Sign Of Being A Boss

[LilyW]

In puppy school we were told when feeding them, get them to wait for the food and then when you give them the command to eat and they begin, take the food away and get them wait again and place it down once more and let them eat. I have done this with our pup and she is really good, no issues and is not at all food aggressive. I wanted to make sure she was good with the eating especially as she will be a big dog one day and you don't want a dog that gets aggressive or upset when someone goes near the food let alone taking it away.

[Teebs]

I cant get near Atlas while he is eating - my fault, i didnt know better when i first got him, i would leave him with the food and go inside.

Kaos wont eat a bone now, unless i am sitting next to her!! She lets me remove anything from her mouth (unless it is my lip gloss she suddenly likes to steal!! then she wont release.. that is IF i catch her!)

[Muttaburra]

Caff!

I think she knows you're just pretending to eat her food. She needs to see you actually eating it so she knows that YOU are the boss

Firstly, this pup is only 11 weeks old, so you can't expect it to get everything right. Maxi used to grab my shoelaces when we were setting out on a walk, I think it is just excitement, and they associate the shoes with the walk. I would recommend always having the pup on the lead, if it starts to bite at your shoes, call out a command like "turn around" then quickly turn around and go in the opposite direction, remembering to stand very straight and tall with you chin in the air, not paying any attention to the pup at all, the distraction should help break the habit.

Also the bit about eating first, well you can just nibble on a biscuit or similar, while you ask the dog to sit, once dog is sitting then put the food straight down. Dog needs to know that following a command brings quick reward when you first start training. If you are too slow with the reward, or trying to get a young pup to hold a command for too long, then the pup will always be failing and frustrated. As the training advances, then you can work on delayed stay and wait commands, but you do need to build up to these. For now, get that reward out quick. Also remember to "release" with another command such as "ok now" so there is a beginning and an end to it all.

[nikkiandkuma]

Don't eat the food, eat something of your own first, or run your finger through Chelsea's food while having her sit there and watch you :D

We put a smaller bowl inside our puppies bowl and put broken up cookies in it, then holding it above her ehight we eat the cookies from the bowl in front of him. He thinks we are eating his dog food. he doesn't like it but is starting to accept it less noisily.

[Jed]

If you are going to put the bowl down then take it away, remember to praise the dog highly when you take the bowl away, and praise again when you put it down.

Mine all love to jump up and down and make yum yum, dinner's comin' noises at dinner time. I am happy for them to do this - and I can take the bowls away before they finish.

A lot depends on the breed, and the individual dog - some dogs need a little more training in this area than others, some are laid back. You need to fit the information you get to the dog ;)

[TangerineDream]

.....it is totally unacceptable for a puppy to growl at you....for any reason at all.

The method you use to train the pup depends on the temperament of the pup and there's some good advice here, but you need to tell the pup "no" instantly in a l ow and gruff voice as Shek suggested if it growls at you so it understands from the start that it is behaviour that you won't accept for any reason whatsoever....

[WorkingHard]

I think that we may have gotten away a little from the question posed by the OP. What are some of the signs of a pup trying to be dominate?? Yes pups are just babies but some can show dominate traits even at such a young age. Forcing owners to do things their way by growling or snapping, Getting up higher or equal with humans, and all those things that we see in adult dogs. If these things that can be seen in a dominate dog are stoped at an age where the dog is still manageble and easily influenced this could only be good couldn't it???

I do not have much experiance in this area as all my dogs have been adults when I have got them so this is just my thoughts.

As for the food thing that people seem to have gotton stuck debating. When the eating from the bowl idea is used then you don't generally ask the dog to "DO" anything. The dog learns that you eat then it does. I used this way on my some of my dogs as I wasn't going to risk losing an arm to take the bowl away. The look of OMG your eating MY food is priceless. ;)

Edit coz I'm not sure it makes sence.

Edited December 14, 2006 by WorkingHard