As i have said Storm is suppossed to be food toy agressive etc , I have had no problems with his food i can if i want put my hand in his bowl and he does not react , this is not something i do to tease him its just so he is comfortable with me around when he is eating. He will give up most things by offering him a treat , i just wondered if i go to take something off him and he growls what would you do in that position?

The only time he has growled was the first day he pinched the treats and Mel went to take them off him , she backed off and he won :( I gave him a treat and took the bag off him no problem , but i just wondered if he tried it with me should i take it regardless or still use the method that works ie a treat? I dont want to challenge him in that way as we all know if he didnt want to give me it he wouldnt have to i couldnt make him give it up i just wondered if i am doing the right thing by bribing him? lol

I was annoyed with my ex the other day Storm took a wee bit of a chew into the livingroom and i said to him oh no not in here before i could do anything my ex opened Storms mouth and took the piece of chew off him , Storm did not react at all but it made me wonder if he had what could have happenned?

Fiona xx

Fiona, first of all, don't tease him by putting your hand in his bowl. It is a good idea to be around them when they eat, but by putting your hand in his bowl you might actually even encourage food aggression as he might eventually see it as a threat. What you can do though is to add more food or even a special treat to his bowl whilst he is eating. This way he will know that you approaching means more food or even a treat! (This is the best way to prevent and treat food aggression).

If a dog, and particularly a big one like a pyr, growls as you, take it seriously and don't challenge him - you are not going to win! So your daughter did the right thing by backing off when he growled at her!

Just keep practicing exchanging things for a treat in "peaceful" situations! You need to prevent/treat the underlying issue to which the growling is only a symptom! By telling him off when he growls you might only teach him that growling does not work as an effective warning with humans, so he might eventually attack without warning! So yes, you are doing the perfectly right thing by bribing him...! :)

Vera

I did'nt explain the hand in bowl thing very well Vera sorry i meant i have put in more food when he is eating i have only done it a couple of times as he has had no rection at all i didnt mean i was just sticking my hand in his bowl , how it came about was Storm gave me a warning growl one day when i went to pick something off the floor which i dropped beside his bowl and i didnt want him to think i was trying to take his food off him so i put some pieces of chicken in with his dinner and he was fine with that so i have did that a few times just so he knows hands near bowls mean goodies :lol: :lol:

As for the bribery it seems to make sense to me and Storm seems happy with it , it is all just learning experiences i suppose , when Storm growled at Akira over the chew that day i was speaking to the behaviourist at the club he is starting tonight and he said i should have taken the chew off Storm as it is my chew not Storms but i dont agree with that at all , maybe i am wrong im certainly not a behaviourist but i didnt see the point in trying to challenge Storm when he had just told Akira off about the chew , i think if i had tried to take it he would have told me off too and i want to avoid that at all costs , i know the behaviourist said Storm had won but why shouldnt he in that situation?

I just want to have happy doggies , and i am still learning about Storm but i know with Akira if she decides im not having something i still have to bribe her sometimes not often as 9 times out of ten when she is asked to leave something she will but that one time she doesnt , but to me it makes more sense to bribe her than confront her , her jaws are a lot stronget then my hands , and i am quite attatched to my fingers :lol: :lol: :lol:

Fiona xx

I just let Troy and Dylan sort it out between themselves with things like that. The only thing that Troy is NOT allowed to do is take chews/bones off of Dylan whilst he is chewing it. But once Dylan leaves the chew, Troy can (and will) go and pinch it. He is also allowed to tell Dylan off for trying to take his - this only happened a couple of times when we first got them (and he really had a go at Dylan)... and Dylan now stays well clear. They have set the rules and stick to them. That's fine by me as long as they are both happy with it.

Whereas we don't have a problem taking anything off either of them!

The same applies to Akira and Storm as did to Akira and Taz: don't interfere unless either of them need vet treatment or one of them is unhappy about things! Leave them to it, let them growl at each other and sort things out between themselves! Growling is not a bad thing, it is a warning and other dogs understand it and react accordingly. It is only us humans that always seem to think that we can ignore it or even tell them off for it!

Vera

Edited:

That's how you get bitten!!! And then the dog gets the blame for it, eventhough he has given a clear warning!

I think you are doing the right thing Fiona.

I have it the other way round here - Hun is the growler and Izzy always gives in - although on occasion she will try and sit on her :D I first of all thought it was a dominance thing, Izzy trying to mount her but Iwas wrong, if Hun pinches anything that is Izzy's is will winge a bit and then follow her around and try to back her into a corner and then plonks her bum on her :ph43r:

I can luckily take anything off of Izzy and although sometimes she looks at me as if to say oh MUm please..... if its dangerous I persist, if its just a chair or sofa or something I let her get on with it. :P

Seriously, giving a treat in exchange I think is a good thing. It helps where the situation could get out of hand. He/she knows then who is the boss.

Personally I think Izzy is the boss in our house, what Izzy wants Izzy gets. :D and my OH says that with eyes like hers he would give her the world <_<

Well i think i am officially being a bit of a wuss with chews and stuff , i still have not given Akira and Storm a chew in the same room unless madam is in her crate , but i have been slowly building up to giving them treats together starting off with squeezy cheese ( a favorite training treat of them both lol ) with them both sitting in front of me and they will both lick the tube and each others faces without as much as a single grumble :D

So next came very small pieces of liver cake they will both sit in front of me and take them nicely while their mouths are very close together obviously theres no crumbs or anything so i decided to try dog biscuits and so far so good i have not progressed to bonio size yet but both the dogs will take a biscuit each and eat it with crumbs dropping onto the floor and they seem to like hoovering up each others crumbs , So my next question is do you think i am being too cautious with them? Considering i was told Storm was food agressive i dont want to push him too far as everything else is going great and they really do get on very well , i would really hate to upset the balance with them or do you think i am just being a bit of a wuss?? ;)

Fiona xx

I have just had Akira and Storm eating off the same pizza box , just a few chips but i am so pleased that there was no grumbling at all and when Akira dropped a chip Storm went to pinch it off the floor but Akira got there first and Storm did'nt even grumble at her then :D

I know it is not that a big deal really but it is for me :D

Fiona xx

Fiona, I think you are doing just fine and continue as you are, slowly and steadily! You are getting excellent results! Well done! :)

Thanks Vera , i am really pleased with the way things are going Storm is really such a sweet dog and so good with Akira i would hate to rock the boat , and i have thought a few times about giving them a chew and leaving them to it but it would be such a shame if that went wrong at this stage.

He is really coming on with his training and he has nice manners now most of the time :D He even left Akiras dinner the other day when she had had enough and he decided he would quite like it , i told him no and he left it with no hesitation so i think we are getting there , most times if i ask him to leave things he will but just like Akira theres the odd time when he is a bit more reluctant but he does not growl at me he just clamps his mouth shut , until i give him something more tasty , i think madam gave him that tip :lol: :lol:

It is lovely to see such big a difference in him since he first came here as a very unhappy boy who hung his head and looked so scared of getting into trouble , now he initiates playtime with Akira sometimes and he is so happy and relaxed even around my grand daughter who he was terrified to go near the first time he saw her , but once he realized that he would not get into trouble he will now go over and have a wee sniff at her and he even gave her the most gentle kiss on the cheek last time she was here , a big change from having to bribe him with squeezy cheese to go anywhere near her :D

He has brought so much into all our lives i just want to make sure he is happy and knows he is loved here and that nobody will ever hurt him again and i suppose eating chews in the same room is probably not that important really as long as they are happy dogs :D

Fiona xx