I have a serious problem, and I need some help.I have a 1yr old lab, which has bitten both of us. Especially when petting him while he is chewing on a bone or eating his dinner. I was told to start using a prong collar, but I notice if you try and correct him when he is aggressive he gets worse. Can anyone suggest anything? If more information is needed I understand.

Why on earth are you petting a dog while the poor guy's trying to eat or chew in peace????

What this dog is displaying is possessive aggression, and corrections will not fix it. The root cause is that he sees you as a threat to his resources. When you attempt correction for that, you're only confirming his suspicions, which will cause his behavior to escalate. It's unfortunate that his behavior has already escalated to biting. That really sucks.

OK, first thing you want to do is, for now, eliminate situations that elicit the behavior. For example, don't try to pet him while he's eating or chewing! Next, you should start hand feeding him. Don't just put his kibble in his bowl and walk away. Instead, have a seat. Hold his portion of kibble in a bag or something, and drop small handfulls into his bowl, at your feet. Or, let him eat his small handfulls directly from your hand. Or alternate, bowl, hand, bowl, hand. Do this for a while, several weeks. Your dog should learn from this that you are the source of his food, not a threat to it.

For his chewtoys or bones or whatever, make sure that you have two of equal yumminess (did I just make up a new word?). Give him one (I would make him follow a command first), and without hovering over him or anything that might make him think you're going to take it away, induce him to let you trade for the other one. Just do this once, and walk away, and let him have the chew in peace. Each time you give him a chew, do the trade for one just as good or better. Over time, he should learn that you are not coming to take his precious chew away, but rather that you might be giving him something better. It's like with his food bowl. He needs to see you as the source of all that's good, and not a threat to what he has.

It's a shame that he has already bitten. This tells me that he has been pushed too far, and that you will probably have to work with him on this for a long time. And if you have any visitors, especially children, do not allow them near the dog when he is eating or chewing!!!!

L Swanston, excellent advice!!! It's too bad this situation has already progressed to the biting stage. It never should have happened. It should have been prevented as a puppy by much petting while the dog is eating and then walking over to the food bowl and tossing something yummy into it. YOU control the food. YOU can take it away at any time. PERIOD. This owner has to go right back to the beginning. Feeding all of the days kibble by hand and making the dog work for it is a good idea. I would also suggest the dog not get any toys or yummies until the kibble/dog dish situation is somewhat rectified. It might take a while, but it must be solved or this dog will not be reliable especially around children (who themselves are somewhat unpredictable).

P.S. How much obedience training has this dog had? If he is aggressive with food and toys does he listen to any commands? Does he respect anyone in the house? Do you have kids?

I always teach my dogs who the boss is at an early stage. When I adopted my GSD foster dog I tested her with food, she growled at me and after a correction I took the food away. I only had to take her food away a few times before she realized that growling at me for putting my hands in her food bowl was a big NO NO. You have been given very good advices in the previous posts. I hope it works out, a dog biting its owner is not acceptable in my book. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

Originally posted by Caniche:
L Swanston, excellent advice!!! It's too bad this situation has already progressed to the biting stage. It never should have happened. It should have been prevented as a puppy by much petting while the dog is eating and then walking over to the food bowl and tossing something yummy into it. YOU control the food. YOU can take it away at any time. PERIOD. This owner has to go right back to the beginning. Feeding all of the days kibble by hand and making the dog work for it is a good idea. I would also suggest the dog not get any toys or yummies until the kibble/dog dish situation is somewhat rectified. It might take a while, but it must be solved or this dog will not be reliable especially around children (who themselves are somewhat unpredictable).

P.S. How much obedience training has this dog had? If he is aggressive with food and toys does he listen to any commands? Does he respect anyone in the house? Do you have kids? Hi,
My dogs name is Koko. He is excellant at obedience. He is not at all aggressive with his toys. He mainly respects me, but my husband has to tell him a dozen times before he listens to him. No I do not have any small kids. But Koko has also developed aggression when he is sleeping, I will pet him and he will wake up and attack, sometimes he will lay there and look at me, then if I go to pet him he will attack so its not like I'm startling him.I have tried petting him while he eats and when he starts to growl, I take it away and put him in a down-stay and then try again later.He will let me hold a rawhide chew while he chews on it with no problem, but as soon as I talk to him or pet him he starts to growl.He has no problem with me taking kibble out of his bowl and feeding by hand, but as soon as he puts his head in the bowl and I pet, he growls. So you don't think a prong collar is gonna help me?

Why on earth are you petting a dog while the poor guy's trying to eat or chew in peace????
What this dog is displaying is possessive aggression, and corrections will not fix it.

You and I definitely do not see eye to eye on this one. If my 1 yr old lab bit me for petting him when he was chewing a bone this would never happen again. Trust me on that one.

It sounds to me like this dog has some serious problems....BREEDING!

One question:
Where does Koko sleep?

Kokosmom: "I have tried petting him while he eats and when he starts to growl, I take it away and put him in a down-stay and then try again later."

LS: When he growls, he's giving a clear signal that he's concerned that you are going to take away his food. When you do so, you are confirming his suspicions. You are, in effect, training him to do this.

Kokosmom: "He will let me hold a rawhide chew while he chews on it with no problem, but as soon as I talk to him or pet him he starts to growl. He has no problem with me taking kibble out of his bowl and feeding by hand, but as soon as he puts his head in the bowl and I pet, he growls."

LS: So, the common theme here is petting. Your dog has learned that when you pet him, you are about to take away his resource, whether it be food, toys, or resting places.

He doesn't respect you or trust you. If he did, you would not have this problem. What I would do with a dog like this is, I would crate him except for when I am directly interacting with him. When out of his crate, he would be under my direct and constant supervision. I would tell him where to go, when to go there, and what to do while he's there. He would not be allowed on furniture, and he would be hand fed, following an obedience command before each handful. He would be exercised by being walked on leash BY MY SIDE, and by playing fetch, BY MY RULES. He would not be allowed any toys or chews that I did not directly give him, and he would have to follow a command first. I would never leave toys laying on the floor. Toys would be MINE, and he would be borrowing them.

As far as obedience training, I would start at the beginning, as if he were a puppy, and use inductive methods to gain his voluntary cooperation, and lay a solid foundation of happy obedience and TRUST, before slapping the prong on and administering corrections (which I would do once I felt that we had a good communication thing going on). I would work him in obedience once per day, then put him back in his crate when done.

I would stop the cycle of trying to pet him while eating or chewing. As long as the situation continues to arise, the behavior/cycle is reinforced again and again. I would only begin working on the food and possession issue AFTER having been doing everything else for several weeks, and SEEING CHANGES. I would do it differently, too. No more hovering over the dog while eating or chewing or sleeping. If I want to take the food up, just do it, don't pet first or hover around in any way. Same with chewies and toys. When sleeping, I would leave the dog alone, unless I needed him to move, then I would simply tell him "Move". No hovering, no petting, no giving the dog the opportunity and option to oppose. When you talk to him and pet him first, it's like saying "Hey doggy, I'm about to take away your goody. What do you think of that?". You're giving him the choice!

Vince,
I understand what you are saying, but in my mind, this type of thing does not happen all of a sudden, especially with Labs! This problem has been in the works since the day that puppy came home. He has had too much freedom, and weak leadership from BOTH humans. I would take the boot camp approach; tear down the dog and rebuild him. Take away all choice, all freedom, all priveleges, and retrain him PROPERLY.

gsdbestk9 wrote: "It sounds to me like this dog has some serious problems....BREEDING!

Joe Noble: I don't think we know enough about this dog's lines to say that. I think we know enough about the situation to infer that the dog has gotten away with this crap and is taking a leadership role in the household.

I think LSwanston laid out some great steps to take and they will hopefully fix this problem. Good luck

p.s. Does the phrase "spare the rod, spoil the dog" mean anything to anybody. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" />