# Possessiveness



## boisspolied (Jan 26, 2015)

Hi there. I've posted before and things have gotten so much better, but I just want to know why my dog, Bo, is possessive only some of the time. About several times a year she gets possessive over her blanket. She sleeps on one of the living room chairs and she has a blanket. In the winter we cover her, she loves to be covered. In the summer she uses it as a pillow. Anyway, when I come downstairs in the morning, I walk over to her and say hi. Most of the time she's happy to see me. But once in a awhile as I walk over, she's hovering over her blanket, giving me the side eye and growls. I learned to leave her alone. She will stay on that chair for hours and then all of a sudden she gets off the chair, forgets about the blanket and acts normal. Then, she'll be normal for months and it starts over again. Btw, she is 6 years old and gets one good long walk a day. Does any one else experience this? She also does it with her treats, but it's not as bad.


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## Bob Engelhardt (Feb 14, 2012)

I don't think that it's a good idea that her growling at you lets her get her way. It's a slippery slope, as they say. 'Twere me, when she growled at me I would order her off the chair and take the blanket. Don't take no for an answer and also don't try to grab it from her. What's important is not the taking of the blanket, but getting her to acknowledge your authority.


Edit: re-reading your post I realize that I answered a question that you didn't ask ... sorry. And I have no idea why it might be so irregular.


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## texasred (Jan 29, 2012)

You said, she has gotten better than in the past.
Just a guess
While her behavior has improved, it hasn't totally been resolved. While she acts good most of the time, the behavior still raises its ugly head occasionally.
Possessiveness just might be in her temperament.
While we try to modify the behavior, we don't totally change the temperament. Some dogs overcome it with the right training. Some dogs have to have lifelong training/protocols in place.


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## Yasmin (Nov 29, 2019)

boisspolied said:


> About several times a year she gets possessive over her blanket.



Hi,

I have a dog who gets possessive with the cat food. I also dont know if that is normal. Even if I put the dog food in the same time as I put the cat food, my dog will first eat the cat food and wont allow the cats to get any close to their own cat food. Then my dog will eat his own food later. Because my dog knows the cats wont eat his dog food anyway. 

So I decided that is better to put the dog food far away from the cat food. While my dog starts eating his food, I put the cat food away from him.
For now, thats the only solution I found.

About the blanket, Im not sure. You could give her other blankets in case you want to wash her beloved blanket. Or you could show to her there are more blankets in the world than just 1 blanket. But the blanket is like what a toy represents to her, because the blanket is all the time with her and has her smell and saliva and she is afraid that someone will take it away from her. The treats she will eat and it will be gone forever, so she wont bother more about the treat than the blanket.

Let us know if you solved this issue!


XXX:kiss


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