How should I react during Barney being bad?
For instance, Barney seems to have developed a bit of treat guarding behavior, where he growls (and occasionally has even snapped) when he thinks someone is going to take his special treat away. He's fine with most treats...we can take those and he doesn't care, but it seems there are a few 'special' treats that he doesn't want to give up. Anyways, today we bought him a new type of treat and gave it to him in the kitchen. He grabbed it at first and then pretty much immediately put it down and didn't try to eat or gnaw on it (very unusual for the little pig). So after about 5 minutes of him doing nothing with it, except standing near it (I was in the kitchen cleaning up stuff and just kind of watching him) I went into the next room and told my husband that Barney wasn't eating it and either he didn't like it, or that he might be saving it, or that he might be guarding it. He was letting me pet his head when I walked past to the pantry and wasn't acting particularly guarded (very tense, still) but when my husband came in to re-give him the treat, Barney growled and started to pee a little and then my husband reached in and Barney snapped at him. My husband ended up grabbing him by the collar, scolding him, and led him outside. What would be the best way to have handled this situation while in progress? |
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| I think that "being bad" is too general a term to address overall, as how we respond depends so much on the particular circumstances.
That being said, let's look at this particualr scenerio. Resource guarding is very normal doggie behavior, but we don't like them to do it. Some dogs guard a lot, some don't. Most dogs guard only certain things.and only under certain circumstances. What I would suggest is one of 3 things: 1- Avoid the scenerio in the future. He can no longer get the treats that you know he will guard, or he gets them and you do not put him in the postion where he will exhibit the unwanted behavior. This doesn't fix the problem, but manages it. This doesn't help, though, when you don't know when he will find something particularly worthy of guarding, though. 2- Re-condition him so he does not feel he needs to guard. This means that he learns that when he is approached when he has a special treat he will more than likely be getting a better one, so is willing to relinguish. Even though you don't take his treat away, the whole frame of mind is different. It is relaxed and happy you are near. 3- Teach him "Give", or "Off". You can then ask him to do this whenever you suspect he may do some guarding. You teach this by trading up inincrements, and over time, so he learns that "Give" means you have something better for him. Now back to what happened and how it might have been better handled. Barney gave a growl warning. Then he peed. He peed submissively, trying to show your husband that he is submissive to him, and really didn't want to get into a confrontation, But he did growl...a warning. Growls are good. He warned, in the only way that he knows how to, but your husband did not listen. So Barney moved into the next phase, which is a snap. Note eh did not bite, and dogs have very good control over their jaws. If he wanted to bite he would have. He is trying to tell your husband to stay away. He then got "punished" for it. So next time, maybe Barney will remember that the growl and the snap did not get heeded, so will go straight to a bite. And it may be a child. Remember that growls are good, and we need to pay attention to them. I can imagine Bosley doing something similar, as he stiffens up sometime when Dixie is near his food. If I put myself in your postion, and Bosley growled at me over a rawhide, I would have been very surprised, but I would have backed away. Then immediately called him to me, or traded up for the rawhide, and it would have been put away until I decided what to do about it. Hope this helps. |
| Thanks Nicole. You always give such thorough answers!
I agree, we'd rather avoid a situation than find ourselves in the middle of it. And I agree, too, that 'being bad' is too broad a term to give directions to. I was mostly thinking of this general scenario, as most of the time Barney is pretty good and listens well. It's just that my husband and I have differing ideas of the growl/snap mindset. I am pretty much on the same page as what was said above, but my husband gets mad at the dog and then yells and drags him outside, which I don't like because it doesn't help anything. We had avoided giving Barney the treat that we knew he was especially protective of, but since this was new, we didn't know how wonderful a treat it was to him. Definitely not giving him this treat for a little while--back to Milkbones! |
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