charady2

As I posted last week, Flash had gotten sick. We were told to withhold food for at least 12 hours, and then feed small amounts frequently to get him back up to par. So we did, things went well, he is back to eating normal again.

Now onto the issue. Since then, if my 4 year old touches him while he is eating he growls at him. I can touch him, so can hubby or our oldest son (he is 10 today!), but the 4 year old cannot touch him at all. First I thought he tried to pick him up, but then I saw him do it another time with the same reaction from flash-he petted him.

Onto tonight. I had bought bulk meats tonight and had divided them for the freezer. Well I missed one of the rolled up papers. flash found it. He took off running with it under an end table, I tried to reach down to grab it and he would have liked to take off my hand! So then I stood up, reached around his chest with my foot and tried to move him and he attacked my foot. Now, I didn't get hurt, but had I not been wearing shoes I probably would have had some sores!

At that point I backed away from the item and flash, then called him into the center of the room. He came willingly, I picked him up and put him in the kennel so I could properly throw away the wrapper.

What can I do to avoid this situation? It didn't phase me as much as one would think but then again, I was used to a rottie so his attack was "mild" compared to what it could have been. Flash somewhat understands drop it-if he gets ahold of a toy, paper, etc, I can walk up to him and say drop it and he will let go but not until my hand is by his mouth. I honestly think this is due to with holding food that first day or so after he was sick but I don't know how to correct this. But the good thing is that neither kid wants to remove anything from his mouth, even if it is their toy, so they shouldn't get the brunt of his "attitude".

Anyway, thanks for reading this far. If you have any suggestions I really will appreciate it!

charady2

Anybody? Please?? lol

Mom2Flash

I can't really help except to say it must be in the name - lol. My Flash is the sweetest thing until he steals a piece of people food and then he will run away and put the lock jaw on it. He doesn't growl, but I literally have to pry his jaws apart and shake his mouth to make whatever he has fall out. Then I have to grab it quicker than him or he will get my hand. I've tried training him in drop it and leave it. It totally works with normal treats but not when he's determined to eat something he shouldn't have!

Mikey T

Four the four year old you need to Practice Food bowl Games and the four year old need to be involved in the training.

food bowl exercise


One way dogs and humans differ greatly in learning is they way they apply the new information learned. Humans tend
to look a new learning and see where else to apply it where dogs look at on how this lerning applies to this situation and all other situations are different, so the look for how the learning does not apply. It is not unusal for a dog to guard a food bowl from only one member of the family. Because It has not learned that either
1. that other family member is not a threat to the food bowl.

2. or two only that family member is a threat to the food bowl.

With a four year old either could apply but it makes it necessary that he be involved in the training. Have another member of the family do the exercises is not going to change the dog perception of the 4 year old.


if the dog does not feel threatened or at risk of losing the object it is not going to react. So avoid a direct confontration, Also decide what the risk are of letting the dog have the object. Most of the time there really is not a risk to letting the dog tire of the object of course that is not always the case.

2 work on trading object with the dog practice two to three times a day with session that are short 2-5 minutes and consist of 10 trades or more. Start with low value toy etc. and part of the trading process is the dog gets the orginal object back and something else, pets food, play etc... So you are building up an expectation when the dog trades it is a win win situation for him. You must slow build up to more desired objects and more distracting situations as well.


the pest resource on dealing with Resource guarding is Mine! by jean donaldson

for a fair review, click here

charady2

Just wanted to say thanks Mikey! I have been working with flash and things seem to be going a bit better. I will have the kids start doing it too (they are gone for a few days now though). I just reread the links and will really work with him, don't need a kid getting bit!

Mikey T

to be perfectly honest the risk of the kids being bit has little to do with resource guarding and a lot more to do with how well bite inhibition is installed.

keep in mind much so called "aggressive behavior" that dogs use like growling, snaping and lunging are really done to avoid a fight not start one.

Dogs Use Non-Aggressive Fighting to Resolve Conflicts

I can saw since I taught mariah to growl again after having it eliminated through punish via a previous owner biteing incident disapeared because now whe had a more appropriate way of communicating. I not sayiung you should tollerate such behavior but at the same time insted of focusing on the behavior itself you need to focus on the emotions behind the behavior and by changing the dog emotions to the situation you change the behavior without less risk. By eliminating aggressive/agnostic behavior without addressing the underlying emotions you still have a dog that fell threatenend but without an effective way to communicat that so in reality it tends to create a dog that bites first which makes the dog truely dangerious.