Someone's acting as meek as a lamb and sticking as close as glue. Here I am merely attempting to walk across the living room to open the curtains:
Which gave me this idea:
Tether her like she's a baby again!
This way, if she vomits it back up I can swiftly move her away from the scrunchie and reward. In fact, I think that's where my husband missed his opportunity.
I've documented every one of Peggy's handful of guarding episodes on Poodle Forum. They're few and far between, although obviously an issue. So one thing I've been working on with her is to ask that she walk away from a treasure. This could be an errant napkin, a freshly laundered sock—that sort of thing.
She'll usually make sure I can see she's got it, to invite a game of chase. Instead of complying by approaching, I walk away and ask her to go to her mat. When she arrives, I produce something extremely tasty.
Or, if she remains conflicted, I toss a trail of treats leading away from the item until she forgets about it.
We're also still working on a more traditional leave it and drop it, but that doesn't yet work on all items. If, historically, we've
ever expressed concern over her having a particular object, she is far less likely to relinquish it now. So that's where this method comes in.
But today, instead of inviting Peggy to follow him away from the scrunchie for some chicken, my husband grabbed the chicken and approached her with it while she was guarding the vomity scrunchie. When he got close, she got anxious and demanded he stop. And then she gulped the scrunchie back down before meekly asking for forgiveness (which she continues to do, even as I type this).
I'm sure he heard my words in his head: "Trade! Don't snatch!" And he did his best.
Scrunchie watch continues.
ahhhhh
