Ball guarding

[ChickensHaveNoLips]

Jasper is a cocker/springer cross, and ball obsessed. When I take him out for an off lead run every morning I always bring a tennis ball. He ignores everyone and everything for the ball, so no running up to people or other dogs and his recall is excellent. This morning we met a couple of other dog walkers, and one had a 5 month old labradoodle. Jasper ignored everyone in favour of chasing his ball. The pup started chasing after him in that uncoordinated 'my feet are too big for me' way. Jasper got his ball, then turned to the pup and chased him off. There was some barking and jumping at the pup's face, but no contact. The pup's owner was upset, and I apologised profusely. He has never done this before. Should I remove the ball when we're around other dogs? Or can I train him to react less aggressively?

Tbh, I think the pup owner should have been apologising to you.

It's poor dog manners to do what he (pup) did, your dog was only letting the pup know that. This will form a vital part of the pup's socialisation - the pup's owner should be grateful that he learnt the lesson from your dog in a non-violent way, rather than from another, aggressive dog.

See, thinking about it the pup did yelp, but I don't think there was contact :(. Jasper has always been the youngest when he's met other dogs, this is the first time he's met a younger dog ( he's 10 months).

IM (unscientific) O, dogs tend to work out their own social issues.

As long as no blood is shed, I'm quite happy for other dogs to bark, growl, snap or play rough with my dog (just over a year). It teaches him his place in the canine world in a way that I couldn't ever do as a human.

I'm sure there are those who will disagree with me, but I think Jasper did that pup a favour!

If you would like to train the 'guarding' out, we were taught at puppy school that when your dog has something he is guarding, calmly take it away from him and give him something of 'higher value' to him (treat, toy etc). Also works with food apparently - take the foodbowl away from him and put something really, really good in there. Then he will associate things being taken from him with something even better coming along.

Hope this helps

Chickens I was thinking about this today. My pup is 10 months too, and I recently asked my trainer about the fact he keeps getting his head kicked in by bigger dogs- she said at around this age they get a rush of hormones and a bit of swagger, and are more likely to say (in dog language!) "actually, I'm quite happy just running on my own, sod off" sort of thing! I've seen my boy do it a few times now, stand his ground a bit, and tbh I think it's a natural thing and shows growth. Dogs have their own ways of handling things after all.

if some bloody teenage bugger tried to pinch my Friday afternoon chips I'd be pretty vocal in telling em where to go tbf

If you're bothered about ball guarding at home/when out, just use 2 balls in a game of fetch, or lots of sausages for bringing it back and dropping it. It's good to have something that Jasper will come back for regardless!