Turning Keep Away into Fetch

Zuni loves her toys. In fact she has a bad case of "MINE Syndrome".  You know, when a dog has to have a toy and doesn't want anyone to get close to it. And this actually is causing her a bit of anxiety. She'll have a toy that she wants to chew on and will jump up with it into the chair. But then she sees that I am sitting on the floor by the chair and she decides she better find another place to play with her toy, in case I decide to take it. So across the room she goes to the couch and she lays herself down on the couch, only to notice Frodo sitting on the back of the couch, looking out the window. Well that just won't do so she heads over to the dining table, and so on and so on....  At times she'll finally relax and chew on her toy, but sometimes I'll see her anxiety increasing and her hunt becomes almost frenzied.

In this photo Zuni is worried that Frodo will steal her bone and she's hunting for a safer spot to play with her toy

Because she has that fear of being punished when someone takes something from her and also because this whole thing is causing her anxiety, I decided to try teaching her a game that is the opposite of keep away: fetch!  In fetch she learns that it's pretty fun to bring a toy to someone because they will throw it for you and then you get to chase it and it's all yours again. So not only am I making letting go of something easier, she also learns that letting go of something can be fun, exciting, and very rewarding.

We started out with a toy frog she likes. I filled up my pocket with kibble from her evening meal and then started out trying to trade her kibble for the frog. At first she was having none of that and left with her frog to the other side of the room. Buuuuuut... I did have kibble just lying there in my hand for the taking so she finally came back over.

Zuni with the squeaky frog - here she was trying to ignore me and my proffered kibble because this was a REALLY awesome frog and it was HERS

At first she tried to do a quick swipe of the kibble so she could get the frog back in her mouth before I "stole" it. I took the frog and tossed it just about 12" from us. She ran and got her frog and looked back at me suspiciously and saw that I had kibble in my hand again. Back she came with her frog. It only took 2 times before she was happy to drop her frog for the chance of the kibble reinforcer. Then we ran into the problem that she no longer cared about the frog. She just wanted the kibble and when  I tossed the frog and she looked at me like "I am SOOOO over that frog. Gimme the kibble."

Then our game had to change and we began to shape our "fetch". First she got clicked and rewarded for touching the ball and coming back for a treat. Next she had to get her mouth around the ball before she got clicked. At that point we ended our game for the evening, both of us feeling happy and successful. For me, I knew we were well on our journey of teaching her that letting go of a favorite thing isn't always horrible and it won't be followed by punishment. For her, well - toys, clicks, treats and playing - what puppy isn't going to love that?!

We'll play this a few times a day - doesn't have to be a big official, scheduled, "training session" - instead it's just a few minutes of one on one playtime and that will keep her enjoying our time learning together.