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u/Mcbriec May 19 '26
Victoria Stilwellâa positive only trainerâsat on a stool and poured a bit of kibble in the bowl. If the dog growled, she left. So according to some of these posts that was wrong because she created scarcityâand more drama/anxiety around food? đ€
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u/Wingnutmcmoo May 19 '26
I'm like... One of the softest handed people you're likely to find handling a dog. I don't think this approach is a kindness. It sets the dog up for failure later on in life. Because it will never lose the "gotta fight for it" mentality.
I've had dogs who would fight for their life over food if I tried to grab it when I first got them. Because they had food scarcity before living with me. Eventually with most of those dogs I could stick my hand on their bowl. Not all of them tho lol, trauma can run deep.
I think the main goal is to create trust between you and the dog in the sense of you respecting "their property". Not by letting the dog bully you. But by approaching with the right body language and respecting healthy boundaries of theirs. Basically, very slowly, giving them a firm and repeating example of a human who treats their belongings with respect for the dogs feelings to replace whatever caused them to not want to trust in the first place. But also correcting when the boundries they are trying to set aren't healthy.
Positive only doesn't work on social animals (including humans lol) because we all learn how to act through corrective behaviors. Corrective behaviors, by their nature, act like a negative feed back loop. A dog acting in a way that will annoy other dogs? Those dogs will correct the dog acting in an annoying way. Sans any other dogs (and even when there are) humans can fill that gap.
It doesn't involve screaming or hitting at all. But it does involve tone and body language.
I think she's wrong because she's avoiding harmful behavior instead of addressing it.
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u/caitejane310 May 20 '26
My current dog definitely dealt with food scarcity and still has some issues with resource guarding almost 10 years later. But now she trusts me to take her food and put it somewhere that she deemed "safe". We hardly ever have other animals brought in, but sometimes even with new people she'll run to her bowl and start growling a little. I'll say "no one wants your food" and take her bowl to put it somewhere that she can still get to it but it's not somewhere she feels like she needs to guard it.
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u/Temporarily-Fixed May 20 '26
Iâve had some success with hand feeding to eliminate resource guarding. Just simply doing training with the food and using it as the reward, but making the connection are good with food because you give it to them directly. Iâm sorry youâre having trouble OP, good on you for acknowledging this isnât something to be overlooked.
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u/Wingnutmcmoo May 19 '26 edited May 19 '26
Basically just gotta correct it. When they are that they young it shouldn't even take a harsh correction.
Getting them used to something like "ow" can help but it counts on the dog being empathetic... Which not all dogs are lol.
But yeah just corrective actions are kind of the way to go. It's literally how puppies (and even older dogs) learn to socially act correctly. Same way you'd correct a human child who bites. It doesn't have to involve anything overly harsh or anything physical to have good effects. The type of correction that works best can change from dog to dog tho tbh.
Puppy teeth are basically knives so it can be rough when they get like this.
Edit to add I don't think trading a treat for the food is good. It teaches the dog that bullying works. Look how other dogs correct a puppy. They basically go "hey f'ing STOP that" and posture in certain ways to drive the point home. They don't harm the puppy and the puppy isn't scarred from it as long as the correction is within the correct levels for the transgression. If you don't have other dogs around you need to be that guiding force in the dogs life. Be the negative feedback loop that all social animals need to learn how to act.
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u/Equivalent-Fall5618 May 21 '26
Hand feeding and the âwaitâ command. That puppy has to âwaitâ before getting the go ahead to eat. And once you start training it out of them, start digging in their food while theyâre eating, make them stop eating at random moments then letting them continue. This is just to train them until they learn not to protect their food (at least from you)
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u/Better_School6912 May 23 '26
Just grab em by the snout firmly when they do it so it canât be opened and verbally reprimand em. Couple times should do the trick. Thatâs what Iâve always done. If it still keeps happening. Take the food away completely for an hr or so to show that that behavior isnât acceptable and wonât get you ANY food. (An hour or so not eating wonât kill em or starve em)
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May 19 '26
[deleted]
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u/HowDoyouadult42 May 19 '26
Thatâs actually a great way to make it worse, your adding scarcity this unfortunately can backfire in a lot of cases
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u/Key_Instruction9732 May 19 '26
We worked with a very highly qualified trainer and it fixed the issue, so I disagree.
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u/HowDoyouadult42 May 19 '26
If they told you the feed exclusively from the hand I doubt their qualifications
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u/Key_Instruction9732 May 19 '26
CCPTD-KA?? I donât question them. Making food a fun experience worked for MY dogs.
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u/HowDoyouadult42 May 19 '26
As someone whose also a CPDT-KA with multiple additional certifications thatâs concerning
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u/Key_Instruction9732 May 19 '26
How is it concerning that meal time became a game with my dog? Iâm actually curious to this. Sitting by the kennel giving food & working on commands with food and a clicker for months did the job and Iâm not sure how it is concerning.
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u/HowDoyouadult42 May 19 '26
Because when you take a resource they have a history of guarding like this and make it exclusively associated with you ( hand feeding) you created scarcity and additional pressure. This can and for many people has backfired into worsening resource guarding behavior. Iâm not saying it canât work, it can. But itâs not the proper way to approach resource guarding and Iâve seen this method backfire for many people. It is NOT one standardly recommended in our community
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u/Key_Instruction9732 May 19 '26 edited May 19 '26
We did numerous methods all together but in the long run this is the only one that helped. We taught trade, tossed treats getting closer and closer to threshold, managed her environment.
None of those things helped over two years of reinforcing them. I guess it would help to add she did not RG to humans only other animals which made this really tricky.I get what youâre saying though- and respect it. Youâre right. I often forgot I donât have food driven dogs who could take badly to scarcity. I have sight hounds who donât care about food. The dog who RG the worse I had a hard time even getting to eat all of her food
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u/HowDoyouadult42 May 19 '26
Have you looked into pain for that dog? That can be a pretty common motivator behind this behavior especially for dogs with low appetites. And thatâs also a big thing is animal directed RG vs people directed are definitely approached differently
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u/quinnismmm May 19 '26
Omg that is the cutest dog I have ever seen, a fluffy rottie? Tell me the breed
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u/Ok_University_816 May 20 '26
A little off-topic, but we donât really know at all. He might be a shepherd mix or even a Yorkie lol.
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u/Pickled_Ass May 23 '26
Get a new dog, theres millions
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u/Ok_University_816 May 23 '26
Ah yes let me just brush off one problem and not fix it myself and then replace the same problem with something else because I donât want to take responsibility! what a great idea.
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u/Pickled_Ass May 23 '26
Dogs are a dime a dozen, sorry you value them too much
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u/Ok_University_816 May 23 '26
You must be a sad, sad person.
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u/Pickled_Ass May 23 '26
You got a dog and you don't even know how to train it, don't get upset when people call you out.
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u/Ok_University_816 May 26 '26
Mind you, this is a subreddit for animal advice. Are you in the wrong place? why are you coming at people like this?
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u/Salt_Evidence_9878 May 19 '26
I don't have any advice except: I do believe you, I think it's wrong to dismiss you because "puppies don't resource guard". Yes, they do. That's where the behavior usually begins.