My Dog Is Possessive Over Their Toys — How Do I Fix It?

In some situations dogs can misread us trying to take their toys away and become possessive over them. A possessive dog might simply refuse to let go of their toy, growl at us, or even snap a bite — behaviour we need to prevent at all costs.

Under no circumstances should we let our dog growl at us or try to bite us for being possessive, but we shouldn't punish or scold them for it either, because then they'll learn that they can get what they want through force, and they'll try to do the same to us.

Let's see how we should act in the face of possessive behaviour, with or without growling, and how to prevent situations like this by training them properly from puppyhood.

How to Correct a Possessive Adult Dog

If our dog has become possessive over their toys, their bed, their food, or even any stick they find in the street… we have a problem. This behaviour is mainly down to three reasons, which we need to fix:

• Fear on the dog's part of losing their possession.
• Trying to mark their territory.
• Learning the wrong lesson because of bad examples on our part.

The first two reasons are practically linked: insecure dogs tend to be territorial. Dogs who haven't been socialised and who fear losing what they've got, whether a toy or food.

A possessive adult dog can be dangerous if we don't know how to train them properly, since if we try to take their possession away, they may well growl at us or even try to attack us. If we're not very confident about being able to fix this problem, it's advisable to see a dog trainer.

Even so, we can put some advice into practice to gradually, and with plenty of patience, try to eliminate this behaviour. If, for example, our dog growls when we approach their food, we should stop putting food in their bowl and start getting them used to eating from our hand instead.

This is a process we need to practise with plenty of patience and care, day after day, until the dog gets used to eating from our hand and not their bowl. We'll then gradually start adding food back to their bowl, while also giving them food from our hand.

In the end we should be able to approach their food bowl whenever we want with no growling or bad reactions from them, always carefully, since a wrong move can still result in a bite. If the possessiveness is over a toy, the best approach is to distract their attention with food, bring out one of their favourite treats and try to get them to drop the toy.

Once they drop it, we should give them food and reward them, then give them the toy back again (we should never take it away entirely). The point of this system is to teach the dog to drop whatever they're biting when we ask them to, which is why we need to practise the command "give it to me" or "drop it" a great deal, always with food as a reward.

If the dog is possessive for the third reason — that is, from having learned it through a bad example on our part — there's no doubt you'll need professional help. Plenty of people try to take toys, food or the bed away from a dog who's become possessive through force, even physically punishing them.

With this, our dog will only learn one thing: to become even more aggressive and possessive. They'll think they can get what they want through force, just as we do, which is why we should never behave this way with our dog.

How to Stop a Puppy Becoming Possessive

To avoid ending up with a possessive puppy, we simply need to put a very common, healthy technique into practice: socialisation. We need to have our dog around other dogs from puppyhood so they learn to play and interact, and the same goes for other people.

When we feed them, we should be able to put our hand into their food bowl with no growling or bad reactions from them. Us and any family member, even strangers.

The dog needs to learn that it's fine for other people or dogs to touch their toys or food, that it's entirely normal. This way our puppy will grow up with a very positive, sociable attitude.