While eating, puppy snarled and bit daughter---please advise
Anyway, puppy(Nellie is her name) was eating and my 11yro was petting her, when suddeny Nellie growled and bit her hand. Scared DD to death. What can/should we do....never seen a puppy growl or bite. I have an OES book and a puppy training book (and also watch the dog whisperer---I love that show), but nothing relates strictly to puppy/feeding/aggression. Any input would be great! Thanks, Stacey |
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| This is not puppy agreesion. This is resource guarding, which is normal doogie behavior. Some dogs do it and some don't. In the same litter you may have resource guarders and non-resource guarders, so unless you test this as a pup you really don't know whether you are getting one or not. And then dogs can develope this behavior as they grow up.
I would start of by havingyour daughter hand-feed the puppy at least 1 meal a day. And you or someone else hand-feed the others. No more food in a bowlfor this little one. I recommend hand-feeding puppies for the first month or so, regardless of whether they resource guard or not. Teach your children never to approach a dog that is eating. Yours may be fine but you don't know about the neighbor's or the dog down the street. They may be wonderful, friendly and submissive, but resource- guard....and you won't know until it happens and someone may get hurt. Order this book: Mine!: A practical guide to resource guarding in dogs, by Jean Donaldson (Limited Availability) It will give explain to you the ins and outs of resource guarding and many ways of dealing with it. Hope this helps! |
| Welcome to the forum, and congratulations on your new pup!
Take a look at this thread about resource guarding: http://forum.oes.org/viewtopic.php?t=9730 Other than that - think about the pack order process. One of the things that I've had great success with in dealing with resources/pack order is to make feeding a very deliberate process. Gesture eating is one way to illustrate to the puppy that she is not the Alpha in your pack. While preparing her food, do it on a counter or table. Then, before you place the bowl down for her to eat, take a bite of something (cracker, muffin, pretzel - really, whatever you like). Do it very deliberately, and make sure she sees you do it. In the wild, pack members will always allow the alpha dogs to eat first, and they will eat their scraps. Also have your 11yo do this, and any other 2-legged members of your house. Nellie will recognize the humans as higher in the pack if they get to eat before her. I guess i'm lucky that Walter isn't a resource guarder at all...I'm sure others will chime in with similar experiences! Good Luck! |
I bought the book, and read the other post. I had her eat out of our hands today--she was so gentle, and gobbled it up. The kids loved it. Thank you for your replies 
Stacey |
| Jasper did the same thing about the same age. He was eating, and he bit my then barely 2 year old in the face. Brandon had to have liquid stitches (he still has a scar), and we started kenneling Jasper to feed him. With supervision, the boys gave him treats. As he got older, he now isn't agressive about his food at all. The boys feed him in the afternoons even, and he's fine. I think it's more of a "puppy" reaction than him trying to hurt her. |
| I have a new puppy that is 1/3 boxer and 1/8 lab. We got him at six weeks old and I have been the primary caretaker of Benny. Bennie is a great pup and very obedient and loves others. However, he snarls and bites me hard when I take him out or take something away from him. Not always but when he is outside on his leash. I've tried everything and my boyfriend scruff and used the dominance roll. I feel like he thinks I am the weak one. I am worried he'll be aggressive please help. |
| My first two sheepies were resource guarders. I wish I had this site to come to then.
Fortunately, Jenny is not a resource guarder, never even showed the tendencies, but from the time we got her, I would put my hand in the bowl and feed her a few handfuls, etc., just so she would know I can give it and I can take it away. |
| I hand fed Obe when he was little. I would take his bowl of food up then put it down. Anything I could so he knew I was always in charge. I would give him a treat and say easy when he took it out of my hand. Go to snatch it and you cant have it, sorry. When he learned to do this he got a treat.
The I would put a treat in my mouth and he would take it from me. He would do so with such ease never forceful. He now takes carrots, treats what ever with no aggression/force what so ever. Good luck with your new pup and congratulations. |
hand feeding is also a good way to get the puppy to focus only on you and is good ground work for agility dogs and othe rperformance dogs. unfortunatly Miss Marley had the sharpest little teeth and I finally gave up  |
On food aggression: I, too, handfed Winnie daily from 8 weeks old to about 3 months. Since then I hand feed her once a week. She's shown no food aggression. Also, we always make her sit and go "down" for food, water, treats, toys, etc. She knows we're in control of that, but of course, at six months, she's always testing the boundaries. 
On the puppy who will bite instead of give up something - our trainer suggested having something to "trade" - like a treat (pieces of turkey hot dogs are a favorite), or a more beloved toy. That will teach the pup that if he/she gives up something you want, then puppy gets a better deal! It is positive reinforcement rather than punishment that changes behvior faster. |
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