Okay, I lied, a less-wordy Wednesday

Well, over the last 5 or so blog posts we’ve gone on an interesting journey from Shayne to food aggression. Shayne was quite the little food guarder when I got her. If lightly pushed, she would absolutely lunge/snap at people who got into her space. I’m pretty sure if she were pushed like the dog in the video I talked about yesterday, she would have bitten without much hesitation. I didn’t ever push to find out but I’m pretty sure she would have.

After just a week of work I could easily be near her while she ate her dinner. After a month or two of work she had zero issue with anyone being near her while she ate or a hand coming near her bowl (to drop in extra goodies). Now, years later, she will “out” anything when cued to do so which allows me to take any item away from her. This is how I handle taking away raw food that is too big for her to eat in one setting. She’ll grumble at me if I just try to snatch it away but she willingly gives it up when cued. This was never done by trying to intimidate her or pressure her or threaten her. It was a simple process of teaching her that my presence hear her bowl was NEVER a threat and that my presence meant AWESOME things.

I’m sure I’ve shared these photos before under different circumstances… but these are great testament to the amazing work being done by real trainers using methods that are not threatening or intimidating for dogs. I took most of these photos while laying on the ground just about 18 inches from Shayne’s face sometimes even moving the hunk of meat to better fit in the frame without so much as a grumble.

Moral of the story, you don’t need intimidation or threats to teach dogs to tolerate people near their food bowls or near them while they have high value items.