Dog dominance

MrsE_2

gettingready wrote: »

That is because dogs have owners - cats have slaves

Staff please;)

Fire_Fox

There isn't any point in 'punishing' the dog (removing the bone) unless you are confident she knows why she is being 'disciplined' and what the appropriate behaviour is. As others have said this is natural, lots of cats growl over a raw meaty bone too. Have you tried clicker training with your dog? Apparently this is a good way to reward good behaviour and stop unwanted behaviours at the moment they happen. Might be fun for the kids too?

sarabe

Understanding and preventing food guarding.
　

Introduction


Dogs possess a basic inborn instinct to protect their food. It is a survival instinct. All mammals have this instinct to some degree or other.

The instinct to protect their food within the domestic environment may be latent in some dogs, but it is there. It could surface at any time, if the dog feels the need to defend its survival resource.

What happens to this food guarding instinct, whether it remains latent, or develops into full blown food guarding with growling, snapping, lunging and even biting, is usually a direct result of his learning. The learning that humans provide.

The problem for the dog is that what is a perfectly natural and healthy behaviour, often inadvertently instigated by misguided human behaviour, can ultimately end in the dog finding himself homeless, or worse, dead. Food guarding is seen as aggression, aggression is seen as unacceptable in a dog in today’s modern society and it is the dog that often pays the price.

This article has been written in an effort to bring an understanding to how food guarding can be prevented or resolved.

If I were to get cross with your for stealing my chocolate, or chips or pizza, you would probably consider that understandable. I might say, "don’t do that", or "Eh, they are my chips!" No one would see it as aggression, just an attempt to protect what was yours, against the threat of my stealing it.


　
Lets look at this from the dog’s point of view………


How food guarding can come about


Fido the puppy comes into his new home. His owners love him and all is well.
As Fido grows, he becomes more confident and outgoing and one day on the park runs off and won’t return, is unusually pully on his lead and jumps up at a passing stranger with muddy paws, making both stranger and owner cross. Fido’s, owner has read some old fashioned dog training book and wonders if Fido is getting "Dominant"?
　
He decides to test this out by seeing if Fido will let him take his food off him. He read this in a book.

When next feeding Fido, he reaches down and takes the bowl. Fido freezes and stares indicating his discomfort. Fido is surprised, there has never been a threat to his food before. The owner misses the signal that his dog was uncomfortable with this action, it was too subtle. But the dog didn’t growl, the owner is reassured. All is well.

The next Day Fido is really naughty. He jumps in a smelly pond chasing ducks and he stinks really badly. He refuses to come back when called and makes the owner late for breakfast. His owner decides that he must do something about this dog and he decides that he will implement a regular routine of removing the puppy’s food to show his authority.

Fido who is very hungry after a hard morning chasing ducks, tucks in to his breakfast. As he is eating, the owner reaches down to take the food. Fido is more prepared this second time, he is now aware that his "stare" did nothing to prevent the removal of his food last time his owners hand approached his bowl. He is now ready to take more serious action. He utters a low warning growl as the hand approaches his food.

Fido’s owner, though aware he was testing his dog’s reaction did not actually expect this reaction, is shocked and withdraws his hand. Fido continues eating; glad his message has got across. All is well in Fido’s world but not his owners.

Owner spends the day pondering Fido’s behaviour. He really can not have Fido behaving this way, Dog aggression as he sees this to be, is a dangerous business, he knows that. He decides to take further action.

When feeding Fido next day the owner decides if Fido growls he is going to scruff him, as it says in the book, or smack him to punish his misdemeanour and make it clear that he, the owner, is the boss, as it says in the book. His hand approaches the bowl, Fido growls, aware that this worked last time. Owner grabs Fido by the scruff, pushes him to the floor and shouts at him.

Really angry now, the owner removes Fido’s food and doesn’t give it back. Fido is very frightened and hungry too! He does not understand. Eating used to be a simple, necessary pleasure. Now it seems whenever there is an owner around when he eats, there is tension. Owner tries to steal his food, when Fido says he doesn’t like it, the owner shouts and causes him pain and fear and takes his food away.

Fido decides the best thing is to keep the owner well away from the food in an effort to relieve the tension and avoid the shouting and scruffing and food removal.
.
The next day, owner places food on floor, both dog and owner are now tense, wondering what the outcome of today’s feeding session might be. Fido immediately goes into growl mode, summoning up his courage he gives his best "I’m not happy with you being here" stare and growls and curls his lips at his owner. He hovers over his food, standing stiff, glaring menacingly. "Back off" he growls. "Chill out about this food thing" he wishes, "go sit in the living room" he says. As the owner takes a step closer, he lunges, teeth displayed and snaps at the air. The owner, now scared, retreats. Fido resumes his eating, unnerved and worried that such tension arises at feeding time, but relieved that the owner has left his food, he is hungry!

The owner is horrified at this sudden display of ‘aggression’, his cute puppy has turned into an ugly, vicious, dog. He is outraged and has visions of what might happen if he ever marries and has children, with this dog around. He feels compelled to fix it. Adrenalin rushing and determined to show his dominance over the dog, he roars at the dog, and reaches down, once more for the dog’s scruff. The dog with reactions three times faster than that of a human, interprets the owners move and desperate to avoid more scruffing or the removal of his survival resource, bites the owner’s hand before it reaches the bowl.

All is far from well now in Fido’s world or his owners.

From the start of this story, Fido has been progressively put in the situation where he feels it necessary to guard his food. He needs food to live. Fido feels that he has to be on his guard whenever he is eating. He also understands that humans do not necessarily understand, lip curling, snarling, staring, stiffening or growling. The only thing that really makes them back off is biting.

Whatever happens next to Fido, he will never forget that human hands can and do sometimes take away his food when he is eating. He is aware that he must be ever vigilant to the approach of humans. He is now aware that most attempts to communicate - growling, snarling, lip curling, staring, freezing, lunging and air snapping - all normal attempts to AVOID aggression or conflict in the dog world, are not recognised and responded to by humans.

As many food guarders do, Fido ends up in a rescue home. Others find themselves immediately at the sharp end of a needle.

His owner, ashamed at having such an aggressive dog, but too embarrassed to seek help himself, tells the home that he simply doesn’t have time to care for the dog anymore. Fido, an otherwise friendly, well-socialised dog, quickly finds a new home.

There are children in this one and he loves them. They play happily together all day the first day. Fido has good manners and the owners are delighted with him. He is gentle and respectful with the children even the baby. The children have read a dog training book and they give him treats in return for sits. All is well again. Fido loves his new home, his new owners love him and the children are delighted to have such a cuddly, playful new friend. Wouldn’t it be great if the story ended here?

At feeding time they place the bowl on the floor and walk away, Fido is relieved and happy, no action is necessary.

All is well for several weeks. The owners, children and dog are truly delighted.

And then one day, when Fido is eating, Fido’s friend, Rosie the baby, now crawling, toddles toward Fido, on her hands and knees, as she gets closer she reaches out her tiny hand…In an instant Fido remembers that staring and freezing, growling, snarling, snapping, and lunging don’t always work with humans. He has only one option available to him to protect his food……. He doesn’t want to bite Rosie his friend and playmate, but he needs food to live…….

Rosie is scarred by the incident, mentally and physically. Her parents are distraught and cannot understand the sudden change in Fido – he had always been so gentle with Rosie before? And Fido, having bitten a baby is destroyed.


Food guarding is usually easily prevented – follow these points for happy relaxed mealtimes. .

DO NOT FALL INTO THE TRAP FIDOS OWNER DID!

If your dog is happy for you to approach his food or bones when eating, make him even happier, by adding to that food some higher value food like liver. Do this regularly.

Don’t give him things that you later want to take off him. If you do have to remove a bone and you are not confident of your dog’s reaction, call him into another room away from the bone. Bones and chews above all things are more likely to bring about food guarding behaviour because they are long lasting resources.

When your dog is eating a bone, go to him and give him another bone. When your dogs is eating, add food to their bowls.

Hand feeding your dog can to help make it understand that human hands PROVIDE food, not take it away. Use your dog’s daily food for training purposes. This means you may feed your dog from your hand 100 times a day (tiny portions). He'll like your hands. Have other ther people do the same –he'll the like other peoples hands.

If your dog is the sort of dog who will have a bone, chew it, then leave it, but guard it from a distance, then only feed him bones when he is hungry enough to eat them, of the type that he can actually totally consume. Or give them in another room and leave him to it.

If ever your dog growls when eating or at any other time, remember he is only saying, "please don’t take my bone" or "please stop doing that". If I said to you, please don’t take my chocolate would you scruff me or pin me to the floor??? If you did do that, do you think that would benefit our relationship? Do you think that it would make me respect you more???

If a dog growls and you leave him alone then he learns that growling is all he needs to do. GROWLING, IS NOT AGGRESSION, IT IS DESIGNED TO PREVENT AGGRRESSION. It may be undesirable, but it is not aggressive in itself. If you never remove food from your dog he may learn that even growling is not necessary.

If a dog learns that you always provide food and more food or bones and more bones then he is unlikely to guard his food at all.

If you have confirmed food guarder and do not feel confident to try any of the above, then just feed your dog in another room, where he will not be disturbed. At least this way, the food guarding behaviour is not likely to deteriorate.

If your dog regularly guards things or is over protective of his food, toys or other items, and you don’t feel that anything in this article can help, then GET HELP from someone and soon. Unwanted behaviours rarely just "go away" of their own accord, but they are, very often, very easy to resolve once proper understanding is brought to the situation.

This article was written by Denise Mcleod of CaDeLac Dog Training.

Copyright CaDeLac Dog Training

Jojo_the_Tightfisted

When I had a rescue staffie, he was quite possessive of food at first. As I had a baby, I didn't want anything to happen if she pestered him when she got older.

So I started with getting him to sit and wait for treats. Then went on to getting him to sit and wait for his food. I then would interrupt his meals with a lovely treat - at first giving it to him separate, so he had to leave it and turn to face me. Then sometimes I would put it into his bowl on top of the meal.

I figured if he thought there was the prospect of a snack every time someone went near him as he ate, he was less likely to be grumpy. I would also make a point of touching him, so he was used to it when eating, so someone walking by (human or cat) didn't get a reaction.

When I saw the cat sneaking in underneath him to pinch some of his dinner, I thought things were going well.

When I caught the (much older) toddler sitting on the kitchen floor sharing her sandwich with him and his dinner with her (yes, thanks ex OH - I was not impressed as he was 'looking after' her at the time) and the cats were joining in, having chomped their dinners down, presumably to avoid sharing, I figured it must have worked. I broke the little party up when she shoved her hand into his mouth to retrieve something from behind a set of gnashers thicker and longer than her fingers - not by telling anyone off, but by offering a different treat.

So he would give up his occasional bones/toys as soon as I held my hand out, presumably as he had learned that giving them up was a good thing to do. I don't think I made an issue about it - I was going to give him something nice, so if he didn't respond, he got to see the cat getting it instead.

BeenieCat

She's a springer, and has recently had her 1st birthday, she's been with us since about 8 or 9 weeks old ans is generally a really lovely gentle dog, but hyperactive and endless energy, as with all springers!

MrsE we have a cat too, and they're both laid on the sofa next to me as i type, snuggled up together, it's so sweet Although i shouldn't really be letting my dog on the sofa should i, it does contradict what the ex had in mind for the dog, she doesn't come unless invited though.

I haven't done the clicker training, she is trained to a basic level with a whistle, and generally does anything i ask of her, even though she's a PITA on a lead cos she wants to be everywhere NOW!

Thanks for the article sarabe, definitely interesting and shows i did over-react when i heard her growling like that tonight, i suppose it was just the shock of seeing another side to my furball.

Jojo you just reminded me of the time a few weeks ago when i'd forgotten to get cat food at the shop and my poor cat was obviously starving to death having had nothing since about, oooh 3 hours earlier (lol). The cat waltzed into the dog's room and started munching on her Wagg dry dog food, dog didn't bat an eyelid and let the cat get on with it, so i guess that says a lot about her temperament!

gettingready

BeenieCat wrote: »

She's a springer,..............t hyperactive and endless energy, as with all springers!

Ahhhhhh:rotfl:

BeenieCat wrote: »

i shouldn't really be letting my dog on the sofa should i, it does contradict what the ex had in mind for the dog

Whatever the ex "had in mind" for the dog is in the past.

You are with the dog (and cat, and baby) now so it is all up to you.

I believe he probably meant well but what may have been working between him and the dog may not be working between you and the same dog.

She is a baby from what you see, she will learn your ways now so do whatever suits you and your current circumstances.

My friend got a cocker spaniel, they are not that different to springers. She is kind of dog behaviourist/dog walker/dog sitteer/dog mad in general, if you had any major issues and were in London I would highly recommend her but from what I see here - your dog is fine and it is just a matter of time for both of you to adjust to new living arrangements.

All the best with it.

faded_flowers

The one time ours growled over a bone it went straight in the bin. She's never done it again over anything, regardless of how good a treat it is - including bones.

mikey72

faded_flowers wrote: »

The one time ours growled over a bone it went straight in the bin. She's never done it again over anything, regardless of how good a treat it is - including bones.

Probably the only sensible suggestion on here.
As for Sarabe's story, best be the bedtime story for the baby then.

BeenieCat

I did just skim read the sarabe thing at first and thought there was some sensible points raised at the end of the article.

But i have to say i don't think what me or ex have done with dog is same as Fido's owner, mainly because Fido's owner gave in, which is the worst thing you can do even i know that.
He (imo) gave the dog permission to act aggressive by retreating, so giving the dog a good reason to think his behaviour was getting him somewhere. I would never let my dog know i was afraid of her, even though she startled me earlier i looked her straight in the eye and told her no. If i'd cowered, i would see that as her gaining power she shouldn't ever have or thinks she can have, over a human.

This is precisely what i want to avoid, which was why i asked the question, although i can see i perhaps overreacted, thinking about it now.

foreign_correspondent

Sarabe's story raises some very useful points - what you really do not want to develop is a dog who dare not growl and progresses to biting without warning - a dog growling is normal and lets you know they are uncomfortable with the situation - which means you can find ways to make the whole scenario more comfortable, by letting the dog know you are no threat to his food source.

I am far happier with a dog that growls when it feel compromised or threatened than I am with one who has been taught to give no warning signs...

It is genetically hard-wired into dogs to guard food - it is an essential survival mechanism, the dogs that did not have this starved before they could pass ther genes on!

He is acting normally, and communicating with you - thank goodness that he is, it enables you to move forwards and help him be reassured that he is not going to be made to go hungry because you, or your son are near to him when he is eating.

I do agree that he is your dog now and what worked for the ex may not necessarilly work for you - was the ex involved in shooting/game-keeper style training with her by any chance?