See Stokey's previous post in the thread on CM

Stokey my apologies if I am wrong here but all too often people watch the shows of TV entertainers and hear a lot of nonsense about dogs trying to 'dominate' their owners, then they let this influence how they treat their own dogs and this can have unforeseen consequences.

Growling at your wife doesn't sound good. Maybe he is associating the strokes with when you make him wait for he food and so when you stroke him while he is eating he thinks you are going to take his food away. Good luck

lol.you mean you dont want to use c.m's methods?
his ethos is good but not his!! his techniques are well.......
dont make meal time an issue!! i would do as advised by peeps,but also,is he feed dry kibble? if he is,take some from his daily ration and keep it with you for training throughout the day,scatter feed occasionaly as well,the idea being to make food matter of fact and abundant(sp)(to a certain extent)
either add food to his bowl or LEAVE him alone.but dont take things away from him.
he may of had to fight with his siblings for food in one big bowl rather than being given individual ones,do you know how he was weaned?
im sure he will be fine

I agree and so much damage can be done with good intention. I will leave my little lad to eat his dinner in peace then

I always allow my dogs to eat in peace . Nobody else is allowed in the kitchen while they are eating and I just stand there so there is no stealing going on . Works for me

Glad you've decided to let your dog eat in peace - a lttle grumble when stroking him may not seem so bad, but like has been said, it's a warning & if if the warning is not taken he may go to the next level, this happened to me with my puppy & it took me nearly 5 months to gain her trust around food. Now I just leave her to it and she's fine

I see why you are doing it but think it would be much better to leave him in peace once he's eating. t could well be that it was being startled when your wife knocked the bowl that made him growl. Does she ever feed him as whatever he does with you, he's less likely to link it to your wife if she never joins in.

All I ever do with mine is ask Cava to sit before I put the dish down. Zymi is asked to do a down or something so that Cava has time to get some of his food eaten as Zymi eats faster. Don't believe in stressing them round food.

Mind you Zymi usually goes through his repertoire of HTM moves in an effort to get me to put the food down quicker, who is training who??

God bless you Stokey!! I won't say why but maybe you can guess

2 ideas - firstly was it possible your boy was more worried when the bowl was knocked and so growled as a warning to whatever was "happening" rather than at your wife? not saying this was the case, just putting it as a possibility.

Secondly, I'd let him eat in peace but, every so often, walk past him and drop something extra specially tasty (warm roast chicken, liver, tuna, cheese etc) firstly near to him (say, a couple of feet from him) and then eventually next to and then in his bowl whilst he's eating. Don't stop, keep walking by but tell he's a good boy.

If you do this occasionally (perhaps twice a month) you will find that he comes to lov epeople approaching his food bowl, but can still eat in peace, and it should solve any problem

Wys
x

Hi,

I'd agree with the advice already given. Allow your pup to see that feeding time is a nice time whether you're in or out of the room. If you're not there he can eat in peace and if you are then he can ignore you whilst he eat si the knowledge that his dinner isn't going to disappear.

with mine, they're fed separately with me stadning in the middle of the kitchen. They all eat at different paces and have differnet amounts so if I'm there it stops any potential squabbling.

Now, both myself and my Son can put our hands in any of my dogs' food bowls when they're eating. it's not somethign I encourage with my Son but I've made sure that the dogs are happy for him to do it.

Each and every one of them would argue the point if another dog came near but for us, it's just one of those things that happens daily. It's so routine for them now it's of no consequence. They know that if they allow me to put my hands intheir bowls or touch them (although not taking their food away) they'll get something nice (chicken, liver, etc aka "treaties").

Laura xx