My GSD is very possessive of the food bowl. She growls at me when I go to let her out after she has eaten. What is a good way to fix this problem?

Question

I am in the beginning phases of using remote collar. I purchased your dvd months ago and have been studying it and I am in the conditional phase with my 3 year old bitch.

I have an issue and I am not sure how to deal with it. I have gotten my GSD to accept our cats as part of her pack to the point where they coexist with no issues, other then my GSD's food bowl.

So fine, not willing of taking the chance of one of the cats getting bit I feed her in her cage. The problem is when I go to take her out of her cage after she eats. She stays protective of the food bowl for some time and if you go and to open the cage up she growls bad, I have tried my deepest calmest voice in saying "No", "Phooey" She just gets louder when I talk, so I don't talk. I stare her down with the cage partially open so if need be I could close it or tap her with it. When she settles down from the growling I tell her to go to her place, she goes immediately, tell her down, stay, she complies immediately. I take her food bowl out of the cage and then everything is fine.

I want to stop this challenging of hers, I haven't done anything yet. I am in the beginning phases of remote collar training. The only other thing I thought of was to place her in the cage while feeding, take the leash with a dominant dog collar up through the top of the cage and when she growls use this technique and tell her no. I am not sure if this would be better or using the remote collar would be better? She is not people aggressive, just food bowl guarding.

Or any other suggestions you would have? I want to do the right thing, without doing the wrong thing!

When I have fed her out of the cage this wasn't an issue, she eats, she walks away, then I pick the food bowl up. The issues now just lie within the cage environment.

Thanks for any advice, suggestions, always much appreciated.

Joe

Accepted Answer

I would set myself up for success in your situation. I would not cause more conflict by correcting the dog for showing aggression, I would instead have a leash on the dog and the remote. I would make sure I have a lot of leash hanging out of the crate so I can have it in my hand before I get too close to the crate. I would then approach the crate with NO eye contact, because I think the problem now is that your dog is anticipating a conflict. Fair pack leaders do not bully their members over things like this. You have to be firm but almost disinterested in this. You don't want this to be an emotionally charged area. Open the crate and walk away, you've got the leash so when you get several feet away call her out. I would then give her a reward, something high value like a piece of cheese or something.

I think your dog is more insecure than challenging, so I would make this whole scenario a non issue. If she is relaxed and confident that you aren't going make a big deal about this I have a feeling the behavior will fade away.

You can always go to more severe methods if this doesn't work, but I would try it first.

We also demonstrate some relationship building exercises using a crate in our new video Pack Structure for the Family Pet.

Let me know how it goes!