# I'm stumped



## jjohnson (Nov 9, 2011)

Calling all dog experts! Gus is doing something really weird and although I feel like I usually have a pretty good grasp of dog behavior, I am stumped on this one.

His resource guarding over his food is getting bad as he's getting older. He has started to go after our cats whenever they get near him while he is eating. Given we have a baby crawling around now (who takes a lot of interest in those dog bowls), I have decided to nip this in the bud and moved Gus' food and water outside on the back deck. 

Now, when I feed him out there, he just stares at his food and won't eat it. He will lay on his bed by it, and just look at it. I give him his release command, and say "okay!", but he won't touch it. I can't figure out his body language either....he puts his ears back and his tail is down. He holds his head low and looks at me out of the top of his eyes, seems like he might bite, but he doesn't growl at all (usually he will growl if mad). Also, the other day he was physically trembling while doing this. I know he's hungry because he proceeds to scarf down his food if I hold the bowl and feed it to him. It is so weird. It's not a big deal because he will eat when he is hungry enough, but this behavior is driving me nuts because I have no idea what it means or why he is doing it?


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## redbirddog (Apr 23, 2010)

http://www.patriciamcconnell.com/reading-room

Try this and let me know if you find something helpful. In the search box type in "food guarding".

Good luck. With little ones around you are wise to be very cautious until you find out what is going on between his ears.

RBD


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## marathonman (Jan 15, 2013)

Has this behavior steadily gotten worse since the kid came into the picture? Is Gus getting as much interaction as before the kid? 
I'll take a stab at this and guess Gus may be acting out with the changes that have occurred.. Things have dramatically changed around home, so Gus may be pretty stressed and trying to control what he can (resources). Moving the bowls outside may have been good to protect the baby, but it sounds like it stressed Gus out even more to be relegated to eating outside. (Another thing changing) Just be very careful/vigilant with baby/dog interactions, especially with a stressed dog. 
As for a solution, people here may have better ideas, but I think you need to carve out more time for Gus and rethink where your bowls are. Focus on some training, whether it's obedience or nose-work, go for walks/hikes. As for the bowls, can you block off an area to where the kid doesn't have access?


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## Watson (Sep 17, 2012)

I think it's tough to gauge what is happening just by description alone.

I don't know if you crate Gus or not, but I would feed him in there. Give him his own space to eat so that he doesn't have to worry about who is coming to take his food.


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## jjohnson (Nov 9, 2011)

@Redbirddog-what a cute baby! Does she love splashing the water bowl too?

@marathonman - it has gotten worse since the baby, but although Gus clearly gets less attention, he still gets his daily exercise, plenty of play in the house, he still gets to sleep with us, still allowed on the furniture, etc. So he shouldn't be that stressed (but that is a relative word- Gus is ALWAYS stressed). He seems to have gotten better in all other aspects of his behavior since the baby was born.

I imagine its some sort of resource guarding behavior/protesting eating outside, but it is just so weird. Tonight he alternated acting aggressive (ears back, shaking) and then running inside and wagging his tail and play bowing at me. At this point, outside is the best option- he tries to attack the cats otherwise. I have tried feeding him in his crate, but that turns him into straight-out cujo if anybody or anything gets near him with food in there.


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## redbirddog (Apr 23, 2010)

> @Redbirddog-what a cute baby! Does she love splashing the water bowl too?


She used to but now she is "all grown up" at almost 3 years old. If the dogs get in her space she turns her back and gives them a "rump bump" and tells mostly Bailey, "BACK OFF BAILEY!" and he complies to her demand. They have a mutual respect grown over the years.

RBD


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## mlwindc (Feb 8, 2013)

Hijacking this to say rod, I love the rump bump. My four year old could learn a thing or two from her!


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## redbirddog (Apr 23, 2010)

Ok, back to Gus. All disclaimers apply.

If Gus lived with me we would make a few new rules. 

Two meals a day at as close to the same time as possible. Ours get feed at 10am and 7:30pm.

Dog bowl is never set down in the same place twice (until behavior stops). Pick up the dog bowl as soon as it is gone and store it.

Have lots of water bowls around so he doesn't have to guard the water and the little one can splash in one and Gus not get weird. He knows there are five more available. But only water.

I would take dog bowl after I sat it down with food and return it to same spot a few seconds later during meal. Do this constantly until he knows the food returns, but YOU own it.

NO high value items available to dog. No bones, special chew toys, nothing that he gets. I may let him have them for a small amount of time but he owns NOTHING. Bones are VERY HIGH VALUE items. I just wouldn't even have them around. If he has nothing, he has nothing to guard.

I'd have a pocket of good tasting treats with me whenever I was holding the baby. As I walked around I would drop one for the dog. If the baby is old enough, let the baby drop the treats. Good things come from the baby for well behaved dogs.

Treat your child just like a two-legged pup. Another member of the pack when the dog is around. Try not to "over protect." This is tough and I wouldn't do this stage until you get Gus over his guarding problem. Yes, the baby is higher in the pack structure and as soon as he or she can talk starts giving commands to the dog. "Sit" "Off" "Down" and you treat the dog every time he complies. You have just a couple seconds to associate the child's command with the treat so be there and be ready. Dried liver will get great results.

Never let your child or any child "trick" or tease Gus. Throwing a ball is a great bonding exercise but I watch people pretend to throw a ball and don't. Laughing as the dog looks for the ball. That is dishonest and disrespectful to the dog. Honest communication between us and our four-legged friends creates trust. Be predictable and consistent and demand others do the same. It is Gus's house too and he should get the respect he deserves as a full member of the family.

Good luck. Let me know how that goes if you try it.

http://redbirddog.blogspot.com/2012/06/raising-free-thinking-kids-and-dogs.html


RBD


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## mswhipple (Mar 7, 2011)

All good advice!! 

Yeah, I hate it when people act like they're going to throw the ball, then actually pretend to throw it, and confuse the poor dog. I just want to say, "Oh aren't you clever... You fooled the dog!" Not clever at all. Just mean-spirited.


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## texasred (Jan 29, 2012)

mswhipple said:


> All good advice!!
> 
> Yeah, I hate it when people act like they're going to throw the ball, then actually pretend to throw it, and confuse the poor dog. I just want to say, "Oh aren't you clever... You fooled the dog!" Not clever at all. Just mean-spirited.


This is a pet peeve of mine too.


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## Watson (Sep 17, 2012)

I hate that too. I even feel horrible when I toss the ball for Watson and it goes in a different direction than he anticipates and then he "loses" it. He knows I'll help him find it though!


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## jjohnson (Nov 9, 2011)

Thanks for the tips. I hadn't thought about having the baby give him treats - that is a good idea. So far he hasn't shown any sort of aggression towards her, but of course I never chance it. I only let her touch him when I am supervising, and I never let her touch his tail or paws, I say "no". She isn't old enough to remember or understand why, but never too soon to start. I also try to discourage her from approaching him while he is sleeping. I'll point out that we also work on this when she is around my parents' friendly dog.

I'll keep working on the resource guarding, but at this point, I've taken the "management" approach, which like you said, is no high value items in the house. So maybe I should throw all of his toys outside too. 

Like I said, so far, so good with the baby in general. We mostly have to watch carefully because he always tries to drop his toys on her because he thinks she will throw it. Right now she grabs the toy and hands it to me for me to throw  Pretty cute. Gus knows if he drops it near her it means that it will get thrown. He's no dummy.


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## jld640 (Sep 29, 2010)

I have no ideas about the resource guarding, cats, or baby part of your post. Hopefully the advice from some of the other posts will work.

I can tell you that, like you described with Gus, when I feed Savannah in an unusual place - either someplace her bowl isn't usually or if we are traveling - she eats better if I either sit next to her or hold her bowl while she eats. She will eat without me there if she is really hungry, but for the couple of minutes it takes her to eat, I'm happy to just chill with her. I don't know if it will help you or not, but when we are not at home, she continues to prefer to eat off of a flat surface rather than out of a bowl, so her 'travel food bowl' is actually an upside down Frisbee.


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## harrigab (Aug 21, 2011)

when we got Rubes, my two lads were infants, not babies or toddlers, but still young boys. Ruby did the food guarding mullarkey so I simply got the boys to dish out her food and they held the dish till she was steady, let them put it down for her, then give her the "take it" command, also when she was halfway through they gave her the "ahh ahh ahh, leave it!", so they could pick her dish up....they've survived unscathed, and Ruby aint gone to the vets


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