It's me again! I am very concerned about Rolo's guarding as I have mentioned on more than one occasion. I have purchased a clicker and with the use of that am hoping to eeduce if not eliminate his guarding. The clicker is on it's way and should be arriving any day now. What do i do in the mean time or do I do nothing? Issue 1: My husband, who is the first person Rolo will take a toy to, gets seriously growled at. Today I popped him in his crate left the house and hubby was about 2 mins behind me. Before leaving he went up to the crate to give Rolo a stroke through the bars and he growled (no treats no kibble nothing in there of any value) hubby got down on his knees to say come on its ok and he snarled at him. Issue 2: Rolo has a rawhide chew bone he can spend hours chewing it I can take it out of his mouth if I wanted to the kids also could but don't but my husband can't go near him when he's chewing it. We leave him totally alone when he has a high value bone but the rawhide ones take him ages to chew. Please help. Any advice gratefully received.
Re: Please help I know this must be stressful.... First of all, stop giving him any chew or food items that can't be totally consumed in a short time. In Rolo's case I'd make that consumed totally in 5 mins or less. No rawhide chews. No long lasting bones. The growling at your husband while in the crate - that is a hard one to give advice on without seeing things in action. Your husband is sure it was a snarl? - lips drawn back from front teeth and nose wrinkled? You do not need to wait for a clicker to start your resource guarding training A clicker is just a thing that makes a sound. While you are waiting for the clicker use a different sound instead, like the word 'yes' or 'good' - something short and one syllable. Charge up the word briefly by saying the word, then giving a treat. Repeat this 10 times. Then you're good to go, using the word as a clicker substitute.
Re: Please help To be frank, I think this is too delicate a thing to risk home remedy from websites and books. Like Oberon says, this isn't an easy thing to get advice on from a distance, without assessing things up close and personal. I think there are perhaps two/three different things going on there, space guarding the crate, resource guarding of high value foods, and even object guarding too if he ever does this with toys too. It's curious that he reacts differently to you and your husband, there might be a clue there somewhere and something is different relationship he was with each of you. Maybe the root fix isn't to address the guarding itself but to examine and understand the underlying differences in how he perceives the hubby? My advise would be that you MUST hire a qualified behaviorist to work this through with you in your home environment.
Re: Please help I do agree with both the previous answers - the clicker in itself is not going to help you, you still have to work out what you are going to do and whatever that is can be done with a marker word. I also think getting someone in to help and observe what is happening is a good idea. Did you say there was someone from your puppy school that might help, or was that someone else?
Re: Please help Yes the trainer does one to one sessions. She is big on dominance tho. Always talks about not letting your dog sit in a doorway as that is him owning the room. I will call her in and arrange for her to see Rolo whilst my hubby is home.
Re: Please help If the trainer is big on dominance, I would personally look for a different trainer as that might hinder you more?? Her methods may not be the way you want to do it.
Re: Please help That was exactly my thought that is why I brought it up. Not sure if it is totally unrelated or not but all this with Rolo growling at my husband happened this morning in the crate when I returned I took Rolo for a 20 minute walk popped him in his crate whilst I went to bed for a few hours. Took him out for a 40 minute off lead walk got back gave him his lunch which was about 45 minutes late he has eaten it all and then just 15 minutes later been sick, he's only been sick a couple of times before, once after his meal and it all came back up as kibble and another when he mist have caught a bug. This time even tho he has only just eaten his lunch it's all like poop! Sorry for how graphic I am being just unsure of why he's like this. Maybe he was feeling under the weather when he growled at my husband (I'm not excusing the behaviour just trying to make sense of it)
Re: Please help I wouldn't read too much into the food being brought back up. It may or may not be anything - dogs do regurgitate on occasion to have a "second go" at their food. There's no need to even think you have to "excuse" his behaviour. It's just a behaviour, that's all; one that is undesirable to you. I think a behaviourist will be able to help you, but I absolutely wouldn't go to anyone who used dominance as a method of training your dog, in any type of training. Try to find one who relies only on positive methods i everything they do. Good luck, it must be very worrying, but I'm sure it will be sorted with the right help. He's only a young boy, so just needs pointing in the right direction x
Re: Please help Dominance is very old hat. He's a puppy for heavens sake! I used to have a cat that sat in the doorway. Was she trying to own the room? Nope. The central heating pipe ran under the doorway. Try not to be too concerned. While you are right to be concerned by Rolo growling, don't loose sight of the fact that he is just a pup and may be trying it on.
Re: Please help Yeah that's what I'm preparing now. He has been sleeping since about 2pm got out of his bed and now has tons of energy running around like a raving looney. Bless him x hope the chicken and rice will stay down and help settle his tum.
Re: Please help My two both had a bit of a poorly tummy a few days ago. It may have been down to teething, it may have been down to eating goat poo. Who knows? But chicken and rice for a day and a half cleared it up nicely. Hope Rolo feels better soon
Re: Please help Thank you. The veterinary nurse asked me has he been eating anything disgusting? Erm yes everything he eats other than what he is fed is disgusting! Poo, vomit, anything he finds on the river bank the list goes on and on and on! She didn't know he was a lab so can't blame her for asking such a silly question! Snowbunny you do you tube videos don't you? I've looked back on some of the threads and can't find any. Would you mind pointing me in the right direction please?
Re: Please help Fiona, that's an incredible amount of snow so early in the Winter.....where do you live? Also, the video is fabulous ..... they certainly were having a great time! What happy puppies!
Re: Please help Lovely video. They're having a great time ... but I hope we don't have that much snow here!
Re: Please help [quote author=Yvonne link=topic=9563.msg138142#msg138142 date=1421707952] Fiona, that's an incredible amount of snow so early in the Winter.....where do you live? Also, the video is fabulous ..... they certainly were having a great time! What happy puppies! [/quote] Ah, thank you Yvonne! I live in Andorra, in a ski resort, so snow is a good thing They absolutely LOVE the snow! We went on another walk last night where we needed snow shoes and they had an absolute blast digging for pine cones in the snow. Just need to be careful they don't get too cold, but that's becoming less of an issue every week that goes by as they get bigger.
