Teach a stick-possessive dog to share with other dogs?

[lemongrassdog]

Hi,

I'm a professional dog walker. My specialty is to take a group of 4-5 dogs to the leash-free areas at the nearby Provincial Park for a nature hike.

I have one dog, a 1 year old Golden-Doodle, that is stick-possessive. Sometimes she snaps at the other dogs when they try to play with her stick, and ocassionally, she's bitten them (she's never drawn blood).

If I can catch her when she's got the stick (I now use a long training lead on her), she'll give it up to me ok. But is there any way to get her to learn to "share" the stick with other dogs?

Thanks,
Ali

[foxi7778]

Hi there, personally I would avoid giving any dogs sticks. I have been told that they are the bane of most vet's lives as pieces of sticks can become lodged in the dog's mouth, throat etc and it is also very easy for an excited dog running with a stick to become impaled (sp) on the stick. I know this doesn't really answer your question, but it definitely would solve the problem by just not giving any of the dogs sticks

[Annie]

This is probably also not so helpful, but I try to avoid toys when I have more than one dog playing. Unless of course they often play together with the ball\ stick etc, but with my dog I put her toys away when we meet another dog.
Is this dog possessive over other items? at home? you could try to exchange the stick for treats, but as it sounds like she gives you the stick...that really doesn´t help much.
When she is playing with other dogs, does she really need the stick? or does she steal them from other dogs?
It´s really hard to teach a dog to 'share' when there are so many other dogs around, and they are maybe not the same dogs everytime...
Annie

[lemongrassdog]

It's hard to keep sticks away when we're walking through the woods! They find them everywhere. I don't bring toys, to avoid fighting, but there's no avoiding the sticks.
Most of the dogs share and play with the sticks, and are ok when others make it a game of "tug", but this one gets right snappy when others approach, and she makes a point of stealing sticks from the others.
Sticks are of higher value to this dog than any treats are, so doing a trade won't work. I did have some luck with a squeeky toy, which I could squeek to get her attention, but even that lost it's appeal after a couple of days.