How To Fix My Dog’s Toy Aggression – Northern Virginia

ByOff Leash K9 Training

Toy Aggression is a behavioral issue we deal with a lot at our dog training facility in Northern Virginia.

First, we will start with prevention, to ensure you never have this problem with your dog.

Anytime we do our puppy training classes at our Northern Virignia facility, I always tell the owners to get their puppies used to them taking away their toys, giving them back, etc. So, as your puppy is playing with a new toy, bone, Kong, etc, I will just walk over to them, take it away from them, praise them, and then give it back. This gets your puppy at a young age conditioned and used to you taking things from them, I talk about this in my Pack Leadership Blog, as well. Essentially what you are doing is desensitizing them to people taking stuff from them while they are small and manageable, that way they think nothing of it when they are older and larger.

Also, what I’m a huge advocate of that most people do not do is I always recommend keeping all toys put up. Meaning, if you come over to my house, you will not see one dog toy on the floor. I only get out a toy (tug or a ball) when I’m working with my dog and he is doing well on obedience, then I use the toy as a reward. This does two things: 1) It helps build his drive for the object and 2) It teaches him that all of the toys are MINE and he only gets them when I give him access to them. I talk about building drive in your dog in my blog “Should I Play Tug With My Dog?”

Dogs who are toy aggressive see these toys as THEIRS and “you” are trying to take away THEIR toy. This is a very bad state-of-mind for your dog to be in. That shows that they do not respect you as the owner of these objects nor do they respect you as the pack leader.

Lastly, get your dog some obedience training so they have a solid “out” command or “leave it” command and you have control over your dog’s movement. Now, you can eliminate the issue by telling them to “out,” calling them away from it, and picking the toy up.

So, in summary: start desensitization work with your dog to get them used to you taking things away, find an obedience trainer to gain solid control over your dog, teach the dog that the toys are YOURS and not theirs by limiting their access to them, and start incorporating all of the pack leadership things discussed in the blog above.

My Dog Has Toy Aggression, Now What?

Your first course of action would be to find a qualified dog trainer in your area. As I tell people on a daily basis, “You cannot fix any issue in a dog that doesn’t listen.” To me, obedience and control over your dog is paramount for fixing almost any behavioral issue in your dog. As I’ve said before in another blog, “I have never seen an amazingly obedient dog with major behavioral issues and I have never seen a dog with major behavioral issues that was amazing in obedience.” Generally, all of these things go hand-in-hand. Obedience is a natural confidence builder for a dog, as well as a natural pack leadership bolsterer for you.

Now that you have control over your dog and you are working on the pack leadership issues that you have, now we can concentrate on correcting the behavior.

(Start Side Bar Topic) Here’s where it gets controversial, in my opinion, most dogs with aggression issues have to have a correction for the behavior! We work with 65 dogs per week, many of which went to some “positive reinforcement, clicker and treat, give him hot dogs until he’s full and falls over” trainer. Once they paid money, wasted a few weeks of time, and received no results, THEN they called us.

I think that dogs, much like humans, have to have a balanced approach of training. There has to be positive and praise when a desired behavior is achieved, and there has to be a correction for an unwanted behavior such as your dog trying to bite you or someone else. You cannot raise highly intelligent kids solely based off of positive reinforcement and ice cream, so why people think you can dogs is beyond me. As I say, the most confident and obedient dogs in the world are military, police, and ring (Mondio, ScH, French Ring) dogs, right? Not ONE of them solely use positive reinforcement. End of debate. (End Side Bar Topic)

So, while working with your toy aggressive or toy possessive dog, there has to be a correction for the unwanted behavior and positive reinforcement for the desired behavior. This will help teach your dog what is acceptable and unacceptable. Find a qualified trainer to work with your dog on these issues, do not try to fix this on your own.

www.offleashk9training.com
www.facebook.com/offleashk9
www.youtube.com/offleashk9training

Similar Posts

Off-Leash Training for Reactive Dogs: A Comprehensive Guide

ByNick White

Off-leash training for reactive dogs requires a thoughtful approach focusing on safety, impulse control, and gradual desensitization. This guide will help you navigate the complexities of training your reactive dog to be reliable off-leash. Training a reactive dog can be challenging, but it becomes even more complex when you want your dog to be reliable…

Dealing With Leash Aggression in Dogs – Northern Virginia

ByOff Leash K9 Training

We deal with leash aggression in dogs weekly at our dog training facility in Northern Virginia. An important study to first reference is one which was recently done on 2000 dogs at Mendel University in the Czech Republic. In 2000 dogs of varying breed, age, and size; researchers noted that dogs who were ON a…

I Want My Dog To Do Personal Protection Training (Bite Trained Dog): Myths and Facts

ByOff Leash K9 Training

At our dog training facility in Northern Virginia, we do everything from personal protection dogs (bite dogs), drug dogs, basic/advanced obedience, and behavioral issues. So naturally, people see our numerous videos on YouTube of our trained dogs doing bite work and they call us or email us to because they want their dog to do…

Importance of Verbal and Visual Cues In Dog Training

ByOff Leash K9 Training

At our dog training program in Northern Virginia, we stress the importance of verbal and visual cues in training our dogs.  Dogs learn mostly through verbal cues, visual cues,  vocal tones, repetition, correction, and praise (just like us humans). First, we will discuss keeping your commands simplistic! In the Marine Corps, we used the acronym,…

|

Bad Dog? President Obama’s Dog Bites White House Visitor | Off Leash K9 Training

ByOff Leash K9 Training

  At our dog training facility in Northern Virginia, we do dog reactivity training; however, it appears it’s needed in the White House! TMZ has recently posted a photo of a nasty cut under a young woman’s eye, allegedly the result of being bitten by the Obama’s family dog, Sunny. The 18-year-old visitor is a…

Therapy Dog Training in Northern Virginia: Northern Virginia Therapy Dog Training

ByOff Leash K9 Training

We can give your dog the tools to pass therapy dog testing at our facility in Northern Virginia. On a monthly basis, our trained dogs pass their therapy dog testing with ease. If you look at our YouTube Channel, you will see all of our trained actually “exceed” the standards laid out for therapy dogs….