New to the community, bringing the challenge.

[i_eat_kittens]

Naturally I found you guys in the spotlight, and any thing "dog" catches me immediately. I'm mom to three dogs, a foster parent to a new dog every few weeks/months, groomer, and ravenous dog lover. My dogs are all rescues, so they have come to us with their share of problems (all three are abuse/neglect cases

Comments

[wirenth]

is she attacking people or just other dogs?

if it's just other dogs, i'd simply feed her in a crate and not allow her to have any good treats outside of the crate. management rather than fixing the problem, yes, but the number one priority needs to be keeping every body safe, closely followed by not allowing her to rehearse this behavior anymore.

if she's going for people, it's a much more serious issue.

i agree with the hand feeding, though i'd stop taking things away from her. she's attacking because she's protecting her stuff. taking it away just reaffirms in her mind that she NEEDS to protect that stuff.

while working with the trainer, did you work on teaching her to trade?

[i_eat_kittens]

People, also. I mentioned she attacked me. She has attacked my boyfriend and his brother, for nothing more than being near her when she had a treat. We tried crate feeding her, but she was an abuse puppy, so when crated she will not eat (even her favorite things) and will hurt herself in efforts to get out.

She's great with trade, which is why her resorting to attacking still has been frustrating. Maybe my taking things away from her has reinforced it, and now that I know to stop maybe things will change.

[cottonmanifesto]

there are so many people with resource guarding dogs who manage fosters and multi-dog households because they just feed the dogs separately.

it seems like she's stopped guarding the bowl/other resources from you, but still does it with other dogs. imo, this is okay because it's easily managed. it's really very normal behavior.

[i_eat_kittens]

She eats in the kitchen, while the rest of the dogs eat in the living room. The foster dog incident happened over an empty bowl when everyone had finished eating. She may not look like much in her photo, but she's about 60 lbs of very surprisingly strong dog and she really hurt him. I'd like to keep fostering, I just wanted to take a break in case I was exacerbating the problem by bringing a different dog into the house all the time. Our trainer suggested she might be on double guard time because there was someone new she felt she had to protect her things from.

Just last night after I posted this, she brought in an apple from our yard, and when I asked her to sit she did, but when I said drop it she started lowering her head and making the "please leave it alone." face before baring her teeth at me and bolting.

[cottonmanifesto]

empty bowls are resources and should be removed when not in use.

believe me when i say that i know what you are talking about with regards to worrying about dogs hurting each other. i have 2 pit bulls and i have heard more than enough horror stories about what these dogs can do to each other.

do you know about the submissive teeth-baring posture?

[i_eat_kittens]

I mentioned below, definitely a mistake on my part, and the idea any thing was going to happen didn't cross my mind, as it was empty and I picked up/was washing the other four bowls. Now I'm much more aware because I know what her limits are.

Smalls has such a brute strength and jaw lock I have to wonder if she has any pit in her. She loves dogs, but if she is challenged she accepts without any hesitation. It terrifies me to know what she could do to another dog.

I know a bit about posturing, as a groomer we were trained to recognize the signs. My Dachshund is a prime example of fearful-submissive.

[magnoliafly]

I highly recommend buying the book Mine! A Practical Guide to Resource Guarding and doing the exercises in the book.

Trading is key for a food guarder. This concerns me: " treats are taken away if she growls, etc" - you just taught her why she needs to guard and to do more than growl next time. Taking things away from a resource guarder makes things MUCH worse, not better.

The book has step-by-step exercises meant to be taken very slowly. You have to train the dog sub-threshold which means, before she goes into guarding stance (growling, crazy or hard eye, lunging, baring teeth) in order to get through to her brain.

I have a food/treat guarder and I can tell you, the exercises in the book work. I also have learned to read my dog's body language so I know what to expect. It takes lots of consistancy with the exercises and not pushing the dog.

[i_eat_kittens]

Thanks. Two recommendations, so I will go pick that up when I am out today.

I'm embarrassed about taking things from her now, and bit frustrated we learned from a trainer. Good to find out sooner than later, though, and she still is very young.

[akahn]

Jack McCoy, love the name!!

[i_eat_kittens]

Thanks =) I'm a big law and order buff, and he does have the regal looking and salt and pepper hair look going on.

[luv2ride]

1. Management is key: feed your dog away from other dogs, in a separate room or at a minimum gated off from the rest of your guys. I have a very high level food and resource guarder and based on my experience, I would not feed him in his crate (this may lead to crate guarding). When giving high value 'chews' like ears, etc- keep all dogs separated from each other (or don't give at all, which is what you indicated in your post

[i_eat_kittens]

Thanks. As I told her, I'm getting the book while I'm out today and bring it to our next training session.
We've just taken away the high value treats for now, as she cannot handle eating them even when I'm in the room. She will take them to the farthest away spot, give me a hard stare the entire time she's eating it, and bare her teeth/growl if I get up to walk out of the room.
Oh, I didn't say without warning. She definitely has the warning signs down perfectly. Frozen, head lowered, HUGE eyes, hackles raised, teeth bared, lunge. I can call a dog food guarding within a split second thanks to her.

[xianghua]

You probably won't be able to find it at a chain bookstore- I've only ever seen it at Dogwise.

[magnoliafly]

Yeah I had to order mine online to get it. Rarely are books like that ever in chain bookstores.