Is resource guarding behavior reversible?
My 17 week old EM got his first beef esophagus strip today as an enrichment chew. I noticed it kept slipping into his mouth then back out while he had a lot left and I was worried he was going to choke. When I went to grab it, he swiped his head away and then bolted, and unfortunately I did chase him (I was very worried he was gonna choke).
When trying to escape me, he attempted to get onto my bed but got stuck/paused there and that's where he quickly chewed it down just enough to swallow it. he would thrash his head around if I tried to pry his mouth open.
I'm not 100% sure if he did, but I felt like I heard a growl too. he did end up hacking before swallowing the last bit so I don't know for certain, but it's still concerning.
I hand feed him most of his meals and have never taken away his toy chews. This is his high value, single ingredient treat chew.
I figured this behavior comes from the fact he tries to eat EVERYTHING. When we go on walks and even in the yard, he'll grab sticks or grab globs of moss that I have to pry out of his mouth. So I think that's why he assumed I was going to steal it. (I planned to hold it for him).
Anyway to the point: is this reversible? He's going to get very big very fast and it concerns me that this will be an issue and he won't be able to enjoy high value chews again. I read I can build trust, but if his problem is how I take away sticks and moss, then I'm not sure how to prevent set backs. I do plan to work on 'leave it' as soon as it cools down outside, because we don't have a lot of room in the house to do that the way I want to. Same with 'drop it' but that doesn't help me right now