Dominace/food aggression

[KimandAutumn]

Autumn has a very dominant personality; not sure if its aggressive but most certainly dominant. We are always on our toes with her unable to let up for a second. From a young age we have practiced NILF with her. No couch priviledges, she doesn't sleep with us, she must work for everything she wants including food, water, walk, toys, and bathroom. We work everyday with her with some form of training or obedience work.

Let me start at the begining...about 8 months ago I came home with some free samples of some dehydrated dog food. I made a bowl up and offered a bit to Blaze. She'll never say no to anything then to Autumn who, over time, has gotten quite picky with food. I sat down on the floor with the bowl in hand and let her sniff at it. She's not to sure about thing. Cat walks in, casually walks over to see what we are doing. He's about to take a quick sniff of things and keep moving like he normally does. I see Autumn's top lip curl, no growl nothing, just the curl then BAM attacks the cat. He didn't suffer any damage, he was quick but a bit wet from her lips. I blamed myself. Why did I let him come near us? Why did I let this happen?

Over this time her behaviour when someone comes to our door is out of control. We don't have many people over but when the doorbell goes she goes insane. She will lunge at the living room window, hit her head a few times. Trying to claim personal space at the door is extremely hard because she's so big she bullies her way in and she's not aggressive to people and never shown aggressive signs to people either. Last night for Halloween, we kept a collar and leash on her and by the end of the night my hands hurt from her pulling and fighting on leash. I would have to physically put her in a sit/down. By physical I mean I had to guide her bum down with my hand because she was so intense verbal commands or distractions weren't working.

Food aggression...again. Twice she's attacked Blaze in the last week. Last night she drew blood on Blaze. Thankfully, these were only superficial wounds on her ear and throat area. This is never acceptable but poor Blaze. She's old and can't defend herself well. First time it happened about 5 days ago: I have an elevated feeder for Autumn with a food/water bowl. For Blaze I had a small stand that I put her food bowl on. These are about 8 feet apart. Blaze is always done first then walks over to get a drink of water and then to her pillow in the living room. Something set Autumn off about Blaze drinking and she went after her. Lasted seconds then broke up on its own.

Last night both dogs were on their pillow having their nighttime cookie because they are both night pukers if their stomach is empty. Blaze was cleaning up her crumbs and Autumn walked over and decided those crumbs were hers and went after Blaze again. This time it lasted longer and hubby went over grabbed Autumn's back legs and pulled her away, grabbed her collar walked her up to her crate and put her inside for a time out. We checked Blaze over and couldn't see anything until this morning and we saw the dried blood on her ear and throat.

For breakfast this morning I got both bowls ready while they were out peeing. Both dogs come in. Autumn gets put in a down/stay on her pillow in the living room. Blaze is in a stay in the kitchen where I give her her bowl and she finishes eating and drinking and taken to the living room to her pillow. Autumn gets called into the kitchen and is allowed to eat.

What else can I do? I'm at a loss... I feel like a failure.

[TeriM]

I know how you are feeling :sad:. We had some issues with Riley a few months ago and have been working very hard to fix them. It is frustrating when we seem to do everything we are supposed to and then still end up with a problem dog. The good news is that Riley is very improved and I am sure you can make progress with Autumn.

Check out this http://www.amrottclub.org/rrrr.htm. It is called Radical Regime for Recalcitrant Rovers and is basically a stepped up version of NILF.

I would recommend keeping a leash on Autumn at all times so she can easily be corrected. I would also move to feeding her only in her crate. Everytime she is successful in bullying Blaze (or the cat) gives her more likelihood to continue with the behaviour. Eliminate the opportunity for the behaviour to happen for now and as she improves you can go back to supervised eating etc. I personally always feed my dogs in seperate rooms and have since day one .

I would also recommend you try a prong collar. I know tons of people are very opposed to them and think they are a torture device. I have a big dog with attitude and basically he can run right over top of me so we needed the prong and it has been great. It is actually much more humane then a basic choke (yes, I tried both on my leg and the prong/pinch was much better). Use the prong in your basic obedience sessions and to enforce that you mean business when around the door etc. Here is a great article on the use on them http://www.flyingdogpress.com/prong.html.

Good luck .

[hazelrunpack]

You're not a failure... Some dogs just have a penchant for being strawbosses.

I agree with TeriM...eliminate the situations that you know lead to trouble. We feed our dogs in shifts/separate rooms to keep the peace, having found out that some of them treat all food as their own and some of the others object to that line of thinking.

Are Blaze and Autumn having any other conflicts, or just the spats over food? If it's just the food, you're ahead of the game because you can control feeding times pretty easily...just be careful of the occasional dropped item on the floor if both dogs, or Autumn and the kitty, are in the room.

[KimandAutumn]

So far all incidences have been related to food only. Even last night after the attack Autumn was more than happy to cuddle up next to Blaze at bedtime like nothing happened.

[kandy]

One thing I noted - the physical punishment and being put in the crate. During the other instances of Autumn attacking, was she also punished? Dogs learn by association, so if Autumn is being punished every time Blaze and/or the cat & food are around - then she could associate them being in the vicinity of her food as something to be feared. Autumn likely isn't associating HER OWN behavior with the discipline but assuming since each time Blaze and/or the cat are around her food she gets punished, its better to keep the others away. If you want Autumn to continue to see her crate as a good place, don't ever use it for disciplinary purposes. Same with a prong collar, anything that causes a dog pain or discomfort is likely to be associated with whatever is going on at that precise moment - whether that be kids at the door or another dog in the room, etc. Kids ring the doorbell, dog experiences pain = dog associates the kids at the door with her pain.

I would agree that the food gaurding is easily remedied by seperating the animals when food is involved. The dog going nuts at the door is also fixable, you just have to change her associations. Start by having someone ring the bell, head towards the door - but if the dog is going ballistic, then turn away and go into the other room. The bell rings again, you go to the door, if the dog barks, you turn away and go into the other room. Do that enough and the dog will get the message that if she barks, the door doesn't open. If the bell rings and she doesn't bark, praise like crazy and open the door.

[BenMax]

Originally Posted by kandy

One thing I noted - the physical punishment and being put in the crate. During the other instances of Autumn attacking, was she also punished? Dogs learn by association, so if Autumn is being punished every time Blaze and/or the cat & food are around - then she could associate them being in the vicinity of her food as something to be feared. Autumn likely isn't associating HER OWN behavior with the discipline but assuming since each time Blaze and/or the cat are around her food she gets punished, its better to keep the others away. If you want Autumn to continue to see her crate as a good place, don't ever use it for disciplinary purposes. Same with a prong collar, anything that causes a dog pain or discomfort is likely to be associated with whatever is going on at that precise moment - whether that be kids at the door or another dog in the room, etc. Kids ring the doorbell, dog experiences pain = dog associates the kids at the door with her pain.

I would agree that the food gaurding is easily remedied by seperating the animals when food is involved. The dog going nuts at the door is also fixable, you just have to change her associations. Start by having someone ring the bell, head towards the door - but if the dog is going ballistic, then turn away and go into the other room. The bell rings again, you go to the door, if the dog barks, you turn away and go into the other room. Do that enough and the dog will get the message that if she barks, the door doesn't open. If the bell rings and she doesn't bark, praise like crazy and open the door.

Very good points here. Is this food aggression only aimed at animals? How about humans? Please let me know.