My Dog Has Issues

I'm going to have to do some reading on puppy-possessiveness. Casey sure has some issues with it. She doesn't like other dogs eating food out of her bowl. She doesn't like other dogs getting near her or us if we're holding her. She doesn't like other dogs playing with her toys. On and on and on. If she owns it (or thinks she does), there's no sharing.

Tonight at the park (aka rink next to a school), there was a large collie playing with its owner. I was going to drop Casey over the side because Paul had jumped the wall, but the collie came close to see her. She went completely mad. I believe it's because of me holding her, not because the collie wanted to sniff her. She has no issues usually, letting other dogs sniff and play with her.

Then when Paul was throwing the ball, she growled each time the collie came near her. It really ticked me off because it looks like we have a poorly-behaving dog. We don't, she just has issues.

An article I found actually gives some good tips. We just tried one, where we claim the item as "ours" (or "mine" in the case of Paul holding the ball Casey wanted). It seems to work, so we'll keep it up. She has a number of doggie friends that we plan to spend a lot of time with this summer, so I need her to learn to just let it go.

Sharing is taking what's useful to one

and making it useful by two.

It can be hard

to give up what you have,

but it shows that you care

when you do.

Puppy pi: 3.14159265358979323846264338327950288419716939937510582097494459230781640