Resource Guarding dog

gimmick

I do not want to start a new thread, but this is close enough to what I am after.

My dog is a very pleasant little fella. If anything he is far too friendly. The only problem is he seems to be kind of "food aggressive". Except, he is not aggressive with his daily food at all, but if we give him a bone or a dentastick he will growl and bark if you even look at him, and will growl and bark if you move toward him. I do not like this behaviour. Now, I know it should be easy enough to train out of him as I will go over and rub him and he wont snap or anything, but he will be very tense and has a very low growl going on while I am doing this.

Any suggestions?

Gimmick, I split this into a new thread because it is a different category of aggression you're dealing with, and deserves a thread all of its own!
Thanks,
DBB

tk123

gimmick wrote: »

I do not want to start a new thread, but this is close enough to what I am after.

My dog is a very pleasant little fella. If anything he is far too friendly. The only problem is he seems to be kind of "food aggressive". Except, he is not aggressive with his daily food at all, but if we give him a bone or a dentastick he will growl and bark if you even look at him, and will growl and bark if you move toward him. I do not like this behaviour. Now, I know it should be easy enough to train out of him as I will go over and rub him and he wont snap or anything, but he will be very tense and has a very low growl going on while I am doing this.

Any suggestions?

My dog was the same - I started dropping treats beside him when he had the bone/chew and walking away - if he wanted to go and get the treats fine, if not he'd wait until he was done with the bone and go and get them. I kept doing it every few mins when he had a high value treat and after a few days he got used to me coming over to treat him - only then did I start to pet him or ask him for his paw it etc. I went at his pace the whole time. Now if he catches me off guard I get the bone dropped in my lap if he's looking for help with it!! - GROSS!! :rolleyes:

Whispered

gimmick wrote: »

I do not want to start a new thread, but this is close enough to what I am after.

My dog is a very pleasant little fella. If anything he is far too friendly. The only problem is he seems to be kind of "food aggressive". Except, he is not aggressive with his daily food at all, but if we give him a bone or a dentastick he will growl and bark if you even look at him, and will growl and bark if you move toward him. I do not like this behaviour. Now, I know it should be easy enough to train out of him as I will go over and rub him and he wont snap or anything, but he will be very tense and has a very low growl going on while I am doing this.

Any suggestions?

You might get more interest with your own thread. They really are 2 totally different issues with totally different motivations for the dogs.

One of mine started to do the same thing when he had a high value treat, like a bone. Despite knowing better, I was a bit hurt :eek: ridiculous I know, and despite learning about food aggression, learning how to read the signs and what they mean. I STILL took it personally. Once I snapped myself out of that way of thinking we started to work on it and there was an immediate improvement. So I guess they first thing I'd say is don't take it personally.

Secondly I'd suggest you don't sit with your dog rubbing him when he's eating. He's growling at you because he want's you to go away from him and his treat. If he thinks you don't understand his signal, he might feel the need to escalate this warning to a snap. It's not his fault, he is just trying to make himself clearer.

I think TK123's method is spot on really.

I think it's important too that your dog has somewhere safe to go where he doesn't feel the need to protect his treat. If one of mine goes into their crate with a bone, I will close the door and cover them so they can relax and enjoy in peace. Sometimes they enjoy lying by the fire sharing treats, sometimes they decide to go off on their own. Does your dog have this option?

I still take my time around my boy when he has a new meaty bone, he seems more comfortable with me calling him away from it, than he is with me walking over and taking it from him. So when it's time to put them away I usually call him over to me, give him a treat, then walk over and pick up the bone no issues.

gimmick

Thanks for the above. Usually when he is given his bone he is in the kitchen alone, but he might decide he wants to join us in the living room or go out the back as well. He certainly is not confined with it anyway.

I'll try dropping a treat next to him next time and see how we get on.

As an aside, I can understand the growling. If someone tried to take a twix or a burger out of my hand while I was eating it I would probably growl at them as well.

Whispered

gimmick wrote: »

As an aside, I can understand the growling. If someone tried to take a twix or a burger out of my hand while I was eating it I would probably growl at them as well.

Great, so think of it this way then. What if that someone swapped your burger with a quarter pounder with cheese, or your twix with a bigger twix. You'd start to be delighted to see them coming when you're eating because you know they're going to swap what you have with something better. You'd be practically throwing your food at them.

DBB

Great advice been given here so far!
I'll also add a bit, all designed to make sure you're starting off small and growing his skills, rather than potentially trying to run before you can walk.
You may be better off, strictly speaking, giving him a lower-value object to have a root at before starting to approach him with treats.
The idea is that he's, say, having a random chew of a ball, or a sock, or something he doesn't guard the way he does with chews.
I would also start out by not walking past him to drop the treats in: dogs that resource guard are more likely to become aggressive the longer your approach is.
So, stand beside him, and give him a sock/ball/non-guarded item. When he touches it, drop the treat and let him eat it. Call him away from the object, and repeat. Gradually, start to move away from him when he's rooting at the non-guarded item, and walk a step towards him before dropping the treat in, then two steps, then three steps, then 7 steps etc.
But he doesn't guard socks, I hear you cry! The reason you're starting out with an un-guarded item is to teach him that when you approach him when he has something, there's goodies in it for him. In other words, you're teaching him the rules of your game before asking him to do a full-scale version of it.
So, once he's clearly delighted to have you walking towards him when he's got an un-guarded item, you can start to give him items which he may guard a bit, and eventually onto items you know he growls over. But,t he critical thing is, that by the time you graduate on to a slightly guarded item, your dog will have a mental process going on telling him "Oh! Gimmick plays this game when I have a carrot/toilet roll insert/stick too! Cool! I know what happens next!".
And then, after practise, "Oh" Gimmick plays this game when I have a Dentastix! Cool!" etc etc.
And then, after practise, "Oh, Gimmick's OH/family members play this game when I have a Dentastix! Cool!" etc etc.
If children are involved, and they can get involved once he's good for several adults, then he should be secured on-lead when the child approaches, and the child delivers much more untold yummies than the adults did.

For now, absolutely stop approaching him to pet him whilst he eats: this is going to escalate to worse, if not with you, then with someone he doesn't know/trust so much. This step is a bit down the road. For now, you have to make him feel utter delight that you're approaching him whilst he eats various goodies. Petting him is not doing it for him at all!
A really good book for owners is Jean Donaldson's "Mine! A Practical Guide to Resource Guarding in Dogs": an easy, fairly quick read, and not expensive.