Yup

The dog NEEDS to learn a solid out. You don't want the new baby on the floor/ground until that happens.
Marker train the out with something now so important to the dog and build to more valued objects.
If you getting "that look" and then walk away, the dog is being reinforced that HE controls the object. You can't let that happen.

I think what she was saying was that she stood there until he relaxed, then walked away.

Idk if I would talk to him in that situation though. I'd just stay there and ignore him and not leave until he chills. If he stopped chewing on it AND was relaxed, I might even give him a treat a few times just to make the point that my presence was non threatening.

Yep, I moved away when he relaxed by degrees each time. His out is generally very good in the house even with appetizing trash, its outside during ball play that he doesn't out 100% and I've been working to make that better with food trades. Bite toys always have a line on them, he outs those easily. So its definitely being worked on.

And the baby is always up when Duke is loose and Duke's crated otherwise. No pics of newborns on a dog's back here

Eta: I'll give that a shot, Tresa!

 Quote: Kristin Muntz

...its outside during ball play that he doesn't out 100% and I've been working to make that better with food trades. Bite toys always have a line on them, he outs those easily.

Sounds good, just make sure you treat bite toys, balls and anything the same. Be consistent, always use a line to enforce all outs.

Good idea about the treats. If you use food treats in the situation Tresa said then be sure you toss the treats initially. Reaching down to give the treat can be viewed as taking something away initially but work up to that.

Yep and once the dog takes the tossed treats without incident start calling him to take them from your hand without reaching toward him. Eventually this becomes calling him off the toy and then a bring and out...with the line of course.

Ahh resource guarding. This is a fun topic. My own dog had serious, serious issues with this from day one. She would guard my own leg from me, not to mention food, pens, bags, clothes, pillows etc. There was never any growl, just a bite... a real bite. Now, however, she's a little gem. The process for me personally involved all treats, no corrections. If I even thought about grabbing the leash, she'd charge me and bite, bite bite.

My 2 cents below. I took baby steps but my dog was already at the stage of delivering very bad bites.

Definitely keep a drag line on him. No ifs buts or maybes. Instead of stopping and looking at him as you walk past, just walk straight on by, and drop a treat. Like Tresa said, don't talk to him at this stage. If he's relaxing as you walk by, or even looking up at you expecting a treat (a big bonus), jackpot him; drop like 5 treats. Then up the criteria; stopping, no looking. Stopping, looking. Stopping, talking, no looking, Stopping, kneeling etc. If he gets tense at any stage, take a step back.

Once he's comfortable with you in his space, you can start taking it off him. Start by kneeling down with him on the ground (if he definitely will bot bite you) and give treats. Mark any eye contact. Put hand out, mark and treat. Touch floor, mark and treat. Touch dog, mark and treat. Touch object, mark and treat.

You get the idea? This is all my opinion and based on my own experiences, so don't apply it if you don't feel it's relevant. Good luck!

bump

Nothing much to report here, I'm still working on it slowly - I do realize that I have underestimated the importance of just looking at a dog in terms of how they interpret it. He's gotten the treat ball a number of times with lower value treats in it, I have him peanut butter in it the other day and called him to me after a few minutes and he brought it right over and laid down by my feet with it. So I think we're doing well there.
ETA: I need to make more treats. This weekend!