Is Food Aggression common?

[Clyde]

Originally Posted by codmaster

Agreed!

you are right, of course, clyde.

I guess the answer would be to just don't let the dog have a "high value" thing, i.e. real bone with meat on it. That is what the answer was by one poster so that is cool. How could I miss the answer to my question! Just don't let the situation of food guarding ever come up!

.............until you can see a qualified trainer/behaviourist to help you!!

I totally AGREE seriously! I mean the whole reason people come on here seeking advice is because they are not able to handle the issue on their own.

[Cassidy's Mom]

Yes, let's assume that one poster is speaking for EVERYONE. Here we go again.....

[Debbieg]

[QUOTE=Clyde;2394163]. Just like no matter how safe I thought my dog was I would never leave it alone with a child. You have no control over what might happen.

I don't think we should ever underestimate the power of natural instinct and I think to assume that someone could have complete control over another living creature is an illusion.

QUOTE]

Thanks for saying what I was to lazy to type!

[robinhuerta]

One of the things we have always taught our dogs is to "let go or drop" when we tell them to.
It is taught early on (I won't get into specifics) to release what they have in their mouths. We do not "trade up"....we (our method of choice) is to teach them from the beginning that they *must* release or give us what they have......period.
It is not their "choice"....
With puppies, we start by taking things from them when they are chewing or playing....we do NOT simply take the objects away that we are using in formal training.....we teach that specific, formal *OUT* later.....but that is a completely different topic.
Because we have always engaged with taking and giving from puppy hood on....we have not had aggression issues re: dog to owner.

[Mrs.K]

To teach a puppy from the very beginning to drop it or to out, isn't all that hard. Most of the time you won't need compulsion, trade games or anything else.

As for the formal out, that indeed is a different topic. My other female learned the formal out not too long ago and it branched into the house manners. We actually had to do a formal out because she's got so much prey that if you wanted to take something from her, she would hold onto it even more. Not a good situation when your finger is in between the ball and her teeth.

[Clyde]

Originally Posted by Cassidy's Mom

Yes, let's assume that one poster is speaking for EVERYONE. Here we go again.....

I don't get it? I thought I was just finding something common to agree on with codmaster.

But maybe that was not referring to me? Sometimes I get all confused about who is responding to who

[robinhuerta]

And fingers ALWAYS have the tendency to get in the way! LOL!
I agree MrsK.....teaching a puppy to "give it up" does not require much if any compulsion...but it sure is an important thing to teach early on.
I think if it was *required learning* from the beginning....there would be less aggression issues later on, especially food and object guarding......but that is simply my small opinion.

[Emoore]

Originally Posted by robinhuerta

One of the things we have always taught our dogs is to "let go or drop" when we tell them to.
It is taught early on (I won't get into specifics) to release what they have in their mouths. We do not "trade up"....we (our method of choice) is to teach them from the beginning that they *must* release or give us what they have......period.
It is not their "choice"....
With puppies, we start by taking things from them when they are chewing or playing....we do NOT simply take the objects away that we are using in formal training.....we teach that specific, formal *OUT* later.....

Robin, is this something you teach with a command and you expect them to drop the object, or is the point just to teach the puppy from a very early age that you can take things out of its mouth?

[Clyde]

Originally Posted by robinhuerta

One of the things we have always taught our dogs is to "let go or drop" when we tell them to.
It is taught early on (I won't get into specifics) to release what they have in their mouths. We do not "trade up"....we (our method of choice) is to teach them from the beginning that they *must* release or give us what they have......period.
It is not their "choice"....
With puppies, we start by taking things from them when they are chewing or playing....we do NOT simply take the objects away that we are using in formal training.....we teach that specific, formal *OUT* later.....but that is a completely different topic.
Because we have always engaged with taking and giving from puppy hood on....we have not had aggression issues re: dog to owner.

I think some of the confusion and disagreement is because we are not all taking about the same thing. Sorry just using this as an example Robin.

The above I would say is things that should be done to help prevent possession issues. And there have been many other posts that I thought seemed to be aimed in the same direction of what to do before it happens.
Also some posts have been about what to do in the first instance of a dog showing aggression. And some post are on how to deal with an aggressive dog who have been practising this for years.

I think some of the suggestions have been misinterpreted because we are not looking at what point in time or with what dog the suggestion was for.

[Jack's Dad]

Originally Posted by robinhuerta

One of the things we have always taught our dogs is to "let go or drop" when we tell them to.
It is taught early on (I won't get into specifics) to release what they have in their mouths. We do not "trade up"....we (our method of choice) is to teach them from the beginning that they *must* release or give us what they have......period.
It is not their "choice"....
With puppies, we start by taking things from them when they are chewing or playing....we do NOT simply take the objects away that we are using in formal training.....we teach that specific, formal *OUT* later.....but that is a completely different topic.
Because we have always engaged with taking and giving from puppy hood on....we have not had aggression issues re: dog to owner.

Yes. thanks Robin.

Clyde. I agree that prevention or after the fact food or object aggression are treated differently and some times we are not all talking about the same thing.