Puppy growled and snapped at DS how do I stop it from happening again

[aliciaflorrick]

We have 5.5 month chow/lab cross puppy, absolutely lovely, generally very calm, just the odd bout of madness during the day.

This evening the DCs and I were in the dining room and puppy was on the settee chewing on a chew I'd given him earlier in the day that he'd waited until now to eat. He'd just stolen a croissant on the table and he must have been aware that we were looking at an empty box and then looking at him. DS2(7) walked over to him, said his name and went to pat him on the head. Pup obviously thought he was going for the chew and growled then snapped.

I then went up to the puppy told him to leave it, took the chew off him without any problems and gave it back to him and told him he was a good boy. I've done this a couple of times since without any problems. I didn't think I could tell him off because actually he didn't growl at me so he would be confused.

Was this the right course of action or what should we do to make sure that we don't have a pup who guards his things?

Don't know if it's relevant or not, but he's just started cocking his leg today so maybe he's having a burst of hormones.

[minimuu]

Very common behaviour and not at all to do with hormones or your dog being aggressive. Below is a fact sheet on food and bone guarding.

I would do the following to ensure that your dog is happy with being approached while eating or having a chew.

If your dog is happy for you to approach his food or bones when eating, make him even happier, by adding to that food some higher value food like liver. Do this regularly.
Don?t give him things that you later want to take off him. If you do have to remove a bone and you are not confident of your dog?s reaction, call him into another room away from the bone. Bones and chews above all things are more likely to bring about food guarding behaviour because they are long lasting resources.

When my dogs are eating bones, I go to them and give them another bone. When my dogs are eating, I add food to their bowls.

You could go as far as hand feeding your dog can to help make it understand that human hands PROVIDE food, not take it away. I often use my dog?s daily food for training purposes and this means I may feed my dog from my hand 100 times a day (tiny portions). They like my hands. Other people do the same ? they like other peoples hands.

If you dog is the sort of dog who will have a bone, chew it, then leave it, but guard it from a distance, then only feed him bones when he is hungry enough to eat them, of the type that he can actually totally consume. Or give them in another room and leave him to it.

If ever your dog growls when eating or at any other time, remember he is only saying, ?please don?t take my bone? or ?please stop doing that?. If I said to you, please don?t take my chocolate would you scruff me or pin me to the floor??? If you did do that, do you think that would benefit our relationship? Do you think that it would make me respect you more???

If a dog growls and you leave him alone then he learns that growling is all he needs to do. Growling is not aggression, it is designed to prevent aggression. It may be undesirable, but it is not aggressive in itself. If you never remove food from your dog he may learn that even growling is not necessary.

If a dog learns that you always provide food and more food or bones and more bones then he is unlikely to guard his food at all.

If you have confirmed food guarder and do not feel confident to try any of the above, then just feed your dog in another room, where he will not be disturbed.

At least this way, the food guarding behaviour is not likely to deteriorate.
If your dog regularly guards things or is over protective of his food, toys or other items, and you don?t feel that anything in this document can help, then GET HELP from someone and soon. Unwanted behaviours rarely just ?go away? of their own accord, but they are, very often, very easy to resolve once proper understanding is brought to the situation.

[aliciaflorrick]

Thanks, minimuu it seems that I'm actually doing a lot of the stuff above already, I often add food to his bowl when he is eating as he gets the scrapings from the plates and he is often eating when I'm tidying up.

I feed him from my hands loads of times during the day because obviously we're training him so he is rewarded. DCs give him rewards as well.

Tonight was the first time I've taken a chew from him but that's only because he'd growled, generally he takes himself off to eat them, which to be fair he had done when DS approached him. The chews get so manky nobody but the dog wants to touch them anyhow.

He doesn't really guard his food and will often share his bowl with the cats who are having a nose about in there when he's eating and he's fine with this.

I'll put tonight down as a one off, tell the DCs not to approach him when he's got a chew and we'll carry on as we have been doing, which as I said seems to have fallen in with what you've written.