Expert: Alan J Turner, SATS LL1 - 12/8/2006

Question
We have a German Shorthaired pointer named Lulu. She is now 5 months old and we purchased her from a breeder when she was 10 months old. I have no previous experience with dogs and my husband has very little, but we have done extensive reading and for the most part we have been very succesful in all aspects of training. She is a very intelligent dog and is housetrained, can sit, lay down, roll over, stay, responds to her name, will fetch (does not return) etc. Anyways, the problem we are having is that she is very possessive over her food. I believe it began about 4-6 wks ago. If anyone tries to touch her or her dish she growls (a very scary growl) and her entire body trembles. She appears extremely stressed, the hair on her back stands up, and she has even lost control of her bladder and urinates while standing and trembling. Just recently she has begun to do the same with her favorite play toys and bones. I have tried hand feeding her every meal (she doesn't growl taking her food right from my hand), I have tried taking her food dish away and saying NO! I have changed the food dish. I always sit or have my children sit next to her carefully petting and nothing seems to work. She appears to be getting worse and I want to stop this as soon as possible. She is already 30 lbs and it is very scary to have her behave this way with my children. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.  

Answer
Dear Julia,
Resource guarding (especially by a soon-to-be, large, powerful dog) is serious business. Buy the book, Mine! by Jean Donaldson, read the book, and then search for a trainer that can help you use the methods in the book.

The behavior is too complex and dangerous for me to offer a solution on this board. Sorry.

Happy Training!
AT