Just to throw my two cents in...
There are a few episodes of "the dog whisperer" (I watch it religiously, thank you Tivo!) where Caesar uses the technique to "claim" the item of possession. Just as Courtney's method worked for her, it is sort of the same technique that Caesar uses. What you do is slowly move your way into the space of the dog and the item he is possessing, until you are standing over/ right in front of the dog. Don't let him flight, keep him in front of you until he realizes it's going to be a showdown. Let him growl or show teeth or whatever it is he does to itimidate but do not back down, it is a mind game from here. Pretty soon, the dog should either lose tension on the item or drop it altogether and you should be able to "claim" the item as pack leader.
I know it sounds much more difficult than explained, but if I can cycle throught the shows, I'll refer you to the specific episodes, because he's handled these certain cases on more than one occasion. There's even an episode where a maltese had an issue with people leaving. I'll try to pull that one up as well.
Hope this little bit helps for now, good luck!
