Hello,
I have an 8 yr old shepard/husky mix (or something along those lines)
who got aggressive with me over a squeaky toy last night. I'm not sure
if he grabbed my finger or if my finger was on the toy and he grabbed
the toy, but he just barely broke the skin -- one little tooth mark on
the top and a scratch on the bottom. Anyways, I'm wondering if you have
any suggestions for us. I was reading your posts about Sophie but
couldn't get your protocol to load onto the site. My dog an I have been
living alone for several years and we recently (October) moved in with
my financee and her dog (who is submissive for the most part -- other
than a bit of toy guarding behavior). Since then, my dog has been
struggling with issues of food aggression and this toy nonsense that I
thought we dealt with years ago (I haven't had these problems with him since
he was 1-2 years old). Any suggestions would be very helpful. Thank
you! Lindsay

My reply:

Hi Lindsay,

I wish this were a problem that could easily be fixed with an email. I
will try my best, but in the end, you may have to consult a behaviorist
inyour area (if you are in NYC, you are in luck!- It's my town!). If you
are in NYC, let me know and we'll set up and evaluation.

so here goes-

Your dog has a hierarchy problem. The addition of people and dogs in
the home creates this kind of thing, and in his brain he's lost in the pack
and he feels he has to prove his place all over again. The best thing
to do is to completely shun him and the other dog. All humans just ignore
the dogs and kind of "cut the cord". This is what dominant, confident
leader dogs do when another dog comes into their territory. Other dogs
recognize this as something a leader does, and they will understand it
right away. It brings the humans up in the hierarchy of things. You
should not be playing on the floor with the dogs and certainly not be
allowing the dogs on the furniture (allowing dogs on furniture skews
the hierarchy and makes some mid-ranking dogs feel more powerful than they
ought to feel). I recommend correcting calmly each time there is any
hint of aggression toward a human (stiffening of the body when approached, locked into a stare over a toy or food, etc), then shunning that dog completely, as if
they hadn't existed.

research this:

my old entry on this here.

and see if you're comfortable using one. You need a way to correct
these behaviors that is quick, effective, easy to administer, and can be done
without approaching the dog. The spray commander works from 250 ft.
away.

This is the most advice I can give you in a simple email without
actually evaluating your dog in person.

I hope it helps you, and may the force be with you,

Marlene

Continue reading... "how this freaky site works..."

Okay, before you click on this, I need to tell you that if you, in fact, do have a dog that does this, you need to do something about it and not video tape it and send it to one of those "funniest video" shows. When a dog is this insanely food possessive, people are in danger and your dog will eventually do something to really hurt someone, thus hurting himself because then you'll get sued, and rightly so, and then the dog ends up in a pound somewhere and you know what happens after like 7 days in a county shelter.

If I may, I'd like to turn this entry into a "what not to do" topic; if your dog shows even the slightest sign of guarding behavior, don't just laugh it off and expect it to fade away as the dog gets older. Aggression's not like, say, chewing inappropriately. Dogs don't just "grow out" of aggressive behaviors; they get progressively worse as time passes, believe me. If you address the problem early, your chances are better in extinguishing the behavior, although most people can't deal with aggression correctly in general. That being said, you can watch the clip of probably the worst food possession I've seen in years. Probably due to a neurological disorder. Hold on to your knickers, folks...

click me

If you happen to have a hyper, aggressive or generally intense dog, change their diet to a low-protein dog food without artificial preservatives (look for about 20% protein). Any protein that they're not using for serious growth spurts is essentially extra energy ripping through your dog's system. Like ROCKET FUEL. UNNECESSARY ROCKET FUEL. Think about it...

Whenever you change a dog's food, do it gradually, 25% of the new food at a time. A quick change in protein levels most of the time results in stank, rancid loose stool. I don't think this is what you want. (is it?)
So, do it 25% new/ 75% old for a week or so, and if the dog's system can handle that, then go to 50%- %50, and so on...

About the preservatives: dog food contains lots of fats in it, which tend to spoil easily, thus the need for a preservative of some sort. Some smart idiot took a chemical that was originally used as a rubber stabilizer/ insecticide/ pesticide (ETHOXYQUIN) and decided to use it to preserve the fats in dog food. (hey, guys, i have this great idea!...) So now almost all of the dog foods on the market use this pesticide/ rubber stabilizer, which means our dogs are eating it. Me personally, i don't think it's a good idea to give it to them. So, i feed Wellness brand, which is probably not THE best food, but pretty darn good considering what else is out there. And Wellness (owned by Old Mother Hubbard) uses ethoxyquin-free meat sources, and there are no chemical preservatives in there. Check your dog food bags at home if you want, chances are you'll see that "e"- word in there somewhere.

Oh, and Nutro Natural doesn't use ethoxyquin, either.

glorious meatball...

Hey! Long time no talkie.

So... how about I start off with the good news? Well, Meatball's platelet count is stable and though she eats like a horse and pees like a fountain, she's basically alright in the physical department. And the vet is decreasing her steroids and she'll be completely off it in about four weeks.

Now for the bad news.
At first it wasn't REALLY bad, I mean we just thought she was grouchy from spending a week at the vets, being poked at by needles and having her temperature taken, so when she got home, and the hair on her shoulders stood up at Rask, we just reprimanded her with a "NO!" and she calmed down.
But then, about 2 weeks home, she and Rask got into their first big dog fight. I was all happy and asleep in my warm fluffy blanket and suddenly I hear this sound like a demon's wolf snarling and yelping and barking and I hear Joann yelling for me to get down there. So with my overly large sweatpants that kept falling down when I all but fell down the stairs, I ran down and found my sister buried in this mass of bristling, barking, dog hair. My first thought was to get a bucket of water, then I remembered it was something else. So anyhow, Meatball and Rask were both snarling and yelping and barking and they were trying to get at eachother with my sister in the middle. So with superwoman force, I dragged them apart and for the next ten minutes, all anyone could hear was me screaming and yelling at the both of them while Meatball stuffed herself under a chair and Rask sat there forlornly taking my yelling with as much dignity as she could muster. Then both Rask and Meatball came out and sat huddled next to eachother until I calmed down. So I gave them both looks that could send any dog cowering and went back upstairs to sleep thinking they had both learned their lesson.
After I woke up, I found out it was that when my sister was petting Rask, Meatball came and she pet her too. And then when she tried to return to petting Rask, Meatball went crazy and tried to fight with Rask. So I just said, okay, it's a dominance problem, from now on, pet Rask first and give Rask her food/treats first so it will show Meatball that Rask was older and higher in the social ladder than her.
A few days later, I was once again asleep when I hear the same sounds, and I thought, this cannot be HAPPENING AGAIN. So I stormed downstairs to find them locked in mortal combat, this time, like last time, they gave no regard towards me (and I bet my face was so red from yelling) and once again, I pulled them apart and gave them both a good portion of "time out and listen to josie scream." While walking barefoot out in the concrete.
This time happened because Rask wanted to go to the bathroom outside and Meatball wanted to play outside, Rask accidently bumped Meatball on the shoulder and the fighting ensued.
Now to cut my really long email short. WHAT ON EARTH CAN WE DO TO STOP MEATBALL FROM FIGHTING WITH RASK?!?!
It happened three more times, the details which I'm not too fond in remembering but knowing that Meatball tried to steal Rask's food was enough.
Oh and she's reverted to being food possessive again but now after a few days of training, she's completely non-food possessive.
But this FIGHTING.
And I hope the steroids do not make her more manly.
(Now smaller problems, she growls at the vets and assistants and she tried to pick fights with dogs TWICE her size including a gigantic Shepherd mix at the vet's, but I think it's just bad memories of the place since I had to carry her in, she weighing about 38 pounds of meat and fur, and me at 100 or so, being embarressed as all the other patients laughed and smiled.)
Anyway, hope we can solve this, I swear if they fight again, I will be screaming into the next century. Today being the 6th time and I didn't even bother to find out why this time.

With exasperated sighs,
Josie.

read on for my professional response. sans caps...

Continue reading... "meatball strikes again. a question from a loyal reader..."