One Bone to Rule Them All (Training aid?)

[Cessena]

So over the weekend we were visiting my boyfriend's Mom and she gave my dog Vlad a giant bone. (It looks like the knob end of a huge freaking bone, I try not to think about where it came from... I have vegetarian leanings.)

Anyway, he's obsessed. He has been carrying it around and burying it in our bed which is pretty normal for him. But with this one he's actually taken to sitting in whatever room it is in and guarding it. He does this even if we are upstairs and he is downstairs, which is really not normal for him, he is usually wherever we are.

We are definetly going to have to take it away, he's guarding it from the cats (who are so not interested) but I'm concerned that he's going to hurt one of them by accident because he can't see well and is clumsy. Last night I put it in a drawer in the bedroom so he would stop and he started guarding the drawer!!!

My thought was that we might try to use this in our ongoing battle with his separation anxiety, and I just wanted to see what other people thought? I was planning on putting it up and only giving it to him when we leave as part of his training.

Would this be too confusing? Will he eventually get bored?

He is confined to the basement when we can't be around to supervise him. Right now he can do about 20 minutes alone in the basement while we are in the house. I'm hoping with this we could work up to actually leaving the house. We'd probably give him the bone as well as a stuffed kong.

Any thoughts are welcome.

 

[Smartdogs]

It seems the new bone brought changes to your Dog's Behavior.
Some good changes and others not so good.
If there is more good from this keep the bone but if
there is potential for more bad then remove the bone.

 

[Cessena]

Uhm, Yeah, I get that point. That's why we've decided not to allow him to have it.

I was just wondering if using something like this as a training aid might cause further problems down the road and if anyone has any insight into that, that'd be great.

 

[Angelique]

I love the title of this thread! :hail:

My basic rule of thumb is the dog doesn't get possession of anything I can't walk up and take out of their mouth.

There are different methods in teaching this from the trade game, to "let me see it" and then give it back, to "I'm the leader and everything belongs to me".

I use a combination of "let me see it" and "I'm the leader", which works well for me.

I think you are wise not to let the dog have the bone at this point in his training. He's not ready.