poodlefan

By controlling all socialisation experiences to ensure that they are positive.

Good point! Maybe because our guys live and work as a team the respect for each other is higher? One of our boys Jonty will walk away from his food and allow his son Roary to eat it. Is that his way of trying to secure that his offspring has a future in our pack? Roary is now 16 months old and Jonty will still leave food for him, however, we don't let him eat it. Makes you wonder doesn't it :D Or their social confidence means they don't fear losing resources?

Lack of socialisation in the early weeks of a pups life (eg. from 3 weeks on) can lead to a life long wariness of strangers. If your pup was raised in the usual sort of environment for a puppy farm (shed, little human contact) this could be the case. Sounds like you've got a good program going but the wariness may be there for life. Unfortunately those early weeks leave indelible experiences on a dog.

Or maybe resource guarding was not an acceptable trait in a dog bred to work and live in a team. Of course the further any breed gets from its original function, the more undesireable behaviours are likely to be tolerated. :D

Not necessarily. It's possible that NO experience with people during important weeks of his early development may be to blame. This is not uncommon in puppy farm dogs. What does he do?

Are you leaving them together for the mornings? I'd be separating them if you are. Rough play from such a large dog could damage a growing pup.

Don't know but I'd be having it checked out by a vet ASAP. Could be a abcess. Has she had a scrap with a dog at all? If that's only 2 days old, its huge. :D

Slater and Gordon (or similar) must smell blood in the water. This is a good thing! :D

Taking Cosmolo's point, my scent would be strongly impregnated on them too.

And that's what matters! I think a program that brings structure, boundaries and leadership to dogs in a non confrontational way is a good thing. I just don't agree with some of the philosophies behind it. There are many ways to train a dog but I find AB (and I don't pretend to be widely read on it) talks the language of dominance too much for my taste. "Me Alpha, you dog" programs are a bit simplistic for how I view the human/dog relationship. I was told by an AB fan that the reason my poodles love to sit on the back of the lounge was because they strive to be higher than me. Strangely, when I'm not home there they still are - looking out the window. :p Its the only view they can access of the front of the house. A friend who drove past the other day informed me that a very precariously balanced Whippet was up there too. :D

Nope, just leads here.. and none of the other dogs give a damn about them. Suffice it to say I do not leave them lying around but occasionally she'll snag one and put it in her nest of the moment. The interesting thing is when I got her at 8 months, she didn't seem to know what one was. :D

and join the ranks of those with dubious qualification that charge $300 an hour :D I have a degree in Amish Bounding from the University of Dubiosity :p Sorry Aidan but you need TV show to charge the big bucks.

Lily my toy poodle has been known to take a lead to her 'nest' and guard it... on one occasion from totally perplexed (and unconcerned) Vizslas. She seems to be the only dog I know that regards leads so highly. She's bottom of the poodle pecking order but does reign over the Whippet.

If its working, why change it. My dogs can see each other when they eat but I supervise. For treats, I can feed each in turn together with no conflict. They know the rules.. no treats if you misbehave. ETA: I totally support separating feeding dogs from children

Say what?! I am certainly no expert on dog behaviour, but I know from experience that fighting between dogs is not related to gender. It can be Anne. The closer two dogs are in size, age and gender, the more likely they are to have conflict over social status. Littermates can be worst of all. And they don't call female dogs bitches for nothing. Ask breeders about bitch on bitch aggression :D

Antibiotics and gaffa tape would be my guess. :D

I love them both dearly but the dogs can have there smelly food..Raw mince / chicken necks and eggs (not to mention other thing) dont really appeal to me... :D It was the raw offal I was thinking of. YUMMY I am, on the other hand, particularly careful to sample my Macca's chips (not that I've had any lately) before the dogs get some.

I love them both dearly but the dogs can have there smelly food..Raw mince / chicken necks and eggs (not to mention other thing) dont really appeal to me... :D It was the raw offal I was thinking of.

I'm glad this worked for you PS but there are a lot of trainers and behaviouralists that would disagree with the reasoning behind some of it. Lesser ranked dogs still fight over resources for a start. What is great is that YOU decided to take a leadership role and to enforce boundaries of behaviour. And sorry, but no amount of "bonding" would induce me to eat some of my dog's meals before handing them over :D :p

Thanks :p I know I feel so bad for him, hope this doesn't turn into one of those horrible 'should have done something sooner' things :D I doubt it Pete. If his foot hasn't fallen off yet don't panic. It's probably a local infection exacerbated by licking. See what the vet says.

For those of you feeding home made puppy foods, make very sure that any mince you feed regularly as part of that diet has bone in it. "Chicken pet mince" is usually minced carcasses and just the thing. However it should be fed raw. Feeding meat without bone means your pup won't be getting the right calcium/phosphorous ratio for good bone growth. There are two ways to ensure that this ratio is kept correct: 1. Feed a good quality puppy kibble 2. Mainly feed meat on the bone or with bone in it. Even tiny pups can handle chicken necks. Larger pups can handle wings. :D Lactose free milk is a fraction of the cost of puppy milk and just as good for pups. They don't really need milk after they're weaned but most enjoy it. :p My dogs love goats milk! All my pups have been fed raw meat (all kinds) from when they were babies. Personally I think varying a pup's diet discourages fussing eating. If they dont' want what they're given, take it away and wait until the next meal to feed them.

We have only just started.. We had our 1st lesson on Sunday. I am handling the GD and my mum is doing the GSD, we did it this way because the GSD was getting very protective of me. Which I now know is the resource thing....A light bulb just clicked in my head :D .... I really need to get my girl some help. While you source someone suitable, have a look here at the triangle of tempation (TOT) and Nothing in life is free (NILIF) programs pinned at the top of the training thread. Both would be safe to implement on your girls. How much exercise do they get?

If the issue is keeping protein (rather than fat) down, it may be worth having a look at the kinds of diets that Schnauzer folk feed those of your breed that are susceptible to bladder stones. I think from memory that protein is the issue there too. Hills U/D is low protein.

How much formal obedience training have you done with these dogs GP? The reason I ask is that its a great method of teaching dogs that rewards come from focus and effort that YOU direct. It also gives dogs the one on one attention most enjoy. How much exercise do they get on a daily basis? If the GD approaches and the GSD reacts, I'd be terminating the contact with the GSD, not letting her stay close. She'll find it very difficult to resource guard you if you don't cooperate with her plans. She's warning the other dog. If you encourage the GD to ignore that warning, then she may take it into her own paws to dish out the discipline for failing to heed it. You really don't want to be in the middle if its game on. You've already tried the stern "uh" approach with food... look how that turned out. I would put distance between myself and the guarding dog when this occurs. This is not training but de-escalating the situation.

I can only speak for myself but I'd leave any training recommendations for the professional person folk recommended be consulted. Most folk have given management strategies only. There are a lot of trainers who think that it is nigh on impossible to extinguish resource guarding in dogs. All that leaves is de-escalation and management. My guess is that neither of your dogs are strongly motivated to resource guard. Establishing clear boundaries of acceptable behaviour with regard to food does help but personally I think every dog should have some private space to eat, whether they resource guard or not. My dogs are all fed in the one immediate area but I do not leave them unsupervised. They have very different rates of consumption!