Hi all. Fairly new Husky (and dog in general) owner and I have a question regarding possessiveness with bones (or toys or anything, Xana just specifically does it only with bones). I give her a frozen raw marrow bone about once a week. I've read/been told that you should take it from them and give it back so they will understand that YOU can take anything from their mouth. Is this true? I try to do this with her, and she will allow it with anything except a bone. With a bone, she has growled a little, and will take it and go hide under a chair or something so I can't take it. I don't necessarily want to take it from her, but if I needed to take something from her say out on a walk, I need to be able to do that. Any thoughts on this? thanks for any info.

My boy, Kohdi, was the same way. In your situation, with Xana being so young (if I remember correctly) you can probably get away with "the trade", where you offer a high value treat for giving up the bone to you. As with any training, it's repetition and time and it should work out.

With Kohdi, it was more time intensive and our bond that got us through it. But he did get through it. I'd sit with him the entire time he had his bone, pet him every once in awhile but purposely ignored that he had a bone, even if he did his little grumbling growl, we'd work on a trade but he is difficult there cuz he isn't really treat motivated, then, whenever I had the chance, I'd take it but hold it and let him chew on it while I held it still, eventually giving it back, and doing it all over again later on. It did take a bit of time though, mostly because I'm not big on giving my two bones.

My Kaila started out that way until I figured out she loves cheese. a month of work, trading the bone for cheese, holding it while she chewed on it, etc... and now she brings me her bones and other chews several times a day, trying to trade for a treat, my food or, pets and play time. She happily lets me take anything from her, sticks, bones, bully sticks, even cheese. It took a month but she learned that I won't take stuff and not give it back without reason and, if I can't give it back, I will give her something else in trade for the thing she can't have.

Same with Max and Mika. When we feed them chicken drumsticks, they are SERIOUS about keeping that to themselves. I do the same thing Jimmy does. It's getting slowly better but those are REALLY high value items to them. While I understand the point of being able to take anything from them, if someone tried to take a chocolate chip cookie from me, we'd have issues.

Great advice...... I would also start working on commands of drop it and leave it. Knowing those 2 commands are very important, especially on walks. My girl is still very much food possessive even tho she is not at all food motivated, so difficult to trade up for her. I have done what the others have done, but somethings are just too high value to her, even if she doesn't want to eat the item at that moment. I also am inclined to say that once a dog is eating they need to be left alone, too much fuss over making a dog be ok with you handling food while they eat can make a problem worse. I use drop it and leave it and remove her from the item I need to pick up. Training this while still a puppy will make a huge difference later on.

Hmm... Do I have the courage to try v the swap with Z'ev and bones? How much do I like my hand ????

That sounds like me and Sasha a few years back. A couple of days back, she actually let me take a deer hock she'd found somewhere away from her. 'Course when I saw what it was I gave it back - yeh, this is same dog who helped me get 5<?> stitches in my arm a while back ... yeh, they do get better but damn it takes time and work!!

@dvflyer the chocolate chip cookie thing made me LOL...that's me!

@amymeme Amy, Zev won't likely just let you take the bone from his mouth while you hand him a treat instead, it's not like that. First you have to find a treat more valuable than that bone and that's not always easy. Then you get him to drop his bone in exchange for that treat but you give him that treat in such a way that you've bought yourself a few seconds to safely get that bone, with Kohdi I would start to set it down to the side of him to where his face is looking in the opposite direction and with my other hand I'm scooping up the bone. Once he's had his treat, then you hold the bone while Zev chews on it with you holding it so he sees he wasn't "tricked" (otherwise he won't fall for it the next time) . If you have any anxiety/fear though while you are doing this interaction with Zev, he will read it and it probably wouldn't turn out so well so you gotta work on yourself too (if this is the case).

Thank you all so much for the advice. I can't think of ONE THING that would be of higher value to her than a raw marrow bone, so I can't think of anything to trade up for. But maybe something will present itself. She knows "leave it" and "give" but she very rarely is cooperative except in a training session with treats, and sometimes even then she doesn't lol. I have not taught drop it but that is something I want to work on. But like I said, none of the training does a darned thing when she is being sassy and obstinate. But she's 8 months old and everyone says she will outgrow some of that (in another 2 years!). This is the only thing she's ever done this with. I've taken toys, bully sticks, treats, food, the cat's toys she found that are too small for her and seem dangerous, even cat poop when she snuck to the litter box when I wasn't looking! Sticks, a dead baby bird, chewing gum off the ground, anything like that, I've just stopped and opened her mouth and taken it out if I thought it wasn't good for her and she lets me. But this bone, I mean I've never seen her be so possessive. I will have to work on finding anything in the world she thinks is higher value than a bone! Thanks again everyone!

ArcticSun66 wrote:

Thank you all so much for the advice.  I can't think of ONE THING that would be of higher value to her than a raw marrow bone, so I can't think of anything to trade up for.  But maybe something will present itself.  She knows "leave it" and "give" but she very rarely is cooperative except in a training session with treats, and sometimes even then she doesn't lol.  I have not taught drop it but that is something I want to work on.  But like I said, none of the training does a darned thing when she is being sassy and obstinate.  But she's 8 months old and everyone says she will outgrow some of that (in another 2 years!).  This is the only thing she's ever done this with.  I've taken toys, bully sticks, treats, food, the cat's toys she found that are too small for her and seem dangerous, even cat poop when she snuck to the litter box when I wasn't looking!  Sticks, a dead baby bird, chewing gum off the ground, anything like that, I've just stopped and opened her mouth and taken it out if I thought it wasn't good for her and she lets me.  But this bone, I mean I've never seen her be so possessive.  I will have to work on finding anything in the world she thinks is higher value than a bone!   Thanks again everyone!

Maybe cook up some good meat, like a steak or something, and cut it into small pieces for training JUST for this scenario. All dogs love meat, LOL.