Oxala

This actually may be the first post I have made on this forum, but I do read her steadily I have an almost 3 year old collie, or mostly collie, named Radar. Since he came from a rescue as a puppy I do not know for sure, and at some point I'll post pictures and get opinions on that. He is a resource guarder of things stolen, meaning he has no problem giving up food or toys or balls when I ask him BUT if he "steals" something, even a kleenex, he will guard it with his life. Also lots of destructive behaviour, as though he was driven with a motor like digging the floor and biting things like walls etc. Part of that was puppy behaviour but it was more than that. We perpetually work on this and he is better by far than he was. A few other quirks too, although they are fading like fixating on shadows, shiny things etc. I'm pretty convinced that for his first year, he never actually slept! We took him to a veterinarian behaviourist who told us that he was an extremely anxious dog and that a few things needed to be changed. He prescribed a low dose of fluoxetine (prozac) and told us to just tone every single thing down in his daily life. We had been increasing his activity levels to try and tire him out, doing all sorts of what is known as brain activity etc. He told us to cut his walks short and try to focus on ways to calm him down, make his life less stimulating in just about every way we could. So we did. His walks, leashed and off leash, went from 3 a day (and they were at least 90 minutes each) to two a day, much much shorter and no off leash for a while. We worked on literally calming him down by teaching him (slowly) to enjoy being stroked, brushed, pressed etc. That we accomplished with a LOT of patience and a bully stick for him to chew on in one hand. We could watch his body visibly calming down, his muscles relaxing etc. The medication helps as well. I'd like to say he is a perfect dog now with no issues but he is not. I watch him like a hawk in the off leash parks and redirect him if he is getting too wound up. He still will steal and guard things at times, although not nearly as often as he used to. I truly think the meds help with his general anxiety and that the calming "exercises" make all the difference. In short (although this is far from short, haha) stopping trying to "run it out of him" and focusing more on calming behaviours has made a ton of difference. Just one more thing to try in addition to the other great advice you have gotten here!