Possessiveness

[Gempress]

All right, I have a Voodoo issue. Who would've guessed? :rolleyes:

Voodoo is crate trained. He's crated whenever we have to leave him alone during the day. We also feed him in the crate. But just lately, I've noticed he's developed a possesiveness over the crate. He won't let Zeus near it. He's fine with me, hubby, the cats, visitors, etc. It's only Zeus that makes him possessive.

Last night we took down the crate in order to solve the problem. We figure that Voodoo is old enough to start going without it.

I'm thinking that Voodoo got possessive of the crate because we never made him share it with Zeus. We tried to make Voodoo think that it was his special place. Maybe we overdid it. :o He's not possessive with anything else, such as favorite sleeping places or toys.

I just don't want this issue to crop up again. What can I do to make sure that doesn't happen? Or what can I do to help fix it?

[Doberluv]

Well, that's pretty natural for a dog to be possessive or territorial about "his" place. I don't know what you could do other than continuing to let the dogs know that you have everything under control and they don't need to decide stuff. I don't know if you do some of that NILIF. I wouldn't carry it to extremes, but a little bit is always a good thing.

How do they get along otherwise? Are there ever any problems over toys or you? Any arguments when you're handing them a treat? Just be careful not to reinforce either dog if one gets too pushy. Let him know that the thing he wants only comes to him when he's not being pushy or snarky.

That's all I can think of. Maybe someone else will have an idea.