Dioritt
Well-Known Member
Hi.
Alfie's a 16 month old Miniature Poodle who I've had since he was 10 weeks. He's generally a great little dog to be around and is obedient in everything he's been taught so far. There's just one problem - resource guarding.
Whether it's food or something else he's stolen, he'll guard it and will bite if somebody tries to take it away from him. He's bitten me at least half a dozen times, bitten my son and my daughter several times and my 2 year old granddaughter once. When I say bite, I mean a proper bite where he draws blood.
I've done all the usual things - swapping for something of higher value (works most of the time for me when I swap stuff he's stolen for food), calling him away - he knows the command - sometimes he'll do it straight away (although never with food), other times it'll take a while before he eventually moves away and allows me to pick up the stolen item.
He's definitely getting much better with me and will let me pet him while he's eating now, unless it's food he's stolen. I feel I'm definitely getting somewhere but the main problem is my son. He has multiple learning difficulties and just doesn't do the swapping etc in the way that I explain to him and Alfie clearly has no respect for him. He'll happily do his tricks for him as long as there's food at the end of it, but nothing otherwise. I'm also worried about him around children, in case he bites if he steals something and they try to get it back.
I do believe that I'll eventually be able to get him to leave food that he's stolen or found, but I really don't know where to go from here to get him to respect everybody and not just me. If anybody has any ideas I'd be very grateful to hear them.
PS: I clicker train but I can't get my son to do that because he always clicks in the wrong places. Either too late or too early. Just thought it would be worth mentioning that.
Alfie's a 16 month old Miniature Poodle who I've had since he was 10 weeks. He's generally a great little dog to be around and is obedient in everything he's been taught so far. There's just one problem - resource guarding.
Whether it's food or something else he's stolen, he'll guard it and will bite if somebody tries to take it away from him. He's bitten me at least half a dozen times, bitten my son and my daughter several times and my 2 year old granddaughter once. When I say bite, I mean a proper bite where he draws blood.
I've done all the usual things - swapping for something of higher value (works most of the time for me when I swap stuff he's stolen for food), calling him away - he knows the command - sometimes he'll do it straight away (although never with food), other times it'll take a while before he eventually moves away and allows me to pick up the stolen item.
He's definitely getting much better with me and will let me pet him while he's eating now, unless it's food he's stolen. I feel I'm definitely getting somewhere but the main problem is my son. He has multiple learning difficulties and just doesn't do the swapping etc in the way that I explain to him and Alfie clearly has no respect for him. He'll happily do his tricks for him as long as there's food at the end of it, but nothing otherwise. I'm also worried about him around children, in case he bites if he steals something and they try to get it back.
I do believe that I'll eventually be able to get him to leave food that he's stolen or found, but I really don't know where to go from here to get him to respect everybody and not just me. If anybody has any ideas I'd be very grateful to hear them.
PS: I clicker train but I can't get my son to do that because he always clicks in the wrong places. Either too late or too early. Just thought it would be worth mentioning that.