Hi folks,
I've finally come home for the holidays and had decided that I would spend some quality time with my family's dog max (boxer/lab/chow mix). When I was last at home, I played with Max using our basketball (he's always played with a basketball since he doesn't have any other toys) and had no problems, he'd sit on command, I'd kick the ball, tell him to "get it" he'd run after it try and grab it with his mouth and growl at the ball then break and sit when told for me to kick the ball again.... I decided that I'd get him some real "dog" toys to play with over the holidays and with that in mind, came home with a tug toy, nobby squeaking ball, and a small round bouncing ball.
The problem started when I brought the toys out for the first time yesterday...He wasn't interested in the tug toy at all, but chased the nobbly squeaking ball quite enthusiastically, whining at it and not caring when I took it from him for him to chase it. When I brought out the smaller (would fit completely in his mouth) bouncing ball, however, he refused to drop it or let me take it from him (I will admit that he's never had much practice with "drop it" and even less since I haven't been home)...he then started to growl over it and even snapped at me, he even refused the standard "bait and switch" when I offered him a biscuit. Since removing the toy was out of question, I pulled him into a standing position and ran him around the yard on the leash (he promptly dropped the ball). I decided that the best course was to stop the fun since he wasn't playing by my rules. Today I decided to give it a second try, using the nobbly ball once more. He sat before I released the toy, waited for me to tell him ok, then went after it...then he did the same posessive growling behavior, refusing to drop the toy and once again I had to use the leash to pull him away from the toy and decided to put him back in his pen...
This has all been quite disturbing for me, considering that we've had max for ~6 years and never run into this before...of course, we've never played using toys of this kind before either. Is he now trying to push dominance, when he's never done so outright in the past, or is he just being posessive? What worries me, is the prospect of him trying more violent behavior in the future since I'm unsure how to correct him for his current posessive problems...This is especially troubling since he's ~90lbs and could seriously injure someone. During both of the instances he had on a buckle collar and a long "training" lead....I am not sure whether trying the situation again with a choke collar (so I could give an actual correction) would be beneficial or if it would cause more agression. For now, I think the toys will stay put away until we get this problem settled.
I'd greatly appreciate any suggustions,
Thanks,
Artstudent
I've finally come home for the holidays and had decided that I would spend some quality time with my family's dog max (boxer/lab/chow mix). When I was last at home, I played with Max using our basketball (he's always played with a basketball since he doesn't have any other toys) and had no problems, he'd sit on command, I'd kick the ball, tell him to "get it" he'd run after it try and grab it with his mouth and growl at the ball then break and sit when told for me to kick the ball again.... I decided that I'd get him some real "dog" toys to play with over the holidays and with that in mind, came home with a tug toy, nobby squeaking ball, and a small round bouncing ball.
The problem started when I brought the toys out for the first time yesterday...He wasn't interested in the tug toy at all, but chased the nobbly squeaking ball quite enthusiastically, whining at it and not caring when I took it from him for him to chase it. When I brought out the smaller (would fit completely in his mouth) bouncing ball, however, he refused to drop it or let me take it from him (I will admit that he's never had much practice with "drop it" and even less since I haven't been home)...he then started to growl over it and even snapped at me, he even refused the standard "bait and switch" when I offered him a biscuit. Since removing the toy was out of question, I pulled him into a standing position and ran him around the yard on the leash (he promptly dropped the ball). I decided that the best course was to stop the fun since he wasn't playing by my rules. Today I decided to give it a second try, using the nobbly ball once more. He sat before I released the toy, waited for me to tell him ok, then went after it...then he did the same posessive growling behavior, refusing to drop the toy and once again I had to use the leash to pull him away from the toy and decided to put him back in his pen...
This has all been quite disturbing for me, considering that we've had max for ~6 years and never run into this before...of course, we've never played using toys of this kind before either. Is he now trying to push dominance, when he's never done so outright in the past, or is he just being posessive? What worries me, is the prospect of him trying more violent behavior in the future since I'm unsure how to correct him for his current posessive problems...This is especially troubling since he's ~90lbs and could seriously injure someone. During both of the instances he had on a buckle collar and a long "training" lead....I am not sure whether trying the situation again with a choke collar (so I could give an actual correction) would be beneficial or if it would cause more agression. For now, I think the toys will stay put away until we get this problem settled.
I'd greatly appreciate any suggustions,
Thanks,
Artstudent