Dogs are known for being man’s best friend, and this means that they love to protect their owners. After all, these are pack animals, and pack members always look after their own.
A dog protecting its owner in threatening situations is fine. However, what happens when a dog starts to cross the line and becomes overprotective of their owners, even possessive?
A possessive dog will usually never leave their owner alone for a single minute, and moreover, they will also become aggressive towards other people and dogs trying to interact with the owner.
This can become a serious issue, one that can result in someone getting bitten. This is a behavior that needs to stop immediately. Let’s go over some of the best tips on how to stop a dog from being possessive of the owner.
Don’t Always Give In
Dogs being possessive of their owners can be equated to an addiction of sorts. The more the dog becomes possessive of the owner, the more attention owners will give their dogs, and then the more possessive the dog becomes. It’s a vicious cycle that just keeps getting worse if the owner doesn’t do something about it.
One of the best tips in terms of getting your dog to stop being possessive of you is to give it less attention. Your dog is not stupid, and it realizes that its actions are garnering attention. By giving your dog attention when it is possessive, it reinforces that possessive behavior and just makes everything worse.
If you always give the dog what it wants, even when it does not follow the rules, you are creating a bad habit, one that is hard to break. In order to stop this possessiveness, you need to show your dog that it will not get your attention through this behavior. It may take a while, but the dog will learn eventually.
Creating and Enforcing Boundaries
Possessive dogs will often become possessive of not only their owners, but of the items which the owner often uses and is near. A good example of this is the couch and the bed.
Dogs that are possessive of their owners will also often become possessive of things like couches, beds, and chairs, especially when the owner is sitting or lying down on that furniture. This often gets to the point where the dog may not allow other people or pets to get on the bed, couch, or whatever else.
Therefore, a good solution to help curb this problem is to no longer allow the dog up on the furniture. The dog is being possessive, and it is effectively deciding who does and does not get to sit on the couch. If your possessive dogs jumps up on the couch, immediately make it get off.
Enforcing Obedience and Authority
Dogs that become overly possessive of their owners usually do so because of a lack of authority, rules, and structure. Dogs trained in obedience are much less likely to become possessive of their owners.
If you have a dog that is showing possessiveness towards you, a good idea is to take it to dog classes. You need to enforce obedience, and this may take days or even weeks to accomplish, but a dog that is disciplined and lives a structured life is much less likely to be possessive of the owner.
On that same note, it is also very important to show the dog that you are the leader, not it, something that can be done in various ways. You should always feed your dog after you eat, dogs should never enter or exit a room before you, and a dog should never walk in front of you or pull on the leash.
You should also aim to give your dog plenty of commands on a daily basis. The bottom line is that you need to make clear that you are the one in charge, not the dog.
Try to Get the Dog to Bond with Others
A good way to stop a dog from being possessive of the owner is to get it to bond with more people, and the more people it bonds with, the better.
This will take a lot of the attention away from you and focus it on other people. A dog who is bonded with a number of people is much less likely to be possessive over any one person.
Conclusion
If you have a possessive dog, the other thing you can try doing is getting it used to being alone for longer periods of time. This is something else that may help the situation, although if you are always home, this may not be possible. Remember, a possessive dog is a dangerous one, and it’s an issue that needs to be solved.
