# Possessiveness/Protectiveness at the Dog Park



## BeauShel (May 20, 2007)

It sounds like you handled it well to me. Nice that Rookie wasnt scared of the great dane as they are larger. When Bama saw one he was very submissive to it.


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## liero133 (Aug 23, 2009)

This was a clear case of you giving Rookie a correction/consequence because you didn't want him to exhibit the behaviour he did. Sounds like good work to me.


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## FlyingQuizini (Oct 24, 2006)

I tend to avoid physical corrections, especially in situations like that b/c you never know exactly how the dog will interpret it, and I don't want the dog accidentally thinking that the approach of other dogs makes "my mom become aggressive".

When I feel a dog is guarding me ("that's MY mom!") I'll storm off in a huff and ignore my dog. I want him to see that his actions (guarding) backfired.

Seems to work really well.

Also, remember to praise him while he's being good as other dogs approach.


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## GoldenJoyx'stwo (Feb 25, 2007)

I'll be working on re-conditioning Shadow around other dogs soon. He had one incident and I was not happy. It is upsetting to see this behavior. I was not happy. I hope you get it resolved.


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## mdoats (Jun 7, 2007)

FlyingQuizini said:


> When I feel a dog is guarding me ("that's MY mom!") I'll storm off in a huff and ignore my dog. I want him to see that his actions (guarding) backfired.
> 
> Seems to work really well.


I thought about this, but I was wondering whether the dog would see it as getting what he wanted, which was to separate me from the other dog. But I guess the idea is that if he doesn't get me either, he's not getting what he wants. I'll keep this in mind.


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