B
BaileyDawg
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The last couple of days, Bailey has decided to challenge the family pecking order... and after I said such nice things about him as well! :
It started with an easily correctable attempt to barge out before the human family members. Then he tried to steal food right out of Joe's hand. He was corrected and sent out of the room until Joe had finished his snack. Fair enough, he was okay with that. THEN he had to go and cross that line. He growled at Fieldy when the kitten walked past the dog's dish, so I told him 'enough' and he stopped. It wasn't until Fieldy jumped onto the counter and knocked off my list and I bent to get it that I actually got annoyed. I reached for the list, which had landed near Bailey's food bowl, and again Bailey growled. Now, Jack the Collie we looked after for awhile for some friends having a bad time had a SEVERE guarding issue, and he ended up trying to bite Joe over food that wasn't even his, so I will NOT tolerate that sort of thing. After the initial 'what the hell?!' I took his bowl away from him (not that it mattered as he'd hoovered that last bit up the instant he was done growling), and ignored him for quite some time. I've taken away his freedom at meal times now, and he eats only when I personally give him the food. I can't believe I've had to resort to methods I haven't used since Jack left on a dog that's never had a problem with food guarding before.
At the moment this consists of the food bowl NEVER being on the floor unless it is meal time, in an effort to give him less things to guard over. *I* control the dish, and *I* control the food. At meal times, I give his bowl back empty, and only put in some at a time, and I make him wait for it so that he knows that, just because its in the bowl, it doesn't mean he's got a right to it unless I say he does. That dog is smart! It only took three times of me taking the bowl back because he wasn't listening that he had a perfect wait, no matter how long I left it before giving him his release word. Some of it we hand fed (but not at the morning meal, or somebody may have lost a finger LOL!), and I make sure Joe feeds him too. We're trying to make him realise that having us near his bowl is NOT a threat (we've go no interest in his kibble... I don't care how good it smells!) and is in fact a GOOD thing because we are supplying the food that goes into it. He only growled at me the once, but with Joe being Autistic and easily upset I don't want it to get past that one growl. I've read that this sort of challenge is quite common, so I'm not concerned about it, so much as I'm keen on him remembering his place. Hopefully its nipped in the bud early enough that he'll soon be back to eating out of his bowl without growling.
This is the way my family has always dealt with food guarding, and it seems to work (with every dog apart from Jack... but that dog was a sorry case of neglect and abuse that I won't EVEN get into as it still cheeses me right off), but if anybody has any further suggestions I'm all ears.
At the moment this consists of the food bowl NEVER being on the floor unless it is meal time, in an effort to give him less things to guard over. *I* control the dish, and *I* control the food. At meal times, I give his bowl back empty, and only put in some at a time, and I make him wait for it so that he knows that, just because its in the bowl, it doesn't mean he's got a right to it unless I say he does. That dog is smart! It only took three times of me taking the bowl back because he wasn't listening that he had a perfect wait, no matter how long I left it before giving him his release word. Some of it we hand fed (but not at the morning meal, or somebody may have lost a finger LOL!), and I make sure Joe feeds him too. We're trying to make him realise that having us near his bowl is NOT a threat (we've go no interest in his kibble... I don't care how good it smells!) and is in fact a GOOD thing because we are supplying the food that goes into it. He only growled at me the once, but with Joe being Autistic and easily upset I don't want it to get past that one growl. I've read that this sort of challenge is quite common, so I'm not concerned about it, so much as I'm keen on him remembering his place. Hopefully its nipped in the bud early enough that he'll soon be back to eating out of his bowl without growling.
This is the way my family has always dealt with food guarding, and it seems to work (with every dog apart from Jack... but that dog was a sorry case of neglect and abuse that I won't EVEN get into as it still cheeses me right off), but if anybody has any further suggestions I'm all ears.