Thanksgiving resource guarding - thwarted

[KentuckyGSDLover]

Yesterday I had a small turkey finishing thawing in cold water in my kitchen sink. Rey kept sneaking in and standing on the counter to look at it, but couldn't reach it. Buddy was oblivious to it. So I'm standing in the food prep area, Rey is there like an eagle eye and Buddy innocently meanders in because that's where everyone is. Rey snarled and snapped at him (not usual). Those of you who have gotten to know me realize Buddy is 15 years old and has a very sweet disposition. This really ticked me off and made me wonder again if keeping Rey is the right thing to do. After a night to cool down, I realized that if Rey wasn't fear aggressive, I wouldn't be getting so uptight about this. I'd just do something different. So today that is what I did. I was cooking, Rey wandered in hanging around, and I made her stand at the end of the counter, right outside the food prep area, then made her "sit" and "stay." In other words, I stepped up NILF a notch. She only tried me twice, and both times, I took her right back to where she started, told her to sit and stay. She finally sighed and decided to "down" and "stay" after a long period of time of me chopping and preparing food. But it really was that simple. New rule: Rey is not allowed in the food prep area of the kitchen when I'm cooking. Period.

[msvette2u]

Our dogs are gated out for those reasons and that I drop things occasionally!

[Hrachia]

Usually the best thing to do is not even feed them in the kitchen/food prep area. I will never even give mine food off the counter so she will know not to even try. But in the long run I am glad you are keeping her, and that you are managing her environment better to avoid situations as such.

[lzver]

Very interesting read. Our Jake is a counter surfer and in the baby steps we are taking we're rewarding him for calmly sitting by our side as opposed to jumping on the counter. I was cooking dinner last night and withheld his dinner. He had to work for it by sitting beside me. More work is needed, but I noticed some improvement in the 30 minute session.

[Jax08]

Good plan!

[Blanketback]

Everyone has their own pet peeves when it comes to unwanted behavior, and bad kitchen manners are my own all-time #1 can't stand it behavior, lol. I have my puppy trained to go into his crate whenever I'm preparing or eating meals. He's funny, because now if I even open the fridge, he'll go in there. That's his way of begging for cheese and I love it. DH's dog was 'trained' to be a pest around food (nothing like a guy that flings cheetos at his dog while eating them, lmao) but even she's now going to her bed without being asked. Yay, sanity.