Cheeky little Cocker!!

Raksha

Working Cockers often push the boundaries like this. It's nothing to do with dominance - in dog law possesion is 100% the law, if I have it, it's mine and I can choose to give it to you, but you can't take it - so rewarding him for dropping it is the way to go. However, it's easy to get confrontational if the dog decides not to give it back, and this is where owners often get the growling (they won't have noticed the initial warning signs of the 'freeze' and the 'stare'). Personally, I would work on never letting the dog get to the position where he can steal things. Does a T towel really have such value for you that you are prepared to fight for it? If so, you are teaching your dog it's very precious to you, and therefore may well be valuable to him too.

Why not work on actively training him with things that are his - if he brings them to you and 'gives' then you will find a reward within them (magic ) and then he can have them back. Have you ever actually given him back anything he's given to you? Maybe this is why he's more determined to keep it - he's learnt he never gets it back............

Just some rambling thoughts.

jennyo

Gundogs have been bred for hundreds of generations to gain pleasure from holding something in their mouth.

When he has something in his mouth he is on a high, on the hedonic scale he is feeling pleasure possibly up as far as ecstacy, when you remove the item he plummets down into disappointment which can lead to rage (the growling).

Raska has given you some really good advice. He is not trying to be dominant, he is trying to be a cocker spaniel.

You can actually see physical changes taking place in the dog when it has something in its mouth, the bottom lip sometimes swells slightly.

If he shows you what we call "spaniel eye" ie the whites of his eyes, he really wants to keep it, be careful he may bite.

When swapping you need to swap fro something the dog perceives as higher value, this is often not food, but something else they can hold.

TeetersOnHeels

Jennyo -
That rings so true....He is crated at night with some old towels for bedding, and when we get up the first thing he does is bring all his towels out into the room, walking round with them for ages. If I shut the door and he's not brought the towels out with him he sits at the crate and cries!!! Come to think of it I think he spends 80% of his day with something or other in his mouth!!!

raggydoll_2

I agree you have inadvertantly rewarded her for the unwanted behaviour, easily done.

We have a cocker too, just turned 12 months. She's a bit of a stealer sometimes. Very early on, as soon as she started showing signs of being posessive over things we taught her the 'leave it' command. Now she steals things but as soon as we ask her she will drop it with no fuss. If we catch her in the act a sharp 'ah-ah' normally does the trick.

I also like to have a 'toolbox' of commands to use. So rather than getting into an 'argument' abut something we use distraction techniques asking her to sit, lie down, give paw, roll over, etc. etc. which in turn earns her lots of praise and attention which the stealing did not.

Other than that its a case of trying to stay one step ahead and not leaving things in her way!!!

Raksha

Cockers are great, I grew up with one, but because they look so soft and 'cute' people forget they can have high 'drives', and pet dogs often find themselves getting into 'arguments' with their owners about things - the trick is to avoid the argument in the first place

jasper12

Have to admit, having spaniels is the only thing which has cured my OH of his habit of not using the wash basket......he learned pretty quickly that if his dirty washing wasn't put in the basket it would be very quickly spread throughout the house