Ginger is 8 months old and has been with us for 6 months. She is not normally an agressive dog, except when it comes to her food and toys. She snapped at me when I tried to take her bone from her. I am following all of the alpha dog training rules but it doesn't seem to be working. What do I do?
Which Alpha Techniques have you tried and how? How did you react when she snapped at you? Was that the first time or had she done it with her toys before?
Food bowl aggression and toy aggression are a form of territorial and possessive aggression. It seems as though your dog is not accepting you as the pack leader, the so called Alpha dog, in fact, you are a threat to her food or toys, which is why she becomes aggressive.
The food bowl aggression can be rectified with the following technique: 1. You have to convince your dog that having you around the food bowl is a positive thing. 2. You need to be present while your dog eats. In fact, for the next week or two, put her bowl away, and start feeding your dog directly from your hands. You will need to do this for all her meals. 3. Next, for another 1-2 weeks, put your dog’s empty bowl on the floor. Add food from your hands at two minute intervals. 4. Then, start to semi-fill the bowl and continue to top it up with food from your hand. Once again, this should continue for 1-2 weeks. The final step, which should be continued for the remainder of you dog’s life, is to fill her bowl, and ask her to sit before eating. Praise her for obedience, and once in a while when she is still eating, call your dog over to you for a treat or briefly take her food bowl away and add a very tasty treat to it.
Thanks for the advice. As far as the Alpha Dog techniques I use all of them, except I do let my dog sleep on my bed at night. However, she only comes up on the bed if invited. She already sits and stays before I allow her to eat. I don't even need to give the command, she just does it. Do I need to start her over with your instructions? She has snapped at me before but this is the first time she bit me (she did not draw blood). I had just given her a new bone and was trying to play tug-of-war with her. Then she bit my hand. I immediatly told her "No" and put her in her kennel. Later I let her out and tried again. She growled aggressively but did not snap. She only does this with new toys (like the bone) and scraps of human food that she accidently gets but should not have.
