Resource guarding on walks

[Floofydawg]

My shitbag dog (16 months) is obsessed by picking up random pieces of crap on walks and trying to eat them. Mainly feathers and bits of tissue/paper. Obviously I try and steer him away from stuff but you don't always see them pick stuff up. Today he bit me twice when I tried to get a feather off him. He's not very good at 'drop' - I know I need to work on this. Is there anything else I can do to stop the resource guarding?

Would he swap whatever he has picked up for something of higher value eg. Treat or toy?

Muzzle train?

Is there anything else I can do to stop the resource guarding?

Lots!
• Most importantly you have to always have a better (tastier) thing to distract and swap it for. And when I say always I mean always: don’t leave the house without really good treats. A tube of squeezy cheese is quite good for this. Later you can start introducing other distractions like balls and squeaky toys, whatever they enjoy, and less high value treats.

• Be constantly on the look out for things he’ll want (and shouldn’t have) while on walks and distract him before he sees them.

• Ignore him when his picks something up, don’t make a massive fuss about it. At the moment he’s getting loads of attention over a feather. It really doesn’t matter if he has a feather, it’s not going to hurt him. Instead, call him away to distract/swap/play, but NEVER try to physically take anything from him. Or ignore him completely and keep walking away from him so he eventually has to follow, then give him a great treat when he does.

• Train a reliable ‘drop’ and ‘leave it’ through play at home. Then continue to train outside of the home. Then continue to reinforce it often. These are two different commands: ‘drop’ is for once he already has something in his mouth (teach him to swap for a treat) and ‘leave it’ is for as he’s approaching something but it’s not yet in his mouth.

I would look into trying a muzzle as your dog could pick up something dangerous and hurt themselves. I've had to get a chicken bone out of my dogs mouth before but she doesn't bite.

I would muzzle train him while you work with a behaviourist on the guarding.

Thanks, the squeeze cheese is a great idea.

I don't want to muzzle him. He doesn't bite often but I obviously want to put a stop to it.

I would be more concerned that he could pick up and eat something that could harm him, which is why a muzzle would stop him potentially hurting himself.

I regularly see a Labrador being walked with a muzzle and assume it's because it eats things off the floor.

My concern is more that he'll pick up something dangerous and you won't be able to stop him.

A muzzle could save you a fortune in vets bills, and it could even save his life.

The muzzle isn't for the biting it's to prevent them eating crap in the first palace

*place

Yeah I understand what the muzzle is for. I'd just prefer to train him to drop stuff he shouldn't have.

Well yes of course, but as you are finding it’s a lot easier said than done.

Muzzles aren't a bad thing. Imagine if he picked up a small bone and choked before you could get it off of him.

Training to drop is also very important, but you should be caring about the safety of your dog in the meantime.

I always trade for something. But your walk would be a lot less stressful if you could prevent the behaviour so a muzzle could help. Plus resource guarding has a habit of escalating. So one day you could be faced with a dog reacting really badly to you trying to remove something. Plus you need to find something so high value the dog will trade with you!

But the training won't happen immediately - it can take months to stop a dog from pinching stuff and resource guarding it.

Muzzles are nothing to be ashamed or embarrassed about.