Bones!!

Hi all Skye is now 7 months all and is perfect in every way, I gave her her first bone last night and supervised her with it,when I went to take it away from her she went mental,tried to bite me showing her teeth and growling.never seen her show any aggression before ever!! Is this normal? And how should I be acting if the situation arrises again???

we cant take bones off Miley or her ball i think if you give bones etc just leave them alone when they get fed up they will wander off. When they do if you dont want them to have any more pick it up. They do get possessive over their bones

Never had this problem with Bacchus. He's been having bones, mainly lamb, since day one and never shown signs of food aggression.
He's only 5 months but we can take any food from him, but I have always made a point of touching any food while he is eating and taking things from him but returning them immediately.

We have never given Rocky a bone but would be very interested to see what would happen if we tried to take it off him. He is usually very good with things like that though and gives up toys easily if we go to take them away from him.

I just have to say leave and Moo will leave it, I think its really important to be able to take things away if needed, the leave command is very useful Xx

I have heard that some dogs get very possessive over bones, although I have never experienced it myself.

I DO think it is important that we should be able to take anything away from our dogs without them getting aggressive about it - it might be a dangerous thing they have in their mouth, for example.

I have always taken things away from my puppies from tiny and then given them back PROVIDED they have not been aggressive about it - both with my current Staff and with my previous Dobermanns. Personally, and especially if it was a dangerous something, I would ignore the growling etc (especially in a puppy) and take it anyway as I would think if I gave way to the growling or even snapping of teeth it would set a precedent in that the dog would know exactly what to do to "win" and that I was scared of him/her in those circumstances.

The "leave" command is useful, although often ignored by the puppy he/she will come eventually to understand that if he obeys and leaves it, the desired object (unless it is dangerous of course) will be returned to them in a more exciting way, by being thrown across the room for them to chase, for example.

Don't give in to fear of their growling (which is often just a play thing when a puppy) or even teeth.

And yes, I still have both my hands!

food guarding from me is something i will NOT tolerate in this house. From other dogs is fine however.

Harvey having been raw fed from a pup and so having bones all that time i can literally take food out from the back of hid gob.

Chance guarded his when he first came here, but we ave worked out it by giving treats as a trade and giving the bone back etc and so know i can take anything off him the same as harvey

mazz wrote:we cant take bones off Miley or her ball i think if you give bones etc just leave them alone when they get fed up they will wander off. When they do if you dont want them to have any more pick it up. They do get possessive over their bones

This is a dangerous situation. There could come a time when you're out & about & Miley finds a bone over the park. As she picks it up, a child is near & also tries to pick it up - I don't think I need to carry on. No dog should be allowed to be possessive over food or toys, it's just too dangerous, especially for staffords!

I have always made a point of ensuring that my dogs are ok with me (or anyone else) taking food/toys etc away from them. It's something I start from puppyhood.

I know people say "Leave them alone to eat" but life isn't always that simple. I have children (ok, they're grown up now, but they were little when I had Bandit) & I couldn't always make sure that they weren't in the room when Bandit was fed. So I made sure that it didn't matter.

I usually let a pup settle for 24 hours, but then every time I put a meal down, as well as gently holding them and telling them to wait, I will say "Leave" once they're eating & pick the bowl up. They then get immediate praise & their food is put straight back down. This goes on until I'm absolutely certain that they are happy with the situation & know that they will get their food back.

Dogs can be aggressive over bones, so it's even more important to train them not to be possessive with them.

I had this with my girl, she had a bone,I went to take it and she growled at me, it took me by surprise but my instant reaction was to bellow 'Nooooo!' really loud !!!
I proceeded to take it as she backed down. I then had her sit, down, show tummy, sit and give paw before I let her have it back.

With any food aggression u need to put a stop to it straight away. I won't take any crap like that from my dogs and they know it.

When I feed them, they have to sit n wait till I tell them they can eat.

Basically u need to be super assertive with ur dog/s.

as others have said i also think the most important thing you need to teach your dog and always have with every dog iv owned is be able to remove anything off your dog without any signs of aggression its one thing i will never allow as it can actually save your dogs life if they pick up something that could kill them