[kittiesareus]

I picked Duncan up from the vet this morning after being neutered and we came home and took a nap. ( I worked nights) Well when I gave him a bone to keep him entertained, he was acting aggressive towards stella and she was keeping her distance. when I went to take it away he attacked me and tried to bite me. I'm wondering if he is out of sorts from the anesthesia or the fact that he lost his manhood? He doesn't act in pain at all, he is quite hyper. Anyway, he kept doing the attacking to my husband and myself. i hope this isn't a problem brewing. I can't handle another dog with psych issues, stella is a scardy dog (part shar pei). Any one have any experience in this?

 

[Emma and Doris]

It's natural for a dog to guard his food and bones - it's a must from the wild.
Some owners can live with that, it's just to let him be when he's eating. But it's a problem if he steals something he's not supposed to have. You should be able to get that away from him.
I've always giving them things by hand, holding it for them, taken it away and looked at it and giving it back. That way they get used to it, and none have been agressiv towards me regarding food and bones.

I'm sure Mike can find a lot of links for you - if he's around.

 

[Mikey T]

Originally posted by Emma and Doris
It's natural for a dog to guard his food and  

I'm sure Mike can find a lot of links for you - if he's around.

Resource Guarding Prevention Exercises

Resource Guarding

RESOURCE GUARDING

Why Classical Conditioning Changes Food Bowl Guarding & Growling


Book

MINE! A GUIDE TO RESOURCE GUARDING IN DOGS

a fair review of the book

Donaldson presents resource guarding as a normal, adaptive behavior and rejects notions that resource guarders are not \"nice\" dogs or are \"dominant aggressive\". Instead, she focuses on a behaviorist approach to conceptualizing and remediating such behavior.  

In a nutshell, this primarily involves classically counter-conditioning a \"conditioned emotional response\" where an owner's approach is associated with high-value food treats, rather than representing a threat of loss or punishment. Initially this is done in the presence of little provocation, but incremental advances proceed until the dog can happily be approached when in the presence of whatever he formerly guarded most fiercely.  

Anal retentive to a fault (and I mean that as a compliment in this context), Donaldson does an excellent job of breaking down forms of resource guarding behavior into detailed, progressive increments. In order to teach a dog to accept having its mouth opened, for example, she lists 60 separate steps - beginning with touching the dog's rump for a single second. It takes 27 steps before one even touches the dog's head.

 

[Guest]

If he's not usually like this, I might just chalk it up to his being out of sorts from the surgery.

Janet 'n Twinkie

 

[Guest]

I would think that since he's been through a trauma, it would have something to do with his temperament, especially since he wasn't doing this before. Homer came to us that way. He got downrigh vicious when anyone - human or canine, came near him when he had a rawhide bone in his mouth. It was very scary. It's almost 2 years that he's been with us and he's a lot better. I don't offer him any rawhide bones that I think he would "love" though, unless he's in his crate. He has other toys he enjoys and is fine with them, but I'm still afraid to try these certain ones.

 

[Valerie and George]

I'm guessing he's just in a bad mood if he's never done this before. If you'd just had surgery, you'd be short-tempered, too. George sometimes acts like this (he doesn't bite or growl, but gets protective of his food), but other times I can take his food right out from under his nose and he just sighs. I'd say give him a day or two to feel better and if he's still doing it, THEN start doing some behavior modification things like Steinar suggested.