help please

[saddenedbyevents]

We have had a large dog for 4 years with no problems.
Today dd tried to stop him from licking a plate and he snapped at her. He didnt break the skin and there is no swelling but she says it hurts.
I may need to take her to gp tomorrow but what do I do re our dog?
He has never snapped before.
He immediately left her and curled up in his space.
He could have really hurt her but didn't.
I need advice on what we do next.
I feel as though I have let him down.

Can you explain what happened in more detail? How exactly did she stop him licking the plate?

In any case as a priority you need to step up his training so he knows not to lick plates/grab food without intervention from your daughter.

She grabbed his collar to pull him off. It was a silly thing to do and we have had many conversations with our dc about how they need to be around him.

He snapped at her once and ran off, curled himself into a ball and has been subdued since.

Clearly training needs to be stepped up. I guess my immediate concern for him is that medical intervention may result in him having to be pts.
For what its worth I think that would be an overreaction, and would much rather go down the training route.

I will go back to the charity we rescued him from and ask for input from them.

Unfortunately dogs appear to need to be in control at all times and not allowed a momentary lapse. If it had been prolongued in any way I would be very concerned.

All dogs will demonstrate a degree of agression when it comes to food. Do you have rules about feeding him, do you eat as a family first?

Training definiteley, reinforced always. Work on the "wiat" command, put some food in front of him but he's not allowed to get it until you give the command. And strict guidance and supervision of the young ones around the dog.

"wait" command....

No need for the family to eat first. Strict rules with the kids to leave him alone around food. Adults to intervene if he has something he shouldn't. Items to be swapped for something of higher value.

Yep we do that. He eats after us and will normally allow us to take his food away while he is eating. We will be doing more of this.

Thank you for replying, hopefully this will all be ok.

Pts would be a gross overreaction and there is no reason at all why that needs to happen. Your dog felt manhandled and did a warning snap to get her off him, no intention to hurt DD.

If he was trained not to grab at food plates etc and had a leave it command in place there would be no need for confrontational physical intervention to move him. It's a good example of trigger stacking - possible he'd be fine having his collar grabbed if no food was around but the combination of the two put him over threshold.

An APDT trainer would be able to come to the house and help you put some positive reinforcement training in place.

Btw the order in which you eat is completely irrelevant. You do not need to eat before him or take food away for the sake of it. Removing food is likely to encourage any guarding behaviour.

Please do not take anything away from him unless you are swapping it for something better, this will create a positive association with having things removed, and show him that there is no need to hang onto what he has, as giving it up gets him something even better. It is also useful to drop really tasty treats into his food bowl while he is eating, so he comes to associate hands around him when eating as a very good thing.

Simply removing things from him that he is enjoying to prove that you can will encourage him to guard.

There is an advice sheet on it here:
www.apdt.co.uk/dog-owners/puppy-dog-training-tips

DO NOT take his food away from him, all this will do his prove to him that humans will take his food away and make him MORE likely to want to protect it.

I stuck my hand I. His bowl when he was a puppy.

I totally agree never ever ever ever take food away from a dog (that could have cased the anxiety your dog showed by air snapping at your dd in a similar situation).

Your dog does not need to be pts, Contact a n APDT trainer who will explain simple easy and fool proof ways to stop this from happening again

Website here

We have always put it back with something extra and nice in it.
Yes we will be teaching a command for leaving things. Clearly what we have been doing is not ideal.
Thanks.

If this is unusual behaviour, i.e. normally your DD can pull him off a plate by his collar, then your first port of call should be the vets. Dogs can react in unpredictable ways when in pain, so you first need to eliminate the possibility of pain.

If this was caused by your DD grabing him by the collar I think you need to work both with the DCs and the dog. The DCs should be supervised around the dog and should know not to disturb a dog with food even if the dog is doing something wrong - it is always better to bring the matter to your attention and let you deal with the naughty dog. Also it's worth getting the DCs involved with training the dog with positive reinforcement methods. The dog would benefit from coming to see the DCs as people who dispense treats for the right behaviour.

As for the dog you should work more on his 'leave it' command but in an emergency never put your hands on the dog to physically pull him away from something he wants, instead offer a higher value treat so that he drops the plate for your treat. Do you go to training classes? They are a very good idea with dogs of all ages. They can teach how to teach the dog a 'leave it' command which you can then use to get the dog to leave food, toys, chews, etc.