Hi all,

I have a 14 month intact male GSD. He has a great nature to him, and is obedience trained to a good standard which is getting better with training. I use all Leerburgs advice about becoming pack leader, but I am having problems with some dominant aggression but only with food. He can be very guarding with his food bowl at times even walking past him while he is eating, but other times there is no problem. I find that he is very guarding / aggressive if he is eating rawhide as a treat. If you move towards him he will growl and occasionally snarl showing teeth moving slowly away, but I can make him sit, down etc. I am concerned that this could develop into something serious so would like to get some advice methods I could use to get this out of him or is it something I just don't give him anymore?

Cheers

Ricky - you have goood reason to be concerned.

1- Feed him in the dog crate

2- Knock off feeding him raw hides. Throw whats left away.
Not only are they not that good for the dog they are a TRIGGER for aggression and unless you are willing to fight him then you should not be using them. Dogs dont need rawhides.

3- If you want to give him something to chew on - let it be a beed knuckly bone in the crate. Then dont reach in to take it away. Open the gait - call him out and takke it away. If he tries to bring it out with him tell him to DROP IT - if he doesn - nail him in the head (HARD) with the crate door as he comes out - or leave him in the crate.

You may beed the DVD I did titled DEALING WITH DOMINAT AND AGGRESSIVE DOGS http://leerburg.com/301.htm

teach your dog the command "leave it" and have him eat when you say to eat. try something simple as having him wait until you have filled his dishes and given him the command to eat.

Man, be careful! Don't ever think he will not bite you when he has food. If you have to do anything around him while he's eating, do what the other poster said, call him away and make him sit or down. My dog is the same way and I've been trying for a long time to curb it. I think sometimes my posture has something to do with his behavior but you have to be able to react should he try something. Some advice I've been given from the forum...

Only feed him in the crate. At first it worked out but now my dog growls at me as soon as he gets in the crate. If he does this your supposed to not feed him that day. I go to shut the door and he charges the opening barking and snarling. What I was recently told was to feed him throughout the day as treats for good behavior or submissive posturing. So far there have been absolutely no problems but some days I don't have that kind of time. The submissive posturing idea is sometimes difficult for him to stomach but he's getting better and in theory it sounds like an excellent method.

No rawhides, like another poster said. It sucks because you want to give your dog treats but the consequences can be dangerous! If I know Bruno will be out of the way for a small period, I'll give him a treat that will only last him about 5-10 minutes.

He has to know food comes from you.

Any act of aggression results in a level-10 correction. Ouch! Man, this is a tough one because so many people don't understand what it takes to give a level-10 or they see this as cruel handling. If you have a hard dog it could result in further aggression. I used a ddc and Bruno would just sit there. When I release him he continued growling as if he never stopped, I just couldn't hear it. If I lifted him for longer periods, he would fight and I was bitten and scratched more than once. I have been told, and it's on the video, to hang a handler aggressive dog until he passes out but I'm not confident with that (afraid of hurting him). Not to mention they say only professional handlers should attempt this. A level 10 correction on a prong...he's still real close to me and would turn towards me snapping and barking. A full stim on the e-collar and he yells the whole time and turns toward me snapping. When I stop, he continues growling. When I do this I maintain a calm posture and do not flinch when he turns toward me. Once he finally stops, he'll low crawl on the ground and try to get underneath me. Then, I don't dare correct him until I've moved away.

I'm telling you all this to say BE CAREFUL with the methods you will hear from this forum. I'm not saying they don't work, for most dogs they probably will. But for some dogs, it takes a professional to handle. I'm sure you don't feel your dog will ever get this bad, I didn't think Bruno would either. Just be cautious and try to always maintain a level of safety. As bad as all this sounds, Bruno is still a really cool, well behaved dog. He's absolutely no problem on walks, around the house, around people, in the back yard etc. I just have to use special techniques to feed him.

Good luck
DZ

Thanks for the responses.

As per Ed's advice, I have rid of all the hide treats. I never thought these were a trigger for aggression in dogs and I have started feeding him in his crate. I do make him sit and wait when feeding him which he does without a problem.

Eric cheers for the advice and your findings in Bruno. I'm being extra cautious and also find that my body posture does have a lot to do with his behaviour. Your quote "I'm sure you don't feel your dog will ever get this bad, I didn't think Bruno would either" does make me think so thanks.

No problem, I'm glad my experience was helpful to others. Kinda funny, when I mentioned "the other poster" I didn't realize it was Ed himself. Good luck man!

DZ

Sorry to get off topic, but it seems like this is pretty close to resolved, so I'm going to ask Ed and anyone else who knows: Why is it that rawhides are such an issue?

I had never heard this or had an incident until my GSD who is dominant, but not food aggressive, attacked my Pit Bull for what looked like no reason. After correcting the hell out of my GSD (felt like I'd been hit by a truck...talk about 2 strong dogs <img src="http://www.leerburg.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/shocked.gif" alt="" /> I realized that there was a chew hoof in the grass that I had not seen. I always pick up all toys for this very reason. My Pit Bull was not even paying any attention to the hoof, but my GSD saw it, and rather than grab it and run, he ran at her. I was shaken to say the least; he's huge for a GSD, and I'm pretty small, so it was really hard to correct him hard enough that he let go. (Before you all yell at me, my dog is not dominant *with me* in the least, and does not redirect at me when he's pissed). What shocked me was the intensity that he went after her with, considering he's never done that with another male, let alone a female. He's dominant with his stuff, but grabbing it out of another dog's mouth was the worst he'd ever done. Someone told me it was the fact that it was an animal product toy that was the trigger. If it had been a squeaky or fluffy toy it would not have happened that way, which has been accurate in the past.

Is there one reason for this that's agreed upon or is it just something anecdotal that's been witnessed over and over? TRANSLATION: is it because they like them better than other toys or because they're animal products, they trigger an aggression that is not seen with synthetic toys? <img src="http://www.leerburg.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused.gif" alt="" /> I for one, don't know the scientific reasoning behind it, but I'm a believer in NO ANIMAL PRODUCTS unless crated and ALONE.

I believe that it's related to the long-chewing, possession aspect. Very unlike a bowl of food that's put down and eaten and taken back up.

JMO.

Of course it's about what's most highly valued by dogs (meat is of higher value than kibble, for instance) -- Some dogs who may share a man-made toy would KILL for possession of a pig's ear, that's for sure...

As to the scientific reason, I dunno, but perhaps certain dogs' prey-drive and/or dominance-guarding is not as sharp for something that was never alive -- or maybe there's a taste/texture preference for "stinky ol' dead stuff" LOL

 Quote:

Of course it's about what's most highly valued by dogs (meat is of higher value than kibble, for instance) -- Some dogs who may share a man-made toy would KILL for possession of a pig's ear, that's for sure...

As to the scientific reason, I dunno, but perhaps certain dogs' prey-drive and/or dominance-guarding is not as sharp for something that was never alive -- or maybe there's a taste/texture preference for "stinky ol' dead stuff" LOL

Ah! This makes sense.