AG is a good food, definately.

NILIF stands for 'nothing in life is free'. I posted a link on it somewhere in the thread.

With growling its difficult, sometimes it can be misread & misunderstood if you punish the growl you can take away the warning. If a dog growled id defuse the situation, id not back off but id not carry on, id change the status quo of the situation to my advantage.

if i had a dog that was doing this id plan my life better however so he wasnt in charge of food/bones etc & id work on this as a separate issue. We are the humans, if we know what gets a negative response, lets change the situation so we dont get that response & continue working on our relationship/trust


now for a different spin on biting

now im not in anyway a "alpha" type person, but if theres one rule i will not put up with is my dogs biting me,Im never usually into physical punishment but if i feel they are trying it on i will give them a smack. they might try it on once & it is once & once only as i will physically tell them off,by this i mean i will quickly go in ,grab their colar & give them a smack or two or three on the nose, i am at the same time "what the bloody(i dont use bloody but other choice words) hell are you doing". i dont pin or alpha roll ,but i do have hold of the dog, i might have two hands on the dogs collar either side of its head, i will not let that do go until its got the message. However thats just me & im confident of my own confidence & ability in getting my message across, at these times im not at all bothered about getting bitten ive never been bitten, because i stop it in its tracks. However you have to know & read your dog & have no fear of the situation/dog. My relationship with the dogs is so positive the rest of the time, this does not spoil it, & as i said with all of mine & johns ive only ever had to do it once.

That's my bed time reading sorted for tonight ;o) Thanks Boxy!! x

Thank you Janie. that is a lovely thing to say and REALLY needed. Muchos Gracias xxxx

Fantastic advice Jackbox, really enjoyed reading your thread,

This is a copy of the email my husband wrote about it all (he's sees things much clearer than me) -

When you try to move him from our bed or the sofa he's normally totally fine. You can give him a little nudge, pick him up etc with no problems. Very occasionally he'll growl when you try to move him. If you continue to try to move him this will turn into a bark and an aggressive bite. Once he has bitten he seems surprised/shocked and goes quite submissive.

Example: Last night we both went upstairs to bed he ran up stairs and jumped on the bed. You came in the room and tried to get him off with a gentle nudge. He growled and then bite you on the arm. Immediately afterwards he got a toy in his mouth, seemed submissive and within a minute got off the bed and lay under the bed.
If he thinks you're trying to take certain items of food away he'll growl. Never does this with chews, rawhide bones.

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Example: He had a knuckle-bone and when I tried to exchange it for some cheese (his favourite) he got very protective of knuckle-bone and started to growl. I sat down at ground level with him and he just walked round with knuckle-bone in his mouth and growled at me every time I offered a piece of cheese.
Can also use the Food Bowl example that Ryan knows about.

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He does not settle down very well in the evenings. He gets 'over-tired' and will be attention seeking. Biting and scratching the coffee table is his usual trick. If we try to stop him doing this he often begins to bite and generally goes in to a bit of a frenzy. Timing him out in the kitchen once or twice generally calms him down and then he'll generally go to sleep.

Basically, there are occassions when he doesn't like not getting his own way. He shows this by growling and biting.

When sleeping he'll follow us round the house (no, not sleep walking!). He'll get up from his sleep and follow us round, lying down on the floor in the room we're in, even if we're continually going from room to room in quick succession e.g. Living room to kitchen to living room to toilet to living room, he'll just get up, follow, lie down and repeat!

Ah, yes. Sorry. So muc to read and take in ;o)

I'm saying nothing regards the behaviour....so much already said hun

But reduce that protein ASAP......28% is very high, he'll be buzzing.

We have BC's and none of them are anywhere on that amount

best wishes.

I think so too, although is the difference between 28 (current) and 25 (proposed) that much?

Just read NILF. We do do that alot with him actually. This is it. He's a very well trained, well behaved dog aside form all of these ''issues''. It's a pain in the bum.

Check on the web....not sure how much a ''non working 8 month springer should be on.....but mine are on less the 25 too.

The wagg that i add to the chappie is 21% per 15 kilo bag,,,,they have three handfuls added to Chappie meat which is 5.5 per tin....not sure divided up how much that works out but alot less then 25 I know.

PROTEIN AND HYPERACTIVITY
Most dog caretakers at one time or another have heard this pronouncement... "High protein diets can make dogs hyper!" I have searched the literature and contacted nutrition specialists regarding this myth and nowhere can I find any scientific study that proves this unfounded contention. There are no biochemical or nutritional factors that would even make this supposition appear to be credible. Hyperactivity in dogs has numerous potential motivators, including genetic temperament predispositions, but a link between high levels of protein in a dog's diet and hyperactivity has yet to be proven.

http://www.thepetcenter.com/imtop/protein.html