Growling Jack Russell

samj_2

Hi I am wondering if anyone else has experienced this
We have a six year old jack russell. He has always been good and we have always been quite strict with him.
In the last few weeks we has started growling everytime we walk in the dining room where his bed and food are. He will show his teeth at you and start eating his food as quick as he can even choking himself. We have watched the program called Dog Whisperer and we will walk up to him when he is growling and eventually he walks away from the food and calms down.

Any advice greatly appreciated.

Kimberley

Have him checked out by a Vet, if you've had him years and this is unusual then he could be in pain.

Red_Elle

Hi

I would go back to basics with the dog. I am a big fan of Caesar Milan, the Dog Whisperer, is that the one you're talking about?

The dog is being territorial. Has anything changed in the house lately, new member of the family, change in routine? Has another dog moved in next door?

In terms of going back to basics, try for 3 walks a day. Worse case go for 2. Feed after the walks. Better still, I'd say walk, have your breakfast, then feed the dog. Don't let the dog on the sofa or the bed. You need to control it's environment, decide where it is allowed to go and where it's not.

Only give the dog it's food when it's a calm submissive state, only put it's lead on when it's in a calm subsmissive state, same with affection.

As long as you feel comfortable with doing this (don't risk getting hurt), you can go in like you are doing, but take the food away. He is wolfing it down because he is getting territorial and worried someone will take it from him. Show him that you are in charge and can take it if you wish. When he has adopted a calm submissive state you can give it back. Try only giving him a very small amount, so that he cannot make himself ill by eating it so quickly.

You're already doing the right thing. To take it one step further, maybe use a broom or something to extend your space (and not risk the dog biting your foot or leg) and walk towards him until he HAS to move away from the food.

He should know that this is YOUR food as the pack leader, but you have decided that he is now allowed to eat.

For some reason the line between pack leader has become blurred and he feels that he can get away with this behaviour. I would probably reduce affection with the dog as well; pack leaders are followed and dogs should come to you for affection (don't hold back when he does, but certainly don't fuss him!)

Hope this helps

pboae

I'm not a fan of the dog whisperer anyway, but this is one of those situations where using his approach can make things a LOT worse.

As Kimberley says your first stop should be the vet, especially if this is a new behaviour.

Assuming there isn't a physical cause (even if there was a physical trigger to start with) then you need to look at the environmental causes.

Your dog is not stupid, he already knows that you provide his food. For some reason he has become anxious that you are going to take it away from him, and now he is guarding it. This is perfectly natural behaviour, virtually all dogs (and humans) will resource guard if they are given sufficient reason to suspect they are under threat.

As he is now growling (and presumably wasn't previously) it sounds like the situation has already begun to escalate, you need to tread carefully before you back him into a corner and he feels he has to defend his food with more than a growl.

By walking up and intimidating him until he is forced to leave his food you are proving to him that he has reason to distrust you around his food. The more you do that, the more anxious and defensive he is going to get. It will resolve itself in one of two ways, either he will decide he's had enough and directly challenge you (i.e. bite) or he will learn to be more anxious about what you are going to do than he is about losing his food.

Instead of frightening him into gulping his food down, change tack and start rebuilding his trust in you around food. He needs to relearn that your presence around food is a good thing. There are different ways of doing this, but they all basically revolve around the idea that you teach your dog that when you approach his bowl you will be adding something tasty, instead of taking his food away.

There is a long discussion of it here
http://www.victoriastilwell.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=272&highlight=guarding
(the role play of snatching someone's food given in the above post is extremely and surprisingly effective, most people are quite shocked at the strength of the instinctive response it triggers in them)

and another example of it here http://www.ttlntl.co.uk/1/behaviour.htm#FOOD%20BOWL%20PROBLEM

Once your dog has learned to stop worrying that you are going to take his food away he will stop feeling the need to defend it. Then you can work on training him to give things up (with a command like 'leave it') by swapping low value things for high value things. So that should you require him to give food up in future he will do it on command and by choice, not through challenge and intimidation. But don't start by using his main food as the item to be given up, it's unreasonable to expect him to be willing to do that at first, and especially not in the current situation.

If you have any concerns about being able to deal with this yourself, please get some professional help. It's not worth taking chances.

t_r

Not a fan of the dog whisperer either ;-)

The two posts above may seem to be conflicting but that discussion belongs elsewhere.

Perhaps the problem with your pooch is connected with you trying to use the DW methods, hence a change in behaviour.

1, goto a vet and get him checked out
2, If he is OK get a professional in, well worth while

WeirdoMagnet

pboae wrote: »

I'm not a fan of the dog whisperer anyway, but this is one of those situations where using his approach can make things a LOT worse.

As Kimberley says your first stop should be the vet, especially if this is a new behaviour.

Without quoting the whole of pboae's post, I agree.

We have a Jack Russell, and would never ever dream of adopting a pack leader, Cesar Milan style of training with her. In short, The "Dominance Theory" - the one where you have to be pack leader over your dog, and that used by Cesar Milan has been debunked by many influential canine behaviourists and, more importantly, revoked by the original researchers. There are quite a few articles about why the theory is flawed, with research carried out by eminent canine behaviourists like Ray Coppinger, Ian Dunbar and Jean Donaldson. Even the esteemed John Fisher changed his mind before he died in the 1990s. Here are a couple of articles that I like as a starting point. Is Your Dog The Pack Leader?, and The History & Misconceptions of the Dominance Theory.

If folk want to be pedantic, I guess we're always the 'leader' in as much as we control when and what our dogs eat, when we walk, when we play etc, so I don't think you have to physically do anything else to prove that you are the leader.

We always use positive training methods with Tilly, including clicker training and although I have never removed her food bowl, or a chicken wing from her, I know that if necessary, I could, because she has trust in me (and my OH) and we would generally swap for a greater reward. I can give her her food, and I often say how she's a good girl for eating all her biscuits and give her a pat, sometimes give her an extra while she's eating, and some times more of all of the above than others. If she has found a sheeps skull, or a dead animal in the field, I can either get her to leave it, or remove it from her and ask her to come away from it, with no problem.

If ever her behaviour changed as you describe, I would be looking at what had changed in her enviroment, what we were doing differently, and get her to a vet to a thorough check including thyroid and blood tests - don't let the vet fob you off!

If you're looking for a good behaviourist, try the APDT, or post on DogPages - there are lots of knowledgeable people on there who use non-aversive, dog friendly methods to train dogs of all types including rescue dogs with unknown history.

HTH,

Georgie

PS. Just a thought - if someone tried taking my plate away from me, I'd be vocal, then I stab them with my fork. The next time it happened, I stab them with my fork before they could get near enough to take the food. Put yourself in your dogs position before you act!