I agree it could have been much worse.

I have a long time friend of about 20 years. In 2002 he got a 8 week old Rottie. I had a dog at the time and we went to dog training for on and off lead OB and Personal protection.

I went slow, stuck with the trainer for about 4 years and had great results. Competed in fun shows all over the mid west. It was a positive enough experience that 8 years later I am still at it and love working with dogs. I had a Rott/GSD mix that was a power house. Still to this day the drivyest and most solid dog I have ever owned.

My buddy had his Rott and went throu everything to fast, started protection to early, made a lot of classic mistakes. He stopped going to class and just stopped his dog training.
As a result he had an accident waiting to happen.

One night when the dog was about 3 years old, he was laying in bed with the dog while the dog was chewing a bone. The dog growled and was nasty about it and my buddy pushed the issue. He put his face in the dogs face and ended up losing 75% of his upper lip and 15% of his bottom lip. In one fast quick bit to the face.

Many years later and many plastic surgeries later the after math is still visible on his face. Along with nerve damage that make it so he can not feel his lips and has a hard time smiling, frowning and opening his mouth fully.

The dog ended up getting put down as the result.

Length of time it took the dog to rip his mouth off.... .0000010 of a second....
The actual time it took for the dog to rip his mouth off.... about 3+ years. It was the result of many many mistakes and ignored warnings.

This is a very long thread and I only read the first 6 or 7 posts. I have to say that I agree that one would have to be "out to lunch" to get down on the floor and go nose to nose with a dog that is chewing on a bone. Having said that I also subscribe to the theory that everything the dog has belongs to me and when I say its time to be put away its time. Of course I use my hands and not my face to take things away.

This is a great segue to what I originally logged on to ask about. Jeter (pictured below) has always been the dominant one between him and Dakota (she is a Pit/Lab max about the same size and age) He can rip her apart and at one time I had an issue with them staring each other down during feeding time. They were always able to eat about 10 feet from each other and slowly they began to play games and it became a staring contest that I was advised by the good folks on this site would quickly turn ugly if I didn't do something.

I have been feeding them one at a time and it seems to be fine. Jeter eats first while Dakota sits patiently and waits. When he is done he walks out of the kitchen past her and she shyly comes in to the kitchen and eats. No issues. But after Jeter is done she seems very careful about waiting until he is in his crate (he goes by himself) and then she eats.

So it seems that he is the dominant one. When they play they play rough and he is the first to fall on to his back and show his belly. He is very vocal growling and making dog noises and she seems to be more aggressive when they play fight but if he ever gets serious she backs right off.

Here is where it gets interesting...if they have bones (high value stuff) she can take his away but if he goes near her she attacks him. She sits near her bone and seems only interested in guarding it. I coax her to enjoy it and she will chew it and begin to forget about him until he moves. Then she is very alert and watching his every move.

He stays away from her while she does this and seems to be submitting. Yesterday I had them outside with me and I brought out the bones for them to enjoy. I noticed Jeter body language was different with his bone outside. Next thing you know Dakota came near his bone and he snapped at her (he never did this indoors) and she went back at him...I had to break up a dog fight. Not pretty with 2 75lb Pits.

So what gives? Outside is different than inside or should I be on extra alert now because maybe the dynamic has changed since yesterdays experience.

he can hurt her seriously and I don't want two dogs that need to be kept separate. I would also appreciate some advice on how to correct when one of the dogs is guarding in an aggressive way. Currently I take the bones away when Dakota guards her with aggression.

Alec,

why are you giving the two dogs high value treats like bones in the vicinity of each other?
Especially since you already know they have resource guarding problems with each other???

Up until yesterday it was limited to Dakota getting a little nasty if Jeter got too close and he always walked away from her without incident. I would take her bone away when she did it and I figured she would beging to get the message after enough times that the bone would be there for as long as she didn't guard it.

I also thought (foolishly I guess) that it was great training for Jeter because he learned to ignore (or at least not react) to Dakota's aggression towards him. He has an issue with other dogs and she doesn't. I figured this would help him. Yesterday when outside he wasn't tolerant any more. In fact if I hadn't been there there would have been a lot of blood.

I let them have these high value treats when its too hot to take them out or if for some reason we are cooped up in the house. It breaks up the time and gives them something to do. Does this mean I have to stop with these high value bones??

These dogs are so close and always together. I suppose I can give it to them when they are crated but wouldn't that create some kind of anxiety as well? I want my dogs to be able to have these things together and be safe at the same time....

Eh,
This topic sounds like another thead to me.

Don't mean to be picky or anything but two dogs fighting over a bone is a far cry from sticking ones hands or face into a dogs food.

Not picky at all. I understand. But it WAS a bone the dog had and she got bit because the dog was guarding. In this case it was a human that got bit. In my case it was another dog. Same guarding issue...no? Not trying to be a smart ass. Just asking.

You might want to open a thread about your dogs fighting over the bones, Alec.

In general terms, yes you're right Alec.
Resource guarding.

But in actual application completely different.

Alec, please start a different thread. Thanks.


If you don't, please take to heart Wendy's post.

And ...

I suppose I can give it to them when they are crated but wouldn't that create some kind of anxiety as well?

No.

I want my dogs to be able to have these things together and be safe at the same time....

They don't want to have them together. They want no anxiety around their HV items, and you're introducing anxiety and worse.


JMO, of course.

sorry for the confusion...I will get the hang of this.