Food Agression in our 3 month old Rottie. Any advice appreciated.

[domez]

Hello from Greece!

My partner and I have a 3 month old Rottie boy named Igor. He is a very sweet dog and we have fallen head over heals in love with him.

However we have noticed some behaviours that we know need to be altered and was hoping we could take some advice from you kind people.

He has has no formal trainng in a school hower a friend of ours is a dog trainer and has advised us the best methods for posotive training. Rewarding the good behaviour and discipling the bad not with violence but with patience, and consistatce. He sits and lays down on command and is learning to stay. however he has selective hearing and doesnt obey when we tell him to leave something. We know he is still very young but any techniques or tips on how to get him to leave something alone when we ask would be helpful. When ever he does leave something on command he gets a small treat or an exchnage for a toy so he knows if he does what we ask he is rewarded.

My main concern is food aggression. After having him a month he was chewing on a bone outside that he found, we where about to take him out for a walk so my boyfriend crouched beside him to put his lead on but Igor got agreesive, snarling and growling, he stifened up and was grabbing at his bone, he was protecting it... A month on and this behaviour has become a problem and I am afraid that if it is not resolved before to long we will have an even bigger problem on our hands.

Just 2 days ago he bit me. he had empited the rubbish bin all over the patio (bugger) so i was clearing away the rubbish, he was sniffing around and i noticed him sniffing some salad. He wasnt interested in eating it. Anyway he had some tissue by his foot so whilst he was sniffing the salad i bent down to pick up the tissue... with no warning from him he bit me. I was talkiing to him so he knew i was next to him so it was not out of fear. It hurt and drew blood so immediately i withdrew from him. I didnt punish him stiaght away as I should have done but I was in total shock, by time i had cleaned my cut the time had passed and it was too late to really punish him I dont think he would have understood what it was for.

Since this happened i have been feeding him by hand. He needs to realise I am the provider and im not going to take away his food. Can any one recomend any other advice on preventing aggresion with food or valued items such as bones. If he has a bone I can't walk pst him with out him getting over protective and snarling.

Hes only a baby but I really want to show him that he has no reason to be protective of his food, he has regular supply so I just dont understand why he has become so protective.

[jayneliz]

Puppy biting and resource guarding are topics covered extensively in previous posts. Please search the forums for more information.

It would behoove you and your puppy to get enrolled "kindergarten". Google NILIF. (There's a good article on the Rottweiler Chronicle website.)

Once you've searched the forums and read the previous posts, I'd be happy to address any questions you have.

[domez]

Thank you very much! We have read the NILIF and will look up the rottweiller chronicle. We already practice allot of what was aid in the article but we didnt know about the demanding attention making him believe he was top dog. This is very useful info. Thanks again. Will research a bit more and post later.