I have a 13 month old male GSD which Ive raised since he was 12 weeks old. Every few days, I would reach over after giving him a raw bone and take it away so that it would not be an issue later on. Well, this morning, I gave him a raw bone and he was chewing, when I reached over to take it away, he growled and barked and it looks like he was going to bite me.

My question to you guys is.. 1. do I just leave him "to be" and finish the bone 2. command him to "kennel" then take the bone away or do you guys have any suggestions? He never showed this behavior before in his life and I routinely take things away from him without it being an issue..

Any feedback would be appreciated.. Im perplexed as to what to do. I was thinking of putting a prong collar and leasch on him and when he does this, SNAP and say NO..

I have not had this problem personally, but I'll share my thoughts anyway.

 Quote:

I would reach over after giving him a raw bone and take it away so that it would not be an issue later on.

Did you ever give the bone back, or did you always take it away for good? It could be that you have unintentionally trained your dog to know that when you reach for his bone, you are going to take it away for good, so he is attempting to prevent that, which is a very canine thing to do. Even lower ranking pack members will defend their possession of resources from higher ranking pack members, if the resource is valuable enough. When practicing taking away resources from my dogs, I always give them back, or give the dog something of equal or greater value. This teaches them that my reaching toward something in their possession is a-okay, because they will either get it back, or will get something better. My Lab will often bring his bone to me of his own accord, at which point I will reach over take it from his mouth, pretend to sniff it and lick it, and gush over what a nice bone it is, then ask him if he wants it and say "take it" as I hand it back to him. Sounds goofy, but I can take anything from him at any time.

 Quote:

1. do I just leave him "to be" and finish the bone

No, because then he has learned that his behavior worked. It got him what he wanted, which was to maintain possession of the resource, so he will be more likely to repeat that behavior in the future. Instead, I would suggest that you avoid setting up situations like this, while in the meantime doing some training exercises specifically for this issue.

Here is an article that might give you some ideas on how you can work on this with your dog.

http://www.doglogic.com/possess.htm

Good luck!

I don't think you should have been doing that to begin with. It is entirely possible that in the dog's mind you forced him to the behavior, rather than him just being a dominate knucklehead. A fearful/defensive/food aggression response. . .not a real dominance one.

IF you want to be messing around with a dogs food, you should be doing it in a way that makes the situation into an obedience exercise. Anyway. . .the milk is already spilt so to speak so forget that part.

To get the dog used to you being around him eating and reaching for his food/bone again you should be real mellow and build a very positive association to your hand reaching for his stuff.

Basically you hand feed the dog. Or you reach in and drop another bone and leave it. In a progression you do that over and over and over. . .till the dog could care less about your hand being there. In fact he likes it because it means you are dropping more stuff off.

Then you can reach in and take the bone. . .IF you think it is necessary. I don't.


If this really is a serious dominance problem then you don't just reach over and take his bone. . .ever. You give a command that you have tought away from the bone and enforce it if he won't let you take the bone. Such as an out, sit, leave it, etc. You don't immediately address the problem with the bone, it isn't worth the conflict. Work away from the problem with obedience, then come back to it with the skills you have tought.


Whatever the problem, or outcome of your training. . .don't give the dog toys or bones when there are kids around please. Not ever again IMO.

vc is right. not a good idea. i will just add this about establishing yourself as pack leader: it is more than being dominant. it is also about being worthy. if the dog sees your actions and decisions as valid he will have no trouble accepting them, however if he begins to question your wisdom, you have lost that respect and that makes you his equal or lesser. volumes have been written on human evaluation of dog character, but it goes the other way as well. you have heard the saying, "may i always be the person my dog thinks i am." this would be the motto of a good pack leader.

I think it's most likely not dominance related at all. I also think it's a good idea to teach your dog to allow you to take objects/food away, but people too often go about it all wrong, which creates the defensive response. If you repeatedly show your dog that you are a threat to his/her possession of valuable resources, survival instincts kick in and the dog becomes defensive. IOW, you're pushing your dog into survival mode. It is very possible to teach your dog to accept having food/objects taken away, if you go about it correctly.

I do not understand why it is important to be able to take a dogs food away when you just gave it to him. I wouldn't want someone to sit my plate down in front of me and keep picking it up. My adult dogs only get feed once a day. I think they should be able to eat in peace. It is how they survive.

The toys are a different matter. They belong to me and I share them with my dogs.

If I am wrong please explain....

Thanks, Debbie

Thanks VC, I appreciate your feedback. This is my first "working" dog so Im learning..

 Quote:

Originally posted by Debbie High:
I do not understand why it is important to be able to take a dogs food away when you just gave it to him. I wouldn't want someone to sit my plate down in front of me and keep picking it up. My adult dogs only get feed once a day. I think they should be able to eat in peace. It is how they survive.

For me, it is important that my dogs not be resource guarders. Resource guarding can be very dangerous behavior. Since resource guarding is hard wired into dogs as a survival behavior, it is very easy to have this problem if a) you never do anything to prevent it from developing (i.e. always leave puppy to "eat in peace", then one day, someone happens to be walking past them as they eat, and puppy starts growling or behaving in a threatening manner) or b) you teach them to resource guard by repeatedly taking things away from them in a misguided attempt to "get them used to it".

I do not recommend taking a dog's food bowl away while they eat, or taking their marrow bone away while they chew, or hovering around them while they do either of these things. I do recommend dropping extra goodies into their dishes while they eat and trading objects such as bones and chewies for bones and chewies of equal or greater value.

Lisa,
Seems like we agree....I too, swap chewies and other treats, just not their main meal. I try to maintain a relationship of mutual repect with my dogs. I don't want them bothering me when I sit down to have my dinner and I don't bother them....it's only fair.

If I have one that wants to act to possessive of their food I will only put part of the food in the bowl and then add more leaving my hand close to the bowl while they pick that up.

My dogs eat in their crates....I figure that's their private little home. They share my home with me, so they have to share theirs with me by allowing me to place my hand in there for whatever reason. So far we've never had a problem.

Debbie

Looks that way! I was a bit confused because your post was directly after mine, so I thought you might have been addressing what I wrote. I decided to reiterate/clarify just in case. Looks like I didn't need to.