Our dog has bitten for the 1st time :-(

Very, very upset today. Its been an awful week anyway but this morning our little sprocker aged now 21 months bit my husband.
He feeds him his morning feed and over the last couple of weeks he has started to become possessive over his food bowl, growling and won't let my husband take away his bowl. I have no problems with him like this (I always feed him the evening meal but have to feed the two dogs separately or he will gobble down Lilys food too!
The only time I have a small problem with him is when he is on the sofa at night and hes asleep and I have to move him to make way for Lily to come up and he barks but does'nt growl, so I put him on the floor and tell him 'no'.
Unfortunately this morning my husband picked him up to remove his bowl and he bit him. If he ignores him he just carries on barking over his bowl and at 6.30 am we cannot let him carry on!
Hes a lovely little boy but is very strong minded and tries to be dominant. He keeps humping my legs still even now, even though i tell him 'no' firmly and push him off. Hes great with all dogs NEVER any aggression, quite the opposite, he wants to play with them, he has so much energy.
Hes great on the dog walks and his recall is excellent.
My husband sees this possessiveness as him trying to be dominant. He thought that by picking him up he was showing him who was boss so to speak!
Has anyone any suggestions as to what to do? Should we get him neutered and would this help?

Oh dear! Tell hubby to throw away all the dominant ideas - cause nowt but trouble as he's found to his cost.

A great little book for resource guarding is Jean Donaldson's 'Mine'.

There are some good books out there on resource guarding which would be worth reading.

Look at
MINE! - A Practical guide to resource guarding in dogs by Jean Donaldson

This section from a book may also help you; (starts on pg 77)
enlarge the pic to read!



I doubt it is dominance, more the fact that you are taking a precious resource away which the dog objects to.

Good luck

Sorry if this sounds dumb, but when is your husband taking away his food bowl?
I'm presuming it's when he's finished, not when he's still eating?

Hi, yes its when hes finished his food and then he stands and barks over the empty bowl. He seems fine with me though when I feed him.

Sorry... wasn't sure! I would just go back to basics as explained in "Mine" & your hub should try stay calm & confident as he might feel a bit nervous (being that he's been bitten) & the dog will pick up the vibes which could make it worse!
It might take some time going back to basics, but well worth it so it doesn't escalate any further or to other situations.
Might be worth your hub staying near him whilst he's eating first with no confrontation or looking at him, just being in the room & then build on that gradually by offering treats which means the dog has to walk away from his bowl to get the treat (still hub not going near the bowl) & then he can go back to his bowl & eat some more. Eventually giving him a treat when he has finished in exchange for the bowl, all done slowly over time, it can't be rushed.
It took me a good few months with Tilly & she was only a pup.
Good luck, I'm sure you can work it out with time & patience

ahh good, to start with I thought you were saying he was taking the bowl away when your dog was still eating

First, as I think your husband has seen, do not confront a dog when he is showing signs of aggression, he is not being dominant he is trying to communicate with you that he is not happy with something
If you ignore his communications he has to escalate his comunication
and you dont want him to learn that warning dont work on humans, you have to bite

I agree with Tilly to go slow, hand feed and make it a game
If he is on dry food I would possibly not even feed out the bowl for a little while - drop food on the floor, pick up the bowl while he is eating it - and then some more as you put the bowl down again
That way he learns that the bowl pretty much means nothing

again humping is pretty much nothing to do with dominance either
Its usually just excitment
saying 'no' in any tone of voice or whatever means nothing to the dog, dogs dont speak English. The only way it would mean anything is if you have pared it with you being angry or smacking him or something
and in that case he would most likely think you were unhappy with him for being really happy rather than associating it with the humping
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l0i4S...BmxOlVZAoztJah
This video explains how one trainer deals with it - the most important bit here is as often as possible when you see him get into the zone where you think he is about to hump to calm things down BEFORE it happens

I agree with the advice to please forget any ideas of dominance - they seem to do far more harm than good when it comes to dog/human relationships.

Does your OH watch Cesar Milan? as if so, get him to stop pronto

If you continue to have problems, do not carry on in the hope that matters will improve. You may need to get someone professional on board to help you. If you start to feel this is the case, try www.apbc.org.uk or www.capbt.co.uk.

This is a serious issue, and if the dog's warnings are ignored, might result in biting (as your hubby has sadly discovered... the dog usually moves up what is known as the "ladder of aggression" only because previous attempts at dog-human communication have been ignored.

Good luck
Wys
x

Have your husband swoop in and remove your dinner. See how you feel about that.....

I'd feed him by scattering food outside or everything by hand. That way he has nothing to guard.

Try and get your husband to stop challenging him and work on teaching the dog to trust both of you. Sounds like he isn't sure at the moment.

Good advice from everyone. Good luck.

rune