Lucy is 7 months old and these past few days has started to guard things... her chew, her stick, her toy, even her matt..my other 2 dogs can't walk past her with-out her reacting, is it due to her age and her hormones? I am having her spayed between her first and second season.

I really want to nip this in the bud now before we have a real problem. My trainer is away for 2 weeks therefore I can not ask her advice. She works on possitive tech.

I am swapping things in return for a treat and then giving it back so she thinks it's nothing really to worry about or guard.. but do you have any other tips for me please.

Attached a pic looking as if butter wouldn't melt, and enjoying her first snow fall.

She could be coming into season and spaniels are, I am afraid, notorious for resource guarding whether food, locations, objects.


It is not quite clear from your post whether the resource guarding is limited to other dogs or also includes humans?

This link may be helpful in the former

How to Prevent Resource Guarding in a Multiple-dog Household | Karen Pryor Clickertraining

This link may be helpful in the latter

http://www.deesdogs.com/documents/re...ndfoodgame.pdf

Jean Donaldson has an excellent book, Mine! A practical guide to resource guarding in dogs which is very useful.

HTH

we had the same issue with Max - keep doing what you're doing and it should pass within the next few months

one thing we found helped was regular rotation of toys and types of chew so he never had chance to get 'over attached' to any particular one but in some dogs this can actually make it worse so it's playing it by ear

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Thanks for the replies, I will look at the links given and I will try and rotate the toys...