growling at feeding

[hermykne]

well reuben is now 10mths.
and fed twice daily.
he is fed by all members of the family and has to sit, wait , dish is put down and then told to come . today youngest son went to him whilst he was eating and petted him and he growled.
what do you think?
he did this before when my daughter took his bowl away at the end of feeding and there might have been one kibble still in it, so we did handful feeding for 2 wks with the same mantra, sit, stay and come and then took the bowl away.

opinions please
husband has gone nuts with the dog and i wont say what garden tool he grabbed! ( it was a flat headed one, no spears or shears)

what do you advise, much appreciated.

hes a good pup otherwise, still a bit jumpy but understands the basic commands.
and we are only back from hols 6 days, where he was 10 days in kkennels.

Originally Posted by hermykne

well reuben is now 10mths.
and fed twice daily.
he is fed by all members of the family and has to sit, wait , dish is put down and then told to come . today youngest son went to him whilst he was eating and petted him and he growled.
what do you think?

Me personally I would not have the children in the feeding area and pettting Him.
Dogs are naturally protective of their food and as its you his leader who feeds him and gives thhe commands he obviously knows the difference.
Now a child giving a treat is a different matter if done correctly.

he did this before when my daughter took his bowl away at the end of feeding and there might have been one kibble still in it, so we did handful feeding for 2 wks with the same mantra, sit, stay and come and then took the bowl away.

Again did/does your Daughter feed him?

opinions please
husband has gone nuts with the dog and i wont say what garden tool he grabbed! ( it was a flat headed one, no spears or shears)

what do you advise, much appreciated.

Dont allow your children in the feeding area
Allow them to feed treats but properly

hes a good pup otherwise, still a bit jumpy but understands the basic commands.
and we are only back from hols 6 days, where he was 10 days in kkennels.

Linda

[ClaireandDaisy]

I`m not really surprised. Why are you all making such a big issue of food? If you messed a child about like this you`d have a food phobic on your hands. Just plonk the food down and leave the dog alone!
That`s what we`ve always done and we`ve never had any food issues. Mind you, we also feed the dog nice things by hand and occasionally plonk goodies into their dishes.
The dog needs to see you as a source of good stuff, not a competitor.

[hermykne]

hi linda
thanks for your contribution, they children are 8 and 7, and we were advsed by breeder and other dog owners of type, to not allow the dog associate food with one person, so as he knows he is bottom of pecking order. ie dog thinks "well they all fed me so i better respond to commands" and he does,

it was husband who was actually feeding him this evening, when younger child came upon them and petted the dog .

i like the idea of us all feeding him and thus he sees no one "hand that feeds him", when the children do it they are supervised by us, ie they put the dish on the ground and give the command to come. thus reinforcing the same action should we be on the beach with the dog and the kids can tell him to sit stay fetch come etc etc.

i am more interested on peoples comments regarding growling, as you say they are protective just how protective should they be and allowed to be; and are dogs more so because of cetain conditions or because of the feeding technique etc etc.

[hermykne]

Originally Posted by ClaireandDaisy

I`m not really surprised. Why are you all making such a big issue of food? If you messed a child about like this you`d have a food phobic on your hands. Just plonk the food down and leave the dog alone!
That`s what we`ve always done and we`ve never had any food issues. Mind you, we also feed the dog nice things by hand and occasionally plonk goodies into their dishes.
The dog needs to see you as a source of good stuff, not a competitor.

C&D , i am not making a big iissue about food, my son just happened to pass him when he was eating and petted him and he growled.
the idea of handing feeding him i read about on this site and another, and that was to reinforce who is the feeder and that his bowl is not his but the feeders. i have read about that in some books too. all to do with dominance.

he is a pup, and my big issue would be that he grows into a calm dog who doesnt mind someone pettng him, by chance/accident or in the wrong as it maybe be when the dog has food of some sort.

the kids regularly do a bit of training with him and he has to sit before he can come inside and they give him a treat of their hands. so as i said before
i am interested in the growling aspect ot this. is it commmon and should a dog never growl whilst feeding or that instinct totally naturally (btw I dont have have a problem with that if it is, i like my food! ; )

[kita]

Originally Posted by hermykne

i have read about that in some books too. all to do with dominance.

That sort of thinking was based on flawed studies of captive wolf packs. Even then it is not correct that the 'top dog/alpha' eats first, no wolf automatically eats first. In reality any wolf grabs any piece of meat that it can and any other wolf will pinch it given half a chance, the only exception being very young pups who are allowed to take food off any wolf.

I was always taught from a very young age to leave a dog alone when it was eating.

If your son had wanted to pet him he should have called the dog away from the food first. The same thing when you/your children pick up the dogs bowl after he has finished feeding - call the dog away from the bowl before picking it up.

NEVER punish a dog for growling, if you do you could end up with a dog who will just bite rather than giving the warning growl.

It is also possible that this may have been caused by the way they fed them in the kennels, maybe they tried to take his food away before he had finished.

I would tend to overlook this - it is possible it is just a one off and just him settling back into your routine.

Sue

[hermykne]

sue
thanks for that
my son has a tendency to do things with out thinking, as little boys do, so his petting the dog was just a casual oh i ll pet but not thinnking oh he is eating i hsuld leave him alone.
i
thanks

[Bonniesmummy]

I think Sue made a good point. I can see your reasoning for the way you are doing it, esp with young kids around but I too am of the belief that they should be left alone when eating.... but of course thats just my opinion

I would ignore the growl too and carryon as normal, like sue said it could be to do with kennels rather than something your son did. Hope it doesnt happen again.... keep us posted

[Caryll]

This situation has been the cause of several arguments on here fairly recently. I, for one, will not allow any dog of mine to growl at any of the family other than in play or pain. If they growl otherwise, they get told off.

With food, I have always, from day one near enough, been able to take food away, and so have any of my family. I do this by gently and quietly telling the dog to leave & picking up the bowl. It is then put straight back down after some quiet praise - that way the dog knows it will always get its food back.

The reason I do this is because there could be a situation where one of the family (even your children) might have to take some food away, and they should be able to do so without any 'resource guarding' as it has been called.

I know others vehemently disagree with this.

Of course, it could be that your dog is still settling down after being in kennels and is just a bit grumpy!

[Zak]

I always make a point of stroking Zak from time to time while he is eating his dinner, I also take his food away and give it him straight back from time to time just to make sure he doesnt have any issue with me doing it.