So I'm having a troubling problem. Hoping you all can help.
Ivy has had problems with resource guarding since very, very young ... the first week we had her home, she went "mad dog" on me over a pile of regurgitated food. Since then the behavior has occurred once every few weeks or so - over chew toys, dead squirrel, dead rabbit, plastic bottle that she was ripping to shreds, and most recently over a kitchen doormat that she was chewing and her outside bed (more details on this coming, don't want to describe every incident to death but just give the big picture).
Ivy's breeder had warned me that her mother had serious resource guarding issues with food at about 6 months of age. This developed into an issue where she would guard the area in the kitchen where she was fed and not allow anyone to walk by. They ended up sending her to a boarding trainer who kept her 2 weeks and worked with her, then worked with her on a daily "outpatient" basis for another week. Since then I think her mother's problems have not recurred.
Since we knew this to be a problem with some TMs, and since we knew the family history, we've kept an eye on it from the beginning. We have almost exclusively hand-fed her (all members of the family). We consistently drop treats when we walk by as she is chewing on a chew toy and we play "trade" where we take away the chew toy and give her a treat, then give it back. We don't allow her to keep toys around in the kitchen except for a few stuffed toys that stay in her crate. When we give her toys to play with (like a tug of war toy) we take them and put them away after we are done playing. We generally practice things like "sit and wait" at every door, and we enter/exit first, and we don't step over her when she's lying in the way - we move her. She has very few privileges in the house - never on the furniture, and she is only allowed in the kitchen when we are not directly supervising - she does not have the run of the house. Kitchen with open crate at night when sleeping, and crated or in her fenced yard when we are not at home. In the evenings she is in the living room with us but leashed and downed on her settle mat - we are also having problems with her getting along with our older dog but that is a separate issue, so both dogs are leashed when they are in the same room together (we're working with a trainer on our older dog's behavior).
Today, I was out in her fenced yard with her, picking up old chew toys and generally cleaning up. I noticed a piece of black canvas and went to see if it had come off her bed, which she has been chewing on (canvas bed on a metal frame). As soon as I approached the bed and started to touch it, she came at me growling. I grabbed her collar and told her NO, and told her to sit (which she did). Then I put her in a down (she did not want to lie down so I tugged her collar but once I did that she went easily into a down and stayed there). I*m not sure if this is the right or wrong thing to do, but I then went and picked up a new treat I had just brought out for her (plastic bottle with small treats inside to keep her busy) because I didn*t want her to be rewarded for this behavior. She tried to follow me and I turned around and told her NO again, and she went into a down and stayed there. I went over and sat on her bed and she laid there with head on paws looking at me but did not react. Not sure if I should have done that. I was not trying to provoke her, but rather remind her who the boss is in the household (not her) and that if I want to touch her bed, she needs to allow it.
So, obviously this is going to be a problem with Ivy. We need to nip it in the bud and I am not sure I am handling things correctly. It*s very upsetting because I absolutely love this dog, but we must get this behavior under control. My kids are able to handle her now (and we always keep the martingale collar on so that we can grab it and subdue her) but she is getting very big very fast, and I'm not sure that she will always be able to be handled by my youngest.
Any help VERY much appreciated. Thanks.
