Quote:
Originally Posted by Weily4Life  I stumbled upon the article Managing Fear Agression here is an exerpt that might be helpful with the touching: (I posted the link at the end, the article has some other good points, as well as suggested reading.
[i]Desensitize your dog to pats on the top of the head and shoulders. As you feed, pet the top of his head, the top of his shoulders. At first begin feeding before you touch, then simultaneously feed and pat, then pat first. MANAGING FEAR AGGRESSION |
Weily,
I guess the question then arises...is this dog demonstrating guarding or fear aggression...I would think (if this is guarding) her attempting to continue petting this dog while he eats would make it worse...I was thinking about suggesting to her that she carry around treats and when the dog starts to react to her approach, toss it a high value treat and then walk off so that the dog starts associating her approach with treats (counter-conditioning)..but I'm not a behavioralist or trainer, I "just" foster dogs and have some of my own...seems like it MIGHT be a good approach...but trying to do this over the net is really hard.
I was in contact with a woman who had adopted a gsd from a shelter in Mass...they LOVED the dog but it was hugely reactive to other dogs it met...course what are the options...fear aggressive, friendly but lacking meet and greet skills, leash aggressive, dog aggressive. She took it to a behavioralist and turns out the dog is enormously dog aggressive...guessing on what motivated this dog and taking the wrong approach could have had tragic consequences.
I'm really hoping (if the OP does decide to get this dog back from the shelter because right now it appears this dog is still in the shelter) that she does have it evaluated so that she can KNOW what the best course of action is.
We've given her thoughts on what this MIGHT be...hopefully she'll take that advice and make an informed decision on how to proceed.