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8 month old snapped at my child

99K views 711 replies 54 participants last post by  Castlemaid 
#1 ·
I'm so angry with Grom right now. My kids usually behave crazy with him like the ordinary 8 and 9 year olds would (of course I teach my kids to respect the pup and mind the boundaries) and Grom was very good with them, he just walked away when kids were too much. They play tug with him. Would pet him and hang around him, while he was chewing his bully stick, and he was just fine with it.

He didn't have any bully sticks for some time and to be honest I didn't exercise him enough this week, so he was bored. I brought him a bully stick tonight and he was very eager to have it. He laid down on my command and I let him have it, and when I reached to pet him, he growled. It was an agressive growl with his lip curled, that was the first time he growled like that. He then growled at my kids and when my son came closer, he lunged with a growl at him. I managed to grab him, I don't know if it could be a bite, if I hadn't. Yelled at him and put him in his crate.

I practice NILIF with him, took him to puppy classes and did basic obidience, which we stopped doing lately and started with Schutzhund. He is our very first dog and right now I feel like I cannot trust him anymore.

Sorry, this is long, but I need your input on what to do now. I'll put Sch training on hold for now and will work on obidience with a trainer and involve my kids into that too. Right now I don't feel safe when he is around kids, I don't know what to expect from him and what else can provoke him to behave like that.
 
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#153 ·
OH OH OH!!!! As I finished typing the last response the PERFECT example just happened.

When Jinx was a pup we "traded" not so much higher value vs lower value but appropriate vs inappropriate. If she had a shoe as a pup we would go over and take it out of her mouth then put one of her toys in her mouth. She didn't have the choice to trade it however we did give her something back because if every time a pup has something they shouldn't have you walk over and take it THATS how resource guarding happens (not exclusively but a good way to cause it) The pup learns you approaching them means they lose their item. I'm not going to bribe her for an item however I will give her something she should have so she learns appropriate chewing items and learns me approaching her isn't bad. She was taught this as a pup and now I don't trade her things because she knows what is and is not allowed.

However, just now, her and the foster pup were rough housing and I look over to see they somehow got one of my daughter's socks and were playing tug o war with it.. obviously not an acceptable thing I simply said (in a normal voice) "Jinx bring" and held my hand out. Jinx took the sock from the puppy brought it to me and placed it in my hand. After taking it she waited a second to see if I would give it back to her and I told her "go play" and she happily trotted back to the puppy grabbed a care bear and started wrestling again. There was no negotiating, , no trading, no "ill feelings," no forcing, no chasing, no anything she brought it to me and immediately spit it out directly in my hand.
 
#156 ·
My dogs are not allowed to resource guard, and reinforce it whether its with another dog or myself.

When it's myself, I don't hesitate, I give a stern "NO!", and take it away. Assuming that was my goal in the first place. If I give them something, then its because I want them to have it. Sometimes, when I feed my dogs, I'll pat their butts as I walk away, but never by their heads. I don't want them to feel insecure about their meals.

My dogs are also not allowed to steal from each other. In that case, I intervene and remove the item from the thief and return to the owner. If one dog is hovering over another dog that is eating, I put my body between the two dogs and tell the dog "NO".
 
#158 ·
Sometimes, when I feed my dogs, I'll pat their butts as I walk away, but never by their heads. I don't want them to feel insecure about their meals.

Good post. The problem with fiddling with their meals (without adding something better to the meal, as others mentioned, sardines and the like) is that they do then feel very insecure and you get more guarding behavior, not less.
When they don't feel threatened (by someone taking their meal and giving it back, etc.) they relax and don't feel the need to start guarding.
It's Dog 101.
 
#159 ·
I've always handled my pups food, hand fed her at times, mixed it up.. I touched her while she ate, I pet her, loved on her, picked up her feet, kissed her... I've never had an issue with resource guarding. I could easily stick my face IN her bowl while she is eating and she wouldn't respond to it, she'd just keep eating. I don't think handling food necessarily causes resource guarding. My dog KNOWS that if I am messing with her treats, food, bones, etc, it does NOT mean I am about to take it.

Not saying this is what you should do with a dog, but I wanted my dog to tolerate my handling her food from day one, and I did that to the extreme. I did not, however, EVER take her food from her just to prove a point (or at all, really.)
 
#161 ·
I guess in my house it becomes "whoever licks it first owns it". LOL.. kidding. I do crate my pup to eat, and man she will charge ANY of our dogs that come up to said crate, and I don't correct her for that. With me, however, I expect a level of understanding that I am not here to steal your meal, so I will train how I feel necessary.

I'm trying to train her to do the same, the sneaky brat! QUIT TOUCHING MY FOOD! She lets me know that MY tacos may not just be MY tacos, if I happen to look the other way...... :)
 
#162 ·
I guess in my house it becomes "whoever licks it first owns it". LOL.. kidding. I do crate my pup to eat, and man she will charge ANY of our dogs that come up to said crate, and I don't correct her for that. With me, however, I expect a level of understanding that I am not here to steal your meal, so I will train how I feel necessary.

I'm trying to train her to do the same, the sneaky brat! QUIT TOUCHING MY FOOD! She lets me know that MY tacos may not just be MY tacos, if I happen to look the other way...... :)
LOL the first and last part cracked me up! Jinx was pretty good about not taking stuff however this foster pup is exactly like this.. you blink and theres a chance your food isn't gonna be yours anymore. Shes also a resource guarder with other dogs but not people. I DO NOT allow the lunging at the crate thing and she gets a very stern "NO" I don't allow Jinx to mess around near the crate either its a balancing act between the 2 however there will not always be a barrier and that sort of reaction is simply unacceptable.

My dogs are not allowed to resource guard, and reinforce it whether its with another dog or myself.

When it's myself, I don't hesitate, I give a stern "NO!", and take it away. Assuming that was my goal in the first place. If I give them something, then its because I want them to have it. Sometimes, when I feed my dogs, I'll pat their butts as I walk away, but never by their heads. I don't want them to feel insecure about their meals.

My dogs are also not allowed to steal from each other. In that case, I intervene and remove the item from the thief and return to the owner. If one dog is hovering over another dog that is eating, I put my body between the two dogs and tell the dog "NO".
I do the exact same thing. If an item happens to get stolen you are still not allowed to act like a fool and attack the other dog it is my place to correct not the dog's. They are going to walk around each other, however, lingering is not allowed and I will make the other dog move away. If a head is going towards the other dogs item I will either step between or grab around the chest and physically turn away and tell the dog "NO, LEAVE IT" very stern. If the sneaky little bugger happens to steal something I don't give any command I calmly walk over remove from the mouth and hand back to the original "owner" I don't allow guarding towards me and certainly not towards the other dogs same as I don't mess with them while they have something i don't allow other dogs to mess with each other when they have something.

The rule in my house is:

You don't mess with my food and I won't mess with yours. ;)
Pretty much same thing here... leave me alone I'll leave you alone... however I have been known to retaliate when shes being a brat :blush: lol sorry but turn around is fair play sometimes.
 
#163 ·
[/I've got news for you kids do not think like humans either. We are all animals. Reward bad behavior it keeps happening. Seperating the dog while he eats will not fix the problem. You do it your way I'll do it mine. My way works! Hope some kid doesn't accidently come into the room when your dog has his steak.QUOTE]

To respond to the above which was many pages ago, (I had to work today:)

I don't have a bunch of dogs who resource guard, I have dogs who will 'drop' whatever I tell them to drop. So if a kid came in the room, most likely they could take that steak out of their mouths if I allowed something like that to go on but I dont.

My male aussie IS a big time growler, he has a bone, he's gonna growl, so maybe he is resource guarding, but anyone can walk up and take it out of his mouth with no consequences..he's a big mouth bluffing punk.

But I'm with Greg, they don't mess with my food, I don't mess with theirs:) It's just kinda mutual respect around here when it comes to food.
 
#166 ·
I mess with my puppies food intermittantly. I did it with Jack too.
Up until they are weaned their mother does whatever she wants to. If she wants to turn around she does. if she tires of ones location she moves them etc..
To me messing with their food as a puppy is a continuation of what mom does. It is a way of training them that their owner and humans are not a threat. I pet her and rub her feet while she is eating. It is training that people are safe around them even when they are eating.
Jack is five years old and I haven't messed with his food in years but I'm going to tonight. That's how I train not to resource guard food. It's worked for many decades for me so I have no reason to change. My puppy Zena eats so fast that to take time out to growl or get into it with me is a waste of eating time.
I don't have issue with other peoples methods. If it works for you keep it up until it doesn't. If my method ever quits working for me then I'll try something else.
Just for clarity most of the time I put their food down and leave and once they have learned people are no threat I've never had a problem.
 
#167 ·
Everyone in this thread who has children, I have an assignment for you:

This evening, or the next time your kid is playing playstation/Nintendo DS/texting friends on iphone/etc. . . go up and start messing with him/her the way you'd mess with a puppy. Pat the kid on the head. Rub his/her arm. Take the controller away and then give it back.

Report back to us with your results. :D
 
#284 ·
I was arguing about toilet paper at one point! Were you a pull from the top or pull from the bottom person? :)
Over the top....always!!! ;)


but a real all out and out bite no. That is simply not allowed. If my dog ever did that, they would be taken outside and shot. There is no other method or working with that kind of behavior. .


This is total nonsence!! :thumbsdown:
 
#179 ·
Oh they did that. I'm sure they said some worse things under their breath and to each other but tough times and love won out in the long run. I can't say anything about when they actually began to use their brains because I was about thirty before my brain and a little maturity began to show. I'm still working on it.:)
 
#191 ·
After nearly 200 posts, I see that the OP skipped town before number 10.
Probably dozed off when she saw that it was no longer hers.
 
#192 ·
Holy crap, Batman -- pass me the bottle, please!

I thought it was more interesting to discuss which way you put the tp on the roll. I mean, heck that's cut and dried and easy. If you pull it from the top, you are wrong.

Ehh, I dunno, but any "training method" that is so strict as to not allow alternative methods when needed seems pretty close minded. I see both sides of this thing. I've raised my dogs to allow me access to whatever they have. I touched, petted, whatever as they ate/chewed here and there. Never a problem... BUT when they got older and did display some snarky baloney, they did hear about it and I didn't worry about offering something for a trade, as they were adults by then. And you know, that's what it really comes down to -- conditioning them when they're young, so you don't have issues when they're older.

That's boring. Let's talk about drinking and toilet paper!
 
#194 ·
Holy crap, Batman -- pass me the bottle, please!

I thought it was more interesting to discuss which way you put the tp on the roll. I mean, heck that's cut and dried and easy. If you pull it from the top, you are wrong.
......

Let's talk about drinking and toilet paper!
I agree! Much better conversation than to talk about shooting dogs that failed a tried and true training method!

I have Bailey's! Want some of that?! Some Captain around here somewhere too!
 
#196 ·
It's Friday night. Bailey's and Captain on ice over here please.
New drink B&C on the rocks.
 
#198 ·
again she doesn't ATTACK humans she does play rough though but to just do a "real" bite on a human?? nope, well maybe for Schutzhund training. She was bred by an amazing breeder for a phenomenal temperament. but if the dog decides to challenge you because your methods don't work on every dog and you just choose to kill it instead hopefully those good breeders see this.
 
#207 ·
again she doesn't ATTACK humans she does play rough though but to just do a "real" bite on a human?? nope, well maybe for Schutzhund training. She was bred by an amazing breeder for a phenomenal temperament. but if the dog decides to challenge you because your methods don't work on every dog and you just choose to kill it instead hopefully those good breeders see this.
I know the difference between play rough and a "real bite". Sounds to me like you are just full of excuses because your afraid of your dog.
 
#211 ·
I've never seen someone twist other's posts like this. My head is :crazy:

And I don't drink...but I got pizza and a movie. I'm sayin' g'bye to this thread (unless you want to talk about TP some more!)
 
#224 ·
Hold on.. are we still on topic at all? Because I don't recall this 8 month old puppy biting the child on the face, or being a potential child murderer. I thought we were talking about resource guarding? I sure hope we're not telling the OP to take her puppy out back.... *shivers*

I have yet to see a single person offer high value items for mauling people.

Putting a dog to sleep would be the final option in my household. After training, exercise, medications, vet check up, channeling into a sport, etc... The needle would certainly NOT be the first option!

Anyways, cheers everyone :)
 
#227 ·
Hold on.. are we still on topic at all? Because I don't recall this 8 month old puppy biting the child on the face, or being a potential child murderer.
She was referring to my dog, not the OP's. Some people feel the need to throw out comments like that so they can continue drama and fighting.

The topic is now alcohol and toilet paper. So...no...we are not on topic if it is the original topic.
 
#238 ·
Top rolling is superior. If it were not, why would motels do it this way!??
Capitalism at its worst. It's all a conspiracy designed by the toilet paper companies in cahoots with Staples.


And...if you roll from the bottom how do you get the roll to stop once it's going!?
Talent Baby...Talent...


ETA: How fast do you have that thing going?! I want a video of that! We could win funniest home videos with the out of control toilet paper roll!
 
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