This is one of many games to play to prevent resource guarding in young puppies. This exercise is meant for young puppies who do not guard chews as a way of preventing them from thinking to guard chews in the future. Some puppies, start off not guarding food, but by having their chew taken away many times by people, the puppies start learning to guard. In this exercise we are teaching the puppies to drop a chew on cue. This is useful if the puppy finds something they shouldn’t have, or you need to take a chew away from the puppy because it is getting too short.

This exercise is not meant for puppies who guard or adult dogs. For puppies or adult dogs who guard as well as guard severely, a plan cantered to that dogs specific needs should be created. If you have a puppy or dog with severe guarding issues, I suggest getting help from a professional trainer who doesn’t use any forms of intimidation, to help set up a counter conditioning plan for your specific dog.