Franjipani

Thanks again Cordelia - yes, you're right. This is how it starts and I have to nip it in the bud. I printed out your post and am showing it to my family so that we're all in the loop. Thanks again and fingers crossed.

Hi Cordelia, Steve, thank you very much for your help and advice. However, I'm not convinced that he does consider himself the alpha dog (well maybe lately?). I know from my posts it could look like that but this aggressive behaviour is only recent and happens out of the blue and not at every meal time (we may be talking about half a dozen incidents or thereabouts.) He will move out of the way when any of us walk past him (even if he was asleep). If he wants to be petted or have his ball thrown to him, he knows he has to sit. He has to wait for the command before he eats. He isn't allowed on the beds and can only sit on the furniture by invitation (although we have become a bit lax about this since he came over to the UK - we were just so happy to see him and guess we spoilt him a bit!). He sits for every treat and walks to heel. Since we've had him we have been careful to instil in him his place in the pack i.e. the bottom. He usually eats his meal from the bowl (until I was feeding him the wings by hand to try and slow him down) and this spreading his cut up bones is rare and again only recently. Okay, I will certainly start following all your advice and taking away his toys etc that I have allowed him free access to. I'm relieved about the protein issue because I felt good about feeding him a barf diet. I can see that hand feeding him the wings would give him the impression I was pandering to him - this way of feeding was suggested by a lowchen breeder to slow his eating down and to that end it worked although obviously brought up other issues. Despite everything I've obviously gone wrong somewhere and so again will follow all the helpful advice given. Finally, do you think there could be some reaction to the Frontline? Thanks again.

Thank you Kavik - sorry if I jumped to conclusions. My post was a bit on the long side and perhaps I didn't express myself clearly. The hand feeding was suggested (and I'd also read about it) so that my puppy would slow down and stop trying to swallow big chunks of food. It was quite worrying when he'd keel over and look as if he was passing out. The hand feeding did slow him down and he now chews his food. However because he started getting aggressive when given a whole chicken wing and/or leaving it around the room and guarding it, we started to chop up the wing into about 4 pieces as he will usually eat these from the bowl and not distribute them. Recently however he has spread them around the room and won't let anyone put them back in his bowl (even though he's not eating them). Advised that high protein diet (i.e. barf) can make dogs aggressive, hence the considering changing diet. I never had any problems related to food with my children!

Kavik, the 'fiddling with the food' is over a longish period and as a result of reading and asking people for advice. I am not thoughtlessly 'fiddling' ... and apart from this recent behaviour change, he is a very affectionate, playful and ditzy puppy who is much loved. Thank you Isaviz, I will keep an eye on the Frontline. In Australia I didn't use commercial preparations and made my own that worked a treat but the recent infestation was pretty bad, not just my dog, and so thought f/l would really blitz them (as it did). Fingers crossed and appreciate your input.

Wish I'd thought about that before... I gave him another dose of frontline yesterday and that will last for 6 weeks. Yes he's desexed - done when he was six months old. I know that adolescent dogs often go through an aggressive stage but this isn't what I would have expected. I thought there would be some warning growling but it's really quite sudden and savage and scary but luckily he doesn't do it too often. He goes from being a sweet soppy little thing to a feral animal. When you read descriptions of Lowchens it's usually along the lines of them having a sweet expression but my little one looks more haughty than sweet.

Thank you isaviz. No genetic issues to my knowledge. I do do that with the food - but on one occasion he was possessive and nasty over a stick in park so it's not just bones. His last two meals have been boiled brown rice with chicken and vegetables. I feel unhappy cooking his food as I thought I was doing the right thing following the barf diet but I'm prepared to try anything. The only other thing that has changed recently is giving him Frontline as he had fleas a couple of months ago. Again, any suggestions welcome.

anyone?....

Hi, apologies for this long post. Wasn't sure how much to leave in or leave out. I hope someone can shed some light on my puppy’s change of behaviour. Bit of background. He is now 18 months old and I’ve had him since he was 8 weeks. He’s a Lowchen (Little Lion Dog). He went to puppy school and we’ve trained him since day one to let us handle his food and eat on command (he’s always been very gutsy!) and to sit before being patted, picked up, anything really. He is also used to a barf diet. When he was 6 months old he had a rabies shot so that he could travel to the UK. I came to the UK and he sat out the six months quarantine period in Australia with my husband at home. During that time he choked several times on chicken wings and so my husband started feeding him raw chicken breasts plus hard cow bones (I hadn’t given him hard bones to chew – mainly softer bones such as lamb ribs etc) instead of wings/carcasses because he was afraid he’d choke to death (as he very nearly did a couple of times). He came to the UK in February and adapted really well. After letting him settle down, I started him back on chicken wings but he was choking (eating too fast) and so I started mincing them whole, then I started holding them in my fist and feeding him by hand and lately chopping the wings into pieces. This has helped slow him down and now instead of trying to swallow whole pieces, he chews nicely and more slowly. However he has become quite aggressive. I tried letting him eat whole wings but he seemed confused and started guarding the bones (any other bones at that time, i.e. oxtail recreational bones, he would just leave around the place and not worry about them). He eventually started eating them but it took forever as he didn’t seem to know to hold the bone with his foot and so we tried moving his foot onto the bone to help him out – he would start growling and snapping and so we stopped. Now, if he’s eating out of his bowl he seems fine but occasionally he will spread his meal around the place but instead of eating the pieces he will just lie down and sort of ignore them. If anyone tries to put the food back in the bowl he becomes very vicious – snapping and growling and just losing it. A few days ago he did this but I put the bones back in his bowl, however there was a piece in the hallway (where he was) and so I took him a piece of liver treat to exchange for the bone (that he wasn’t eating) and put the bone in his bowl. I then waited while he finished the treat (very small piece) and then stroked him and spoke gently and rubbed his ears and he was fine. I stood up slowly to leave and then he started growling and snapping as though he wanted to attack me. I grabbed him quickly and held him in place whilst saying ‘No’ in a deep voice. He carried on like this for quite a while and whenever he stopped I would remove one hand and then he’d start again and I’d put my hand back. Eventually he calmed down. It was quite scary. About 10 minutes later I went back to check on him (he was still in the hallway) and he growled at me for no reason. I contacted a behaviourist and she emailed me asking if I fed him any carbohydrates as too much protein can cause this kind of aggression. I am now not sure what to do. I follow Ian Billingstone’s diet. I thought that dog aggression as a result of eating a protein-rich diet was no longer considered believed. He had another rabies shot after one year but the vet doesn't think that this would have anything to do with his behaviour. My apologies for this very long post – I have left a lot of stuff out. Any help would be much appreciated.