I have a 6 month old foster puppy. She was born at the shelter and then adopted @ 8 weeks and then returned at 6 months for food aggression and toy possession and she didn't like the 4 y/o in the house. I just didn't have the heart to put a puppy to sleep without seeing "how bad is bad" for myself.

So I have her at home and I've been doing a food aggression protocol with her and pretty strict NILIF. I've started working on a really great leave-it. She actually already has a pretty good foundation of training: she knows sit, down, how to walk on a leash and how to sit and wait for her food bowl so we're doing pretty good on all that too.

Another really big contributing issue with her is she gets highly aroused VERY easily. She pretty much constantly has her hackles up. Anytime anything is remotely interesting, hackles go up and she is prone to frantic behavior when said interesting thing is happening. (The dogs bark, a food bag rattle, leashes come out, cats come out, etc.)

I am going to start Dr. Overall's Relaxation Protocol tomorrow with her. Right now I'm letting her settle and getting to know her. I have been insistent that she sit before all greeting, no jumping whatsoever (I let my dogs jump, I know, bad mom), she sits and is a little calm before I touch her, etc.

Anyone have any suggestions on other things to do to help her?

I really need to do as much as I can with her in a relatively short period of time (2 weeks?) so any ideas, insight, suggestions, whatever are accepted.

Paige

I don't have any suggestions for you, but I hope you can help her. Sounds like she was in the wrong home. Hopefully, with your help, she can work on her behaviours and get to the right family for her.

Wow, she sounds like a real project! How have you found the possive behaviours since you're had her? (as bad as you've heard?) And it's towards people, I assume? It sounds like it's a good thing they gave her up, seeing as they have a 4yo. Resource guarding and children definitely do not go well together.
What do you know of her history in her last home? What sort of training/mamagement was used? (ie. cesar ...?) What did they do about her guarding, in particular? And what do you know of her parents? (or mother, I guess)Does she guard the space where the food/toy was, if it is removed?
What is involved in the food aggression protocol you are using? Have you read Jean Donaldson's "Mine"?
(lots of questions there!)
I've heard some arguments against a NILIF type approach to guarding, the theory being that that will increase the value of the food (as is the intended goal for most cases where NILIF is used). If the food is already so valuable to the dog that she feels the need to guard it, the goal should not be to increase the value of it even further. (or toy, etc)
Lots of good can come from a purely classical approach to solving guarding issues.

Also, have you read Leslie McDevitt's "Control Unleashed", or seen Sue Garret' "Crate Games" (I think that's her name... It's packed in a box because I'm moving soon so I can't check. Her training school is "Say Yes Dog Training"). Both of those resources will help you with the arousal issues. Protocol for Relaxation is great, glad you're using it.

Let us know how it's going, as well as the answers to some of my questions, please!

I haven't seen the extent of her food aggression that was seen in the home. What she did do when SAFER'd was eat faster, more intensely (began wolfing down her food) and not pick her head up. Her history in the home was growling, hackles up, teeth showing whenever someone moved in the room while she was eating. They did have a trainer helping them and I didn't talk much about it but what she did briefly mention, it didn't sound like anything that would exacerbate it. (She said she sat while the dog ate with her hand in the bowl). Then the resource guarding progressed to guarding toys. She has been very "bowl oriented" --that is, she goes from bowl to bowl to bowl and sniffs and licks them (my other dogs bowls) but hasn't guarded them. They get picked up now to prevent the opportunity to guard them. She also also easily and willingly let us trade a delicious tidbit for her nylabone and a deer antler.

I believe I've read "mine" but it's been awhile--I'm going to have to looks see if I've got it. Now that I think about it, I'm not sure I have. I think I read "Fight!"... Hmm... . That's so sad I don't even know what I've read!

Anyway, what I've been doing so far is having her eat and starting from a few feet away (below her threshold), throwing delicious tidbits on the ground to get her head out of the bowl. I will progress getting closer and closer, each time when she stops eating and just looks at me like "Well, can I have more of what you've got?" then I know to close the space a bit. I have used this protocol with another food aggressive foster and it was very effective. I also like it because I can move around since that's what seemed to set her off.

I have heard the same thing about NILIF but she also has arousal problems that I think contribute to her food aggression. I need for her to learn self-control and I believe NILIF is a fundamental part of learning self control. And besides, 99.9% of NILIF is non-food involved-- sit to get her leash on, sit to get pet, sit to go outside, etc.

I've read Control Unleashed-- I will progress to some of those self control games as well. I've started teaching her a "go to your mat" behavior. She now jumps on the towel with glee. It's cute. I've not seen the Crate Games video, though.

Her mother was a very anxious dog. She was adopted and returned twice for separation anxiety. I never cared much for her. She was a frantic type dog--not my style so I can definitely see where Dakota gets the frantic, high arousal behavior. So far, this is the only puppy that we've heard of having problems.

She's spent a lot of time on tie-downs and in her crate so far. I think part of this is a transition from the shelter and into my home and part of it is she's never really learned to be calm. I do realize she's only 6 mos old so obnoxious is pretty much a way of life but, as I keep saying, there is a lot of frantic pacing, panting, looking-to-get-into-stuff that I don't believe is normal.

On the plus side, she is really sweet and social to both people and dogs. She also has an ADORABLE submissive grin. None of my dogs do that so I always get a kick out of it.


ETA: Okay, I checked out my doggie library and I don't have "Mine" so I'm pretty sure I haven't read it. I'll see if I can find it somewhere!

hi paige!

wow, you DO have a project on your hands, huge kudos to you for making the effort with this puppy!

i don't have anything helpful to add, just wanted to comment on how much i LOVE giving them a "spot" that is theirs. the behaviorist i used with brinca when i first rescued her taught me that & i believe it's a great tool.

btw, how's my new BF soda doing? give her a big hug for me!

yay for you helping out this puppy!

Many of our Feisty class clients have had great luck with the calming ovals for the over aroused dogs. They swear by them.
Also recently a client said she has seen some great progress with giving chamomile tea. She has a little cattle dog mix that is wound pretty tight and a 4 year old child. She says the Chamomile has made a big difference.
It does sound like you are dealing with some hereditary stuff.

I don't have anything to add, just good luck to you! I have heard really good things about the calming protocol, though. I started it with both mine and then lazy me never continued all the way through with it.

I wonder if she is a fearful dog? Just on the ready for everything, hurry and eat before something bad happens, guard my toy before something bad happens...any noise must mean something bad is happening?

You know, I don't really think so. I think she is just a dog prone to be overly excited and then that arousal keeps rising and turns into aggression because she's just so over the top, that's the only ting left to do.

She's a pretty happy-go-lucky gal.

Paige, what kind of dog is she? A BC?

some sort of dog, . I suspect here mom had some pit mixed in there and she looks like she has a wee bit in her face. Otherwise... I don't know! She's white with a few brown spots.

Okay, just seen some herding dogs, specifically BCs get into this guarding behavior and it's more of an experiment on seeing how things react and move with respect to behavior - does that make sense? In these cases, no pressure on working protocols but not reacting to the behavior and taking the puppy away from the circumstance in which guarding is taking place can help a lot.

That being said, I've seen some pretty scary resource guarders under the age of 4 months and they need a lot of work.

Actually, search in You Tube for resource guarding or food aggression. There are a bunch of goldens that would make your hair stand on end.

The killer is, she really isn't that bad of a guarder! I've seen much much much worse. BUT I think there is TREMENDOUS potential for her to become truly unsafe because of how tightly wound she is. Right now I'm working on a nice easy going resource guarding protocol but I'm really focusing on teaching her to calm the eff down. Her hackles are up literally 90% of the time and she displays a lot of frantic pacing, looking for something to do, inability to settle.

I really think that she doesn't know how to calm down and how to settle and when she was in her last home because of the small children, it was exacerbated and that tightly wound nature + inability to control her impulses + lots of activity = bad dog behavior!.

That's my theory, anyway. I'm going to get some pictures. She's really cute. I've already seen a small improvement in her ability to settle when asked to sit... it seems she's able to sit more quickly and her hackles down more quickly when given a sit--though I want to do the protocol for relaxation in a down because she has trouble holding a sit on my slick floors.

I am afraid though, that after all this work, she may not be placeable. That's the hard part, isn't it?

geez, maybe she needs some kind of an herbal "calm the eff down" pill.

can puppies get medical marijuana cards??

! ... hmm... "But officer, it's for my puppy, HONEST!"

Puppy: "My mom stole my meds" !

so, she snapped at me. Yay!

She was playing with Cash and it was time go for our walk. I separated Cash and made him sit down for a second. I asked her to sit-quietly and calmly, two or three times. I did not touch her while asking her to sit. When she was calm enough to sit I quietly said good girl and could see she was still pretty wound. I went to put her gentle leader on and she snarked me. She did not make contact. I, without thinking, put her on the ground and held her there until she was quiet and still. Not the right thing to do... but I'm not sure what I should have done.

I'm not surprised and it goes along with my theory. Suggestions on how to handle it?

I disagree and think it was the perfect thing to do . Once she was quiet and still I'd have given her a simple command that she could do easily and followed it with attagirls and happys. Bad or unacceptable behavior equals on your backs or rock bottles and good behavior equals attagirls and happys. It doesn't take a canine Einstein to figure out which is the easiest course of action. Since she's so young it's time to get this behavior out of her before she's used to getting her way. I think you're doing a great thing Paige and working with her now will only help her get the kind of great home every dog deserves.

Ruffysdad