Thank you all for the advice, my wife and I will speak about it and try to help Shakey get through his aggressions.

I would love to agree but food aggression is one thing I absolutely do not tolerate. I will put my hand in my dogs' bowl, while they are eating. They don't mind in the slightest. They'll occasionally get a treat out of it. We've had some treats that have provoked scraps. Those are in MY hands immediately, and I will have no answers back. When it comes to food, I am top B**ch. I can take a raw bone from any of ours, and I might need to!

I don't understand how NILF is old school. If it's made things worse for dogs, whoever was implementing it might have been doing something completely different or completely wrong. NILF does not use punishment and does not include physical manipulation. It's very simple, a dog gets a reward for doing an appropriate behaviour, like sitting calmly, laying down, or getting off the couch. The opposite is the dog not getting what it wants; be it pulling towards something in particular or getting overly excited about something.

My old dog was resource guarding the couch when he first came home. He would try to bite when asked to get off the couch. So I used NILF to teach him the acceptable behaviours. Once he understood what is expected, his couch privileges were given back. He's been here almost 2 years now with no more resource guarding what so ever.

As for resource guarding of food, preventing it from becoming an issue I feel is best. All my fosters I hand feed in the beginning to show them that I am not there to take their food away and that I am not a threat. After that I keep my hand in the bowl even before they begin to eat. While I agree that a dog should be left to eat peacefully, but teaching them not to resource guard initially is more important in the long run. I have done this with almost 30 foster dogs and my own 6 dogs and all have no food aggression.

I don't tolerant food agression either, if anyone tried to interfere with my food they are likely to get a fork in their hand. Food on my plate is mine just as food in a dogs bowl is their's.

Having had a dog who threatened to take my face off if I was near him, he wasn't a small dog, I had to use my brain to change this, it took 24 hour to sort out. Once I had I was able to do what I wanted with his bowl.

If every time you were eating someone interfered with your food how would you feel? I do know someone who's partner would keep taking the dogs food away, she was walking past him when he was eating, she took his plate away, he jumped up really a free, she just said "now you know how the dog feels", he never done it again.

NILF I will do when I go on my computer later.

Like everything there is good and bad, even CM has good points.

I first came across NILF about 20 years ago and am surprised just how much this has changed, it isn't as harsh as it used to be apart from the attention seeking. Then you didn't interact with your dog at all, you were in charge of everything and your dog had to do as he was told, usually sleep in his basket until you wanted to interact with him. It made dogs really unhappy, miserable and depressed, thankfully it isn't as bad now but it is just general good manners and teaching our dogs good manners now. I wish I could find what it was like previously but don't seem to be able to.

Nothing In Life Is Free: Rules to Live By

1. If your dog wants something from you, he must do something for you.* Ask your dog to perform a behavior such as Sit or Down before you feed him, let him outside or inside, give him toys or treats, give him attention, etc.

This is basic good manners and safety, nobody wants a dog to barge through a door or up and down stairs, it is dangerous.


2. Be consistent!* For best results apply all the elements of NILIF, not just the most convenient.* If you are consistent, good behavior will become a habit for your dog.

Being consistent is very important when interacting with our dogs, and this is right, good behaviour does become a habit.


3. Your dog will be hand fed at least one meal a day.* This helps to develop a strong relationship between you and your dog, lets your dog know that food comes from you and helps to prevent food guarding.* Do not “free feed” your dog.

Dogs are not stupid, when they see us preparing their food then put the bowl down, they KNOW the food comes from us, hand feeding isn't necessary but there may be times when it is advisable. I don't free feed and recommend that it isn't done but I do know people who do it and have no problems but my neighbour's dog is very overweight because she is free fed. The vet keeps telling them to get her weight down but they do nothing about it. Some dogs will stay nice and trim on free feeding, others like my neighbour's will get fat.


4. Your dog will receive a Dog Inspection once a day.

We should be able to inspect our dogs for many reasons, a thorn in a paw, over jealous playing even when they have been attacked by another dog and some dogs coats need a lot of attention. Bonnie used to have a problem with someone handling her legs because her back ones were broken when she was 6 months old. Yes I can handle her legs but nobody else can which I found out a few months ago.


5. Your game, your rules!* Provide free access to chew toys, but keep interactive toys such as balls or tug toys put away.* Bring these toys out only when you want to play with your dog.* Your dog should not be allowed to mouth or bite you in an attempt to get the toy and should release the toy when asked.

Doesn't say how you do this so isn't much help to someone who has never had the problem before.
The only toys I keep away from my dogs is a tugger which Cyril and Bonnie have fun with on the field and a ball for Bonnie and Dolly. This isn't to stop them playing in the house but are kept in the car ready for outdoor play. I make house tuggers which are more suitable for playing in the home.


6. You control comfortable sleeping/resting places.* If your dog is allowed on furniture he should have to wait to be invited up and should jump off when asked to.

Depends on what is meant by 'control', to me allowing a dog up on the furniture and bed sometimes but not others is very confusing for the dog, my dogs are always allowed on them but they do have to move when asked, all my dogs will get off when asked unless there is something more interesting when they are looking out of the window, then I have to insist.

It isn't wrong not to let your dogs on the furniture or bed, it is personal preference, but to let them up sometimes and not others is confusing.


7. Charging through doors, up and down steps or out gates is not permitted. Your dog should be asked to Sit or Down and Wait until you call him or allow him to go.

This is a safety issue not a control one, dogs should not barge through because they can cause an accident, as long as the dog is calm there is no problem with them going through first, in fact it is safer for us humans for the dogs to go in front. I tried doing this about 20 years ago with a dog that was normally calm and obedient, I got her to sit at the top of the stairs when I went down them intending to call her as soon as I was down. Along came the postman and I was knocked down the last couple of stairs, never done that again.

If you have multiple dogs you will notice that no dog always goes through doors, up and down stairs first, it depends on who gets there first.


8. Work off energy.* Dogs by nature are exploring, investigative and curious animals.* Many breeds of dogs were created to work all day.* Provide as many different outlets as possible for your dog’s energy.* A tired dog is a good dog!

Everyone on here has more knowledge of dogs than Joe Public, we all know how important exercise is to our dogs but many don't then when they have problems with their dogs they don't know how to deal with it. If they exercised them they wouldn't have a problem. You only have to read the stories of the dogs that have attacked and either killed or seriously hurt someone to know just how important exercise is, from what I can remember every dog wasn't exercised. I don't remember exercise being part of NILF when I first saw it.


9. Attention seeking behaviors don’t work.* Some dogs become quite pushy about attention, demanding that you pet him by pawing, nudging and/or barking.* Ignore attention seeking behavior rather then pushing your dog away or scolding him.

This is the one that causes most damage, there is a reason why dogs do this and it is up to us to work out the reason before dealing with it. Gracie taught me more about this than any other dog, she was about 12/13 when I got her and was really pushy, wanted attention 24 hours a day which I couldn't give her even if I wanted to and I had a letter from the Council because of her barking for attention. Ignoring her made her depressed as it does many dogs, I don't want a depressed dog, I wouldn't like to live in permanent depression and don't expect my dogs to either. What I found worked was to acknowledge her by a quick tickle, smile and a few words then carry on doing what I was doing but as soon as I stopped I gave her more attention. It didn't take long before Gracie was waiting until I stopped doing something before asking for attention. This gradually decreased until she rarely asked.

I have been working with someone who has a Collie, he is a rescue and has had him for 2.5 years, taken him to several trainers and behaviourists and all said ignore him so she did and got more and more upset because of they way he became. He became lethargic, depressed, couldn't bear her out of his sight, this was far worse than SA. I told her to get him up next to her and just cuddle him, he immediately changed, the depression went, his energy came back and with work he is happy for her not to be in his sight all the time. He doesn't demand cuddles, he will come and ask gently for one and she is now able to work through his other problems.

I haven't only had to help with her dog but with her, she was in quite a state when I first got to know her, thought she was a complete failure, wasn't fit to have a dog, etc. I had to work through that before tackling the dog's problems. This dog is also DA and has improved a lot, she was able to take him on holiday to a cottage were he played on the beach with strange dogs, he still has his moments but is getting there. When she got home one of her neighbours had taken her dog away on a 4 day course because of DA, she thinks her dog is cured, he is on a very tight lead all the time with a slip lead on held high up his neck behind his ears. The lady I have been working with has learnt to spot stress in dogs as well as some calming signals, she says that the dog is very tense and stressed and throwing calming signals all the time he is out.

There are times when we all feel the need to a cuddle or attention from someone, how would we feel if we were ignored like this? Especially if we had had a really bad day and just wanted to cry, I know I would be like the dog above, there is nothing like a good cuddle to make our worlds right again and it is the same with dogs.

Oh, I certainly don't make a habit of taking their food away while they're eating it! That's rude. But I need them to know that I can take it away if I want to, or if I need to, if, say, they get something I really don't want them to have.

When the boys were little I would occasionally take their bowl up while they were eating, make a deliberate show of mucking around in it, then give it back a few seconds later usually with something wonderful in it, so they learned to expect that me interfering with their food often meant Good Things for Dogs.

It might help that we're lucky enough to be able to free-feed, as all of ours are rather deliberate and slow eaters, whose main food is dry kibbles, so the sudden appearance of a lump of paté toast under their noses is not an unwelcome event.

This talk of taking food away reminds me of a phrase that is used to describe utter dismay and disappointment ...

'it was like having a lovely meal put in front of you and someone comes and whips it away before you can eat it'

I can take anything away from my dogs if I to, even Cyril who was so emaciated when he arrived my vet thought he may not survive. The dog that threatened to take my face off I was also able to take food off him once he realised that he was always fed.

I can NEVER understand the logic of owners who feel the need to be able to give their dogs food & then take it away IN CASE at a later date are eating something they shouldn't be. The two are not related at all.

Far better to teach a leave it & reward for the time that the dog may have something injurious or that they simply shouldn't have, that to increase the dogs' natural food/resource guarding behaviour.

Why would a piece of human food "suddenly appear" under the dogs' noses ? If a human drops food on the floor(as long as it it not poisionous to the dog)then it's fair game-sorry dogs are creatures of opportunity especially were food is involved.

I feel sorry for any dog that is "trained"this way