I have an intact male treeing feist, just over a year old. I feed him a raw meat diet and he eats twice a day. I usually have him do some tricks for a few minutes before feeding him and then tell him to go into his crate, where I set the bowl of food down with him and he waits for me to close the door and tell him "OK" before he starts eating.

In the past couple of days, he has taken to growling and snapping at me when I close the door to the crate and shut the latches. I thought that maybe it was because I was getting him too riled up beforehand, so lately have just put him in the crate without fanfare but he still growls when I'm operating the door.

I've never bothered him or taken his food away from him while he was eating, so this behavior seems to have come out of nowhere.

Any ideas on how to handle this? I do have an e-collar. Pehaps tell him "no" and zap him whenever he growls?

Thanks for any ideas.

"A few minutes of tricks?"

Like what?

Are you creating pressure and anxiety around food?


An e-collar? My vote is a resounding no.

Others will post, I'm sure.

delete-duplicate

Edited by Duane Hull (11/19/2012 11:43 AM)
Edit reason: duplicate post

Is it possible to create territoriality (resource guarding) by feeding a dog in its' crate? I've never done that.

You've certainly amped the drives just prior to putting him in the crate.

I think it'd be much more fair to the dog to find the source of the problem rather than to zap away at it in the dark..

That stands out to me too. The conflicts over his food, I think were probably created and will take a while and some patience to get over. Put the ecollar away, Maybe feed him outside away from the crate. Someplace where he doesnt feel cornered or challenged for his food.

Maybe put his food out first and then let him go to it without you being around it. Let his perception change about the whole thing.

Sounds like a 1 yr old dog 'flexing his muscles' to me. They often start around that age thinking they are the king of their world & can start to challenge you a bit.

Ditto on what was said about making meal time a quiet & stress free time. Getting the dog all cranked up & then feeding is most likely not helping things.

I feed in & out of crates & have never had any resource guarding issues. So I am not sure if it's the crate itself or just the whole scenario around the meal time in this situation. But my guess is that this is a created problem along with a dog that is getting older & testing it's boundries.

Put the food in first at the back of the crate & then just let the dog in & close the door if you feel you must feed in the crate. That way the dog is focus on the food at the back of the crate & facing in that direction & you are not closing the door in his face in a confrontational way.

Personally, if it were me, the dog would be eating his meals out of my hand or not eating. But that's just me. Not everyone would want to stick their hands near a dog that is resource guarding. And I don't think that in most cases that I would tell someone to do that with an older dog. It's just what I would do. All good things come from me.... food, fun, safety, a good life, etc etc. I do feed puppies a few bites of meals occasionally by hand just to short circuit any thoughts of food guarding. But once I give food I NEVER take it away. It is theirs.

i'm along the lines of steve and ann , i would ( and have ) taken it a step further .

i fed in the crate at first , probably the days' half ration . the rest came from my hand , either piecemeal for random training throughout the day , or as lump sums ( mini meals ) at whatever various location we might be at throughout the day .

i think this really sends a strong yet subtle message to the dog that " i really need to keep an eye on this guy , it could be mealtime , anytime " .

besides the pack structure issue , the dog possibly links new locations with good things .

if you have been following that feeding regimen for some time , the dog has had plenty of time to start developing that habit . . . . time to change it up

My Pinker started that bit at around 6 mos. It seemed to me that he was telling me to "put that bowl down I'm ready to eat!".
I changed how I fed him. First he had to bring his bowl, then he had to sit while I prepared his food. He had to wait until I put the food way into the back of the crate. Then I'd release him to go to the crate and eat.
It solved our problem. When I went to open the crate up after he was finished, the bowl was empty and there was nothing to guard. For awhile I had him bring the bowl out of the crate and drop it into the dishwasher, but a scary accident with the bottom dishwasher rack ended that.
My thinking on all those little "tricks" with the bowl was to let him handle the bowl most of the time. If your dog can pick up his bowl, you might try it. Definately the stay and you put the food into the crate before the dog. That worked great.

What I do with all my puppies from the get go. Your's is still a puppy!

I put half the food in the bowl and sit down by it while the puppy eats. Away from the crate initially because the dog seems to have developed a bit of barrier aggression. When it's finished I put a bit in the bowl by hand. I continue with this and the dog starts looking at hands near the bowl as suppliers of the meal.
The Feist "breed" has a lot of terrier in it's background and consequently a lot of grit. It also sounds like a bit of barrier aggression with the crate. Make going in the crate a game and reward for it. Do this separate from meal time. It sounds like two different issues.