# 13 week old puppy displaying aggression over chew treats



## ssacres (Sep 29, 2012)

When Mia was about that age she did the same thing. One night I was going to pick her up to carry her to her bed and she growled at me. I just told her don't you dare do that in a stern voice. She did it a few more times with treats and I told her the same thing. Before long she realized that was not going to work and has never done it since. They just don't know any better at that age. Sometimes I would take the treat away and give it back right away so she would realize she would get it back. Just keep working with your pup. I was kind of freaked out too.


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## Claudia M (Aug 8, 2012)

Of course he does - they are quite high value and he is only 13 weeks and probably hasn't mastered the give command. I would certainly work on that with less value treats than a bully stick/pig ear. 

I personally have not introduced the "cocaine treats" (my vet's expression) until much later (6 months) and they are very very seldom - when I expect a lot of people over or she was just exceptionally good. 
At that age we used frozen toys and antlers.


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## Joanne & Asia (Jul 23, 2007)

Asia did this too at about that age. I told her No firmly and traded her for another high value treat and then started practicing taking the bone from her praising her and then giving it right back. After that, every time she had a bone I would parctice taking it away and giving it right back and the behaviour stopped quite quickly. Ever since then I have been able to approach her and thake anything out of her mouth. I am sure you will be able to get this under control quickly with a calm approach.


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## MyBuddy22 (Oct 29, 2010)

yes, Bauer did the same thing. Bauer used to give me a snarly face when I would take something away he wanted....


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## nolefan (Nov 6, 2009)

ssacres said:


> When Mia was about that age she did the same thing. One night I was going to pick her up to carry her to her bed and she growled at me. I just told her don't you dare do that in a stern voice. She did it a few more times with treats and I told her the same thing. Before long she realized that was not going to work and has never done it since. They just don't know any better at that age. Sometimes I would take the treat away and give it back right away so she would realize she would get it back. Just keep working with your pup. I was kind of freaked out too.



Please do not recommend just taking things from your pup to people. All dogs have different personalities and issues. Just because this worked with Mia does not mean it will work with every dog, it can make things much worse, and there is really a better way of working on the issue. 

Autumn, please start working on teaching your pup to trade. Always have a baggie of high value (this means it has to be the best, yummiest thing ever) treats handy. This means that you do not ever just walk up and take something from her, a tissue, a bone, a stick. You are just reinforcing her worry that if she has something good that you want to steal it.

Always make sure your 'trade' item is better, who wants to give up candy for a celery stick, not me.

When you walk by her food bowl as she's eating, throw something in yummy and then leave her alone.

When you practice trading, let her have the bully stick, trade for a piece of 'steak' and wait till she drops it, give back the bully stick, trade back, back and forth.

Realize that this is an issue for her and if you ever have visitors, especially children, be very, very sure that all of her trigger items are picked up. You do not want to set yourself up for a very serious mistake.

Check out the book called "Mine" by Jean Donaldson. It is very educational and can help you understand what is going on and how to work very slowly through it.

Another good trick to work on her with is "Leave It". It seems like it would be hard to teach, but it is really, really easy. Especially with a smart Golden. Use the search feature on this forum to find instructions on how to teach it or google "Victoria Stillwell" Leave It videos to find it.

You are correct to be concerned, this is extremely serious. Is your puppy in obedience training? You might also check out the protocol "Nothing In Life is Free". As she gets older and learns more things like, sit, down, stay etc. you can use NILIF to remind her that she is the dog and you are the leader.


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## Tayla's Mom (Apr 20, 2012)

I agree with Nolefan. Tayla is really bad about that especially with raw bones which she has every day. It's hard to get better than a raw bone to trade with, but I dehydrate my own liver and beef for them so that is a little above a bone in her opinion. I always trade her several good things for the bone. What you trade with must be really high value and used for special things. Tayla gets the good stuff for a trade and to go in her crate which she has always hated. She doesn't mind it once there, but used to throw herself on the floor and "wet noodle" it. It's hard to scoop a 65 lbs. dog off the floor so now we use really high value treats and she goes right in.


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## ssacres (Sep 29, 2012)

nolefan said:


> Please do not recommend just taking things from your pup to people. All dogs have different personalities and issues. Just because this worked with Mia does not mean it will work with every dog, it can make things much worse, and there is really a better way of working on the issue.
> 
> Autumn, please start working on teaching your pup to trade. Always have a baggie of high value (this means it has to be the best, yummiest thing ever) treats handy. This means that you do not ever just walk up and take something from her, a tissue, a bone, a stick. You are just reinforcing her worry that if she has something good that you want to steal it.
> 
> ...


 Well I didn't just take it away. Sorry I didn't say it very well.


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## Charliethree (Jul 18, 2010)

Guarding is a normal, natural, instinctive trait in any dog, some dogs are more predisposed to it than others. Your pup was not being 'aggressive' he was telling you- in 'dog' that he wanted to keep what he had, just as he would another dog. Don't ignore the warnings and take the item anyway, because you 'can', it teaches him that 'next time' he needs to try harder to keep what he has.
Teach your pup to 'TRADE' - this a potentially life saving skill for your dog to have, he will likely at some point in his life pick up something that could be dangerous to him like a chicken bone or garbage, and you want him to give it up easily and willingly. 'Stealing' stuff (or threatening to) from him teaches him you cannot be trusted around items of value to him. Put away the bully sticks for now.
Start teaching him to trade for non- food items (a toy, a ball). Give him, or when he has a toy, show him a yummy high value treat, when he drops the toy, praise, and immediately give him the treat, then give him the toy back. Repeat repeat repeat. This teaches him that it is safe to 'give up' an item, something good will happen AND most often he will get the item back. Make a habit of trading, everytime- for anything you want or need him to give up. Slowly work up to higher value items using higher value treats, moving 'up' only when your pup is willingly and easily 'trading' for the lower value item.


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## nolefan (Nov 6, 2009)

ssacres said:


> Well I didn't just take it away. Sorry I didn't say it very well.


It sort of sounded that way. I didn't mean to sound short, please forgive me if I did. This is a push-button issue for me because I have first hand experience with how serious it can be. With my first golden, it happened once or twice and never ever happened again his whole life, thank God because I didn't have this forum as a resource back then. My second Golden who I adored, did have this issue and it didn't go away. When I see people make these posts it just breaks my heart because I know if it isn't handled correctly for the individual dog (who we don't know and can't see) it can absolutely ruin the dog and make the owner's life very bad.


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## Autumn2011 (Dec 28, 2012)

Thank you so much to all of you for your insight and advice, it's very much appreciated! Dug will be starting training classes at Petsmart this coming Monday. He already knows sit, lay down, shake and sit pretty.....I guess I should focus more on important commands such as leave it, over sit pretty....duuh! :doh: We live and learn. I will start immediately on the exchanges and work back up to chew treats etc... when he's a bit older.


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## mylissyk (Feb 25, 2007)

Charliethree said:


> Guarding is a normal, natural, instinctive trait in any dog, some dogs are more predisposed to it than others. Your pup was not being 'aggressive' he was telling you- in 'dog' that he wanted to keep what he had, just as he would another dog. Don't ignore the warnings and take the item anyway, because you 'can', it teaches him that 'next time' he needs to try harder to keep what he has.
> Teach your pup to 'TRADE' - this a potentially life saving skill for your dog to have, he will likely at some point in his life pick up something that could be dangerous to him like a chicken bone or garbage, and you want him to give it up easily and willingly. 'Stealing' stuff (or threatening to) from him teaches him you cannot be trusted around items of value to him. Put away the bully sticks for now.
> Start teaching him to trade for non- food items (a toy, a ball). Give him, or when he has a toy, show him a yummy high value treat, when he drops the toy, praise, and immediately give him the treat, then give him the toy back. Repeat repeat repeat. This teaches him that it is safe to 'give up' an item, something good will happen AND most often he will get the item back. Make a habit of trading, everytime- for anything you want or need him to give up. Slowly work up to higher value items using higher value treats, moving 'up' only when your pup is willingly and easily 'trading' for the lower value item.


I agree with all of this. This is the right way to work with your puppy on this issue. Just taking what he has proves to him he needs to guard it from you, so don't just take it, trade him for something better and he will learn you approaching and taking something he has is a good thing because you bring something yummy in exchange.


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## laprincessa (Mar 24, 2008)

It might be a good idea to not give any more bully sticks or pig ears for a long long time, as well.


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