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Originally Posted by warviper  ...I was reaching down to get the collar when he started snarlling at me, I calmly did not remove my hand from the neck area and waited for him to calm down. He did not stop growling so I reached down to remove the bone that he was chewing on when he turned and snapped at me. I was shocked because I sit with him when he feeds and regulary take my hand in and out of his bowl, I will also remove bowl and return just to see if he will show agression. |
Your puppy is resource guarding. Resource guarding is a lack of trust that items he deems valuable are safe around you. MOST IMPORTANTLY, you are actually teaching him that they AREN'T, by sticking your hands in and out of his bowl and by taking it away during mealtime. This is a bonafide way to teach a dog to do exactly what your puppy did.
Don't antagonize him by bothering him while he eats, leave him to eat in peace. If anything, you should be dropping a tasty tidbit into his bowl while he's eating, then he'd think it was great you were there.
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Originally Posted by warviper Today a freind gave him a pig ear as a treat and i reached down to pet him when he started to growl again I reached down to remove ear when he then latched onto my arm and did not let gow for about 10 seconds I repeated same exercise that I did on sunday by putting item infront of him but not letting him touch it. |
Again, this exercise is worse than useless - you are antagonizing him. He's responding in precisely the way you are asking him to. Stop it.
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Originally Posted by warviper any advice would be helpfull love my dog but I can never allow him to bit any othe people. |
A bone and a pig ear are very high value items to a dog. You need to either put him in a crate to enjoy them in peace, or stop harassing him when he is loose in the house with those things.
Also, teach him the "trade it" game. The idea is for him to learn that when you take something from him, he gets something better in trade for it. Start with items that aren't so important to him....a toy is good. Ask him for the toy using a command word "out" or "give" or "let go" (whatever command you want to use, but stick with the one you choose), and offer him a yummy treat or another toy. It needs to be something he'll want bad enough to drop what he's got. When he drops what he's got to take what you've offered, praise him to the heavens for being such a good boy. Practice that every day with him, and between the trade game and ceasing to antagonize him by bothering him while eating, hopefully you'll be able to undo the damage and he'll learn to feel his "stuff" is safe around you.
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Originally Posted by warviper P.S. Im a big dude and I am fine. |
LOL, glad to hear it. Remember, it's the brains that raise a puppy to be a good dog, not the brawn!
