Hi eveyone. I am new to lab ownership (though not to dog ownership). I adopted a three year old golden lab this weekend. He is a gorgeous boy - beautiful soft nature and lovely with everyone, kids & my daughter's maltese x shih tzu three month old puppy. This boy spent a lot of time being ignored & tethered after he was no longer a "cute" puppy. He was not allowed inside with the family, and was fed crappy quality dry food only once a day. He was never walked and basically had minimal interaction with people or other animals. As a result of his circumstances, he became a nuisance barker. These people had no back perimiter fence and had used a shock collar/electric fence system to try to keep him in the yard, before eventually acknowledging this wasn't working & changing to a tether of approximately one metre. In our fully fenced backyard, he has so far attempted to bark ONCE over the entire weekend (he could hear other dogs), and we corrected him with a stern "no" and he stopped. We rewarded him with lots of "good boy" and treats. We have walked him twice over the weekend & he pulls a great deal on the lead. We have been able to correct him to some degree with treats & commands. I think that in time (when he realises we are going to walk him every day), this will no longer be an issue. He shares a water bowl with the puppy, and he is happy if the puppy sits on his bed (with or without him being on it). He does not seem to have an issue with sharing his "stuff". There is one problem that we are having that is a little worrying. The previous owners said that he doesn't like it when you go near him when he is eating. They said he growls & gets a bit angry. We fed him some good quality food on the weekend & my husband started patting his ears. He started growling & my husband removed his food. We started feeding him from my hands & he didn't growl at all during this process. We repeated this process each feeding. I should also note, we have upped his feedings to twice a day - so he gets to know that food doesn't need to be guarded. I attempted this process on my own this morning. I put the food down, and started patting his ears and he started growling at me. I pulled back on his collar to remove him from the bowl and he became very aggressive. He was bearing his teeth & growling at me, and the hackles on his back were all up. At the same time he was doing this, he started to urinate. If I had continued holding him by the collar, I have no doubt that he would have bitten me. I let him return to eating & went inside - I was quite shaken up if I'm being honest. When he was finished, he started wagging his tail & approached me like happily, like nothing had happened. I gave him a pat & he seemed perfectly fine. I am not sure how to proceed though. What is the best way to approach this? I know he is very stressed about being rehomed, obviously. He is panting almost continually and is clearly unsure of his new surroundings. I don't want to upset him any further, but I don't want him to think this behaviour is acceptable either. Any tips would be greatly appreciated.
Hello there, And a very, very warm welcome. I hope you have lots of happy times with your dog, and he settles down in his new home. The thing he is worried about is that you are going to take his food away from him - so don't. Don't take his food away from him. The point of working with a dog who guards his food is to get him to stop worrying that anyone is going to take his food. He needs to believe you won't take his food if you come near him when he is eating. So taking away his food is the worst thing ever because you have just proved him right - unless he guards it, you'll steal it. You should never aim to be able to take away the dog's food, only that he is confident that you won't do so (so never take it), and is happy that you approach when he is eating. Stop approaching him while he is eating, make sure no-one else does so, and take things very, very slowly. There is an article that might help you here - you might need to take weeks over each tiny step: http://www.thelabradorsite.com/how-to-stop-your-dog-growling-over-food/
http://www.cappdt.ca/UserFiles/File/articles/resource guarding for parents.pdf Please read this ^^ It's meant for parents and children but applies to adults just as well. I would concentrate in the beginning at just leaving him well enough alone till you've had him a couple of weeks or months instead of a mere weekend. It's clear he was mistreated before you got him, perhaps he was given reason to fear people approaching his food dish as well. I would allow him time to come to trust you before even trying the hand feeding. And protect him from your kids at feeding time. Don't let them close enough to threaten him, they won't on purpose of course, but their very presence might worry him. And the results could be bad, from the way you say he acts now.
Thanks for the advice. I feel terrible that we were tackling it entirely the wrong way. Poor baby boy. I'm glad I decided to seek advice on here & not proceed with this course of action. I knew it was a fear based thing from the way he peed himself when it was going on. As for the kids, we've always told them not to touch a dog when he's eating anyway (just in case). I get the impression that this poor guy has been shuffled from pillar to post & has NO idea what's happening. He's very happy that he's being fed & walked & loved, but his constant panting shows just how nervous he really is.
The others have given you great advice, so not much to add except that I would advise you to give your pooch lots of time to settle in. It's going to take him quite some time until he feels comfortable with you, and don't be surprised if, as he relaxes more, you see even more misbehaviour. Keep things low key around him for the first little bit and give all of you time to get to know one another. My rehomed dog came to us with resource guarding issues, clicker training really helped me in helping us to get through this. He still will have a reaction here and there but he is much better, so there is hope you can get past this. Just be patient, give him time, and definitely don't try to train him out of this by trying to take his food way. As you have seen, that really will only reinforce his fear. Good luck, and keep us posted!!
Just wanted to say hi - and great job on giving this poor boy a good home. Don't feel bad that you had an initial hiccup with the food. You sought help, and now you know how to handle it. I'm sure he will learn that he has nothing to fear from you and will become a relaxed and happy boy in time. He sounds like a lovely dog who has just had a really bad start.
Thanks for the reassurance. He certainly is a lovely boy & he really doesn't seem to have a mean bone in his body - apart from this food thing. I think he is loving the fact that we are actually interacting with him & giving him attention. It's like he's never been allowed to be a part of a family before. He's such a character. He jumps around in circles & is like a giant goofball. He has the grace & finesse of a rhinocerus & I've realised that having cups etc on the coffee table is a no-no due to his huge waggy tail. I'm guessing you guys know alllll about that one! Lol
Hi, when we were training our dog I always remember our trainer saying over the food, you should add some nice food so that you going near him while eating is a good thing, we do leave Buster alone while eating but now and again I will either get his attention so he can take food from my hand or I let him know I'm going to put some food in his bowl. Good luck and enjoy your new dog.
Just stopping by to say hi and welcome.You've done a wonderful thing welcoming him into your home and helping him leave behind his previous miserable existence.I'm glad you've found and joined the Forum,there are is a lot of experience and help here ,please stop on by if you need advice or just to tell us how you are all doing getting to know each other x
Yes. I agree with all the above, never take any food away. But try to add to his bowl something nice and smelly at least three times a week. I do this with mine and they now turn their heads when I approach whilst they are eating to see what I've brought! Food aggression can start in the litter so be careful when he's round other people. Try to feed him where no one will be able to go near him, so that he feels completely safe when eating. Guide dogs are tested at 7 weeks old for food aggression, and withdrawn if they have it. So it must be a 'thing' even with very carefully bred and raised pups.
Hello and welcome to the forum. You've already had the right advice and are clearly acting on it already. I always think of it in terms of how I would feel myself if I'd just settled down to a lovely dinner and someone came and took it away from me. I'd be raging and would be sure to let the person who took it know. You don't come between me and good food You'll find there are loads of very knowledgeable people on here who will help you out with any issues you come across. It's a fabulous thing you've done, giving this boy a new home where he will be safe and loved. We would love to see some pictures of him, if you can share? You need to use a site such as Photobucket, Imgur, Flickr or even FaceBook to host the image and then post the link in here. There's more information in the technical section. What's his name?
Just to say welcome to the forum from me & my 2 rescues, Belle & Coco (neither are Labs). Great advice already posted. I wish you all the luck in the world with your new boy. Rescues can be hard work, but so worth it.
Thanks everyone for the warm welcome & words of advice. I really do appreciate everyone being so willing to help me. Good news!! Last night I implemented the "new" feeding system & it went really well! I put his food bowl down (he sits for his dinner - such a good boy) and he started inhaling his food. As he was eating, my hubby & I threw several cubes of steak toward his bowl. He started wagging his tail & eating the treats we were giving him - alternating between eating from his bowl & eating the treats. His eating slowed down a lot & his general stance seemed more relaxed. This morning I gave him his bowl again & started tossing him little slices of cabanossi. He did the same as the night before & alternated between his bowl & the treats. Then he did something unexpected. He stopped eating from his bowl, walked over to me, took a piece of cabanossi from my hand & then casually walked back to his bowl & started SLOWLY eating his food. I continued to toss little bits of cabanossi toward him while he was eating from the bowl, until all food & cabanossi was gone. He then walked over to me happily for a pat & gave me his paw. The thing that I noticed, this morning in particular, was his stance. He used to be completely hunched over his bowl, his whole head basically surrounding the bowl, hackles up on his neck, head almost butted up against the wall so nobody could "steal" his food. This morning he was MUCH more relaxed. He was still a little guarded initially when I put his bowl down, but during the course of eating, I saw him physically relax his body. I didn't try to touch him at all - I didn't want to stress him out, but when he was finished eating, there were lots of loud & excited "Good Boy's". I am amazed at his remarkable progress in such a short time, and I have you guys to thank for that.
That's great! Don't be tempted to touch him, ever, when he's eating. Also - I wouldn't add food every meal, just two or three times a week so that he doesn't come to expect it
That's just great - steak and cabanossi! Brilliant. I'm a firm believer in amazing treats. So lovely you can already see him start to relax. Take it really, really slowly. No need to rush, sort it out very slowly and carefully, and well, and you will have done this boy a massive favour. Along with giving him a loving home of course. Best of luck with it. Let us know how you get on.
Follow the article, all the way through - different people have different ideas, but best to stick to the steps set out - I see you are having really good signs mentioned in later stages already. But do each step, all the same.
Great progress! Like the others have said, there's no need to ever touch him when he's eating. Even weeks down the line when he seems perfectly comfortable, it may make him regress to defensive behaviour and you don't want that to happen. Good luck with this going forwards.
Well, if progress goes well, I do think Pippa's article that sets out the steps to touching a dog when he is eating is the way to go - for the reasons she gives, you never know when someone will do this inadvertently. But do see how he gets on, of course.
Hello and welcome! You are doing such a wonderful thing, giving this lovely boy a good home. You've had great advice from the others - I just wanted to add that with my lovely Poppy, who is a complete softy but very greedy, I never ever try to take food away from her. If I need to take something from her (if she picks up something off the ground for instance) I swap it for a treat.
