Quote:
Originally Posted by ChibiLuv  I did tell him to drop it before I took it but he’s not great at that command. It’s hard because everything I look up online is about food recourse guarding and he could care less if I touch his food. It’s just these random “treasures” he finds like tree bark, rocks, sticks, and apparently flowers |
Maybe start by creating his desire for the treats you plan to offer him by letting him sniff them and removing them or dangling his favorite toy or possession in front of his nose, saying "good toy", etc. Repeat, repeat, repeat until his desire for the training treat or toy has been established as highly desirable.
Are you using high-value, warm, irresistible treats or food that makes him drool as his special training reward for a week, 10 days, etc. to start, such as warm chicken w/piece of cheese melted on top? Regular dog food and store-bought treats rarely work as well as a loud-smelling piece of warm meat or very stinky cheese. Or if he's toy-oriented, use a scented, fuzzy, hairy or squeaky toy he's crazy about playing with.
Unless he tries swallowing the rocks, bark, sticks or flowers, etc., why not use some of those as "payment" for the "drop it" command? Hold up a stick, flower or rock he's found, say "Drop it" and give him that instead of food while you work on getting him motivated to foods or toys as his special, high-value treat.
Together with the "No Free Lunch" training to teach him to see you as his established leader and to love, see as fun and automatically, without hesitation or question positively to your requests/commands, see obeying you as a big win for him, it can reshape his attitude toward things you ask him to do and he'll eventually come to respect you and readily respond to you and never even think about growling or behaving aggressively toward you or any of your little family "pack".
In a well-ordered pack situation, pups or any but the pack leader EVER try to discipline other pack members, leaving that role for their leader or pair of leaders. They might become exasperated or tempted by another pack member and react in a fake-fight or what is otherwise known as ritual play-fighting, where dogs bite each other without rending the skin or other tearing damage, but loudly growl, snap and make threatening, loud, vicious sounds but aren't really trying to disable the other dog, just send out social signals to stop an unwanted behavior by another pack member. Pack leaders often allow this type of ritualistic behaviors as they dogs are teaching one another how to act but they are not allowed to take on harsh discipline or fighting to injure/disable/kill another pack member without the pack leader intervening immediately.