walking route before going back and getting Chloe. She should think this is a ball she "found" (it might be even better to have a friend place it, so it does not have your scent on it already). When she sees it, but before she grabs it, tell her "leave it!" in a cheerful voice, and use a treat to lure her past it. Give her the treat, then say "ok" and let her get the ball. Gradually work up to not giving the treat til after she's ignored it (instead of using it as a lure), and sometimes let her take the ball then, and sometimes don't let her get it. Then you can move up to letting her take it first (by saying "ok") and then asking her to drop it again.
Finally, you can work up to practicing with one well-behaved dog a distance away, and gradually decrease the distance. If possible, make sure it's a dog that will not try to steal it from Chloe.
Eventually she should start to get the idea that it is up to you whether or not she picks up found items, even if another dog is nearby. However, high value items might always be a problem for her when other dogs are around, so keep that in mind when you are planning trips to the dog park.
Good luck!
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Permalink Reply by Stephanie on
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Great advice Beth. Bear does the same thing. I have never seen him be aggressive - except at the dog park when he is under my chair with a tennis ball...usually I can get him to follow me and we walk away from the other dog and we're fine, but if the other dog is "tenacious" about it - Bear can get quite ugly.
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Permalink Reply by Sky and Lyla on
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Beth is so right. Your little Chloe is not doing anything wrong, and is certainly not aggressive. You just have to think about it like a dog and not like a human! If my puppy were to try to take a toy from one of my older dogs, he'd get his face ripped off (figuratively, of course), and he would deserve it. I let my dogs correct eachother and don't intervene. It actually teaches the puppies so much and saves me from all that training which I couldn't do as well or as fast as another could teach it anyway! However, I know that can be really hard when the other owners at the dog park don't understand anything about dog behavior (which is honestly why I don't go to the park often, but I totally see the benefit to a single dog home). I would try Beth's suggestion. Good luck!
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Permalink Reply by MagnoliaFly on
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The problem will continue to get worse if you take the toy away forceably and then punish her for giving it up by alpha rolling her and removing her from the park. Next time she gets something she will guard it even harder since she obviously didn't succeed LAST time and she may begin to bite you. Lets hope she has good bite inhibition.
You need to do lots of trading exercises with her and reward her for giving up toys. Don't ever take something away from her without rewarding her with something better (treat, better toy, her breakfast). Dogs place value on objects and even if it looks worthless to you she may consider it the Bees Knees.
I highly recommend the book "Mine! A Guide to Resource Guarding in Dogs" - Jean Donaldson. It is $13 and will be the most valuable $13 you ever spent in your life. I have a resource guarder and this book opened my eyes to what was really going on and how to fix it, step-by-step without making it worse.
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Permalink Reply by Carla on
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If they are her toys, it seems a pretty simple solution would be to not bring her toys to the park (so she has nothing to possess over) and work with her at home as Beth suggests. Similarly if they are just lying around and are no ones in particular, then she is right in claiming them to be hers.
If they are another dogs' toys that she is taking from them and then becoming possessive over, then I don't know necessarily that I would agree with the assessments below that "she's not doing anything wrong from a dogs perspective" and in fact she IS doing something wrong from a dog's perspective, because she's taking other dogs toys and then staking claim to them as her own. She simply hasn't been put in her place by a dog that owns those toys and is dominant enough to stake claim to it.
Casey has tried to grab a ball from another dog that was quite possessive of it at the dog park on a few occasions, and she got put in her place right quick. She no longer tries to run after another dog’s ball, and I had nothing to do with training her not to do that.
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Permalink Reply by Susan , Radar and Cooper on
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I have a possessive dog too! He guards the equipment everybody is playing on. Not to mention the water bowls. I put him on his leash and walked him away from the other dogs and of course they followed us. Then the fight started with the same dog again. They both got a bucket full of water thrown on them to stop the fighting. Radar couldn't play anymore. I hate to leave him home because he has such a good time when he's there. I felt so bad for him, being held onto with his leash.
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Permalink Reply by Chloe's parent Liz on
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I never bring Chloe's toys to the park. Some owners do bring them and then some owners just leave them. I do like the input here. I may look into the book.
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