Sophie actually bit her Dad over a piece of wood chip from the garden. I saw Dad's face afterwards and it wasn't anything nice. She bit him correctively, which means she gave him a warning and she could've hurt him if she wanted to, but she chose not to. Time to enforce a new protocol..

The way we have to correct this behavior is to #1) Correct her for making bad choices-i.e biting her Dad and

#2) Convincing her that taking things away from her is not bad. That it's actually great!

I wrote up a protocol that Sophie's owners will have to follow religiously for a time, to get her to feel good about taking things away from her. They are now NOT allowed to give her an object that she will be nasty over and leave her by herself with it. If she has something special enough to guard, one of her owners will have to be holding it while she's chewing on it. Usually a dog thinks the valuable possession is his if he is alone for a time with it. Avoid this situation as much as humanly possible.

While the dog is chewing on this very valuable object, offer her a treat (a special one), while you withdraw the object. Your dog will be chewing on the treat while you have her special object. She does not get the object unless she first sits or lies down. She gets it again but you have to remain holding one side of it. You want to make the dog think that taking things away is not a complete negative- it actually makes the dog get something (a treat), and in the end the dog gets the object back. No big deal.

If she has a nasty possessive episode, they are to use the throw chain correction to let her know this is unacceptable and after getting the object back, they are to ignore her for awhile until she craves interaction. She has to sit for any attention and the amount that she gets is brief. This makes the human in a higher position (alpha dog).

The relationship between Sophie and her pack has to change or else these episodes will not stop. Very serious entry here.