Jerry Lyda said:
Sorry Connie I just don't understand the long walk thing. Help me understand.
Thanks.
OK. The long walk thing is NOT directly about the possession-aggression.
Say a neighbor or someone is my dog's club asks for help with her dog who is growling when the handler tries to take something away from him, and she wants help.
She says: QUOTE: He growls at me for trying to take any object that he has. What would you do to correct this problem or do you think it is a problem? END QUOTE
This dog is basically a stranger to me.
The first thing I do is go there, meet the dog, and take the dog for a long walk. I don't mean around the block; I mean 1/2 hour or 45 minutes.
The dog has now been introduced to the fact that he won't lead me, as we left his house with me in front and as we walked with him never allowed to pull or lead me, and as he was given leash corrections if needed.
Now the dog knows that he's not allowed to lead me, and if he was filled with frustrated nervous energy, some of it has been released. He also has been with me long enough to have started a habit of obeying me.
Then I would start swapping possessions and teaching him that giving up his possession gets him good stuff in return.
As Greg said, this dog needs a firm leader, and IMO, the leadership role is reinforced over and over every day during the walk, which is what is hardwired into their brains (IMO) to do all day long, every day: follow the alpha.
HOWEVER, I also said that if the dog was aggressive in other ways, my post about it would be much longer. I didn't have info like "He's really bad." It sounds like he has other issues besides growling over a toy. (There *are* dogs who aren't dominant in any other way who have possession aggression.)
You'd probably get much more detailed (and way firmer) advice here if we had read the other thread where the dog was described.
What I said (and I mentioned this) was based on a dog whose only issue was over his toy ("things").
"Don't do that, please" is not in my dog-speak repertoire.
This: "This dog is really bad. Worse than my first post indicated. " will get you way different answers from swapping toys.
Still, though, I do start with a walk, with me holding the leash, when I'm asked to help with a dog I don't know, for the reasons above.
When you talked about correcting him on the other thread, are you saying he is showing dominance and aggression and that when you mentioned correcting him, people said no, because he'd get worse??