My puppy is guarding his bully stick and barking. How can I stop it?

Question

My puppy is being possessive of his bully stick and I can’t get him out of a table on a conference room, he barked at me never done that before. What do I do he is not snapping out of it at all. Pet's info: Dog | Cavalier King Charles Spaniel | Male | unneutered | 8 months and 23 days old | 15 lbs

Jennifer Summerfield, DVM CPDT-KA · Accepted Answer

Hi there! I would recommend getting a really special, tasty treat (something like chicken or roast beef, for example). Let him see that you have it, and toss it on the floor a little distance away from where he is. If the treat is exciting enough, he should leave the bully stick to go and eat the treat. Toss him a whole handful if needed to keep him busy while you pick up the bully stick. Alternatively, if you don't *need* him to come out of the conference room right now, just leave him alone until he's finished. Either way, this is probably something that you want to work on, so I would recommend getting in touch with a good reward-based trainer who can help you put together a plan to improve this behavior. Treatment for resource guarding is based on teaching the dog to associate good things with having you approach them, so they don't have any reason to guard their treats or food from you. You can search for a qualified trainer in your area here: www.ccpdt.org I also highly recommend reading the book "Mine!" by Jean Donaldson - it's a great resource for understanding and working with dogs who have resource guarding issues.

My puppy is guarding his bully stick and barking. How can I stop it?

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