So FOHA has this dog. His name is Quins. I think he may have some GSD in him, but other that that, who knows. Quins was an owner surrender, and was brought in by a person who handles the owner surrender stuff, wearing a muzzle, because it seems he was quite unhappy about being taken from his family. Quins lives in a run in iso, which has a door separating it from the rest of the runs in that building. Nobody can touch Quins because if you come near the cage he barks, bares his teeth, growls, and acts like a vicious beastie. He's ok when we are just walking by doing our regular stuff, but if you come up to the cage, he lashes out. Quins doesn't get time in the yard like the other dogs, because it isn't safe for us to be around him right now. This dog will have been at FOHA a week this Saturday. I know that's not that much time. I always talk to him and tell him he's being silly and that if he keeps acting like this he won't get out of that cage, and that's not any fun!
Quins also has a nasty food aggression problem. He tries to attack when you give him his food, and when you attempt to take the empty bowl away. He is in your typical kennel run made of chain link with a slot to slide food in and out, and a guillotine door you pull down to block him either in the inside or the outside (this is how we clean his kennel). Today, I tried to make friends with Quins by putting a gob of peanut butter on a spoon and feeding it to him through the door. He licked it, then bared his teeth, growled, jumped, snarled, the whole shebang (kinda comical with peanut butter on his front teeth). But I sat there on the floor, waited out his little temper tantrum, and continued feeding him peanut butter when he calmed down. I actually had him calmly eating peanut butter, and he didn't react again until I stood up.
And THEN (here is where my vent comes in), the kennel manager, who's training is very much correction based, tried to work with Quins about 30 minutes after this, and yells NO! at him repeatedly as he's gnashing his teeth at her, and I think banging his dish at him (I heard the yelling and banging, but I couldn't really tell exactly what was going on, I was in the kitchen, I can't stand to watch her "training"). You can imagine how much this helped. I think it pretty much undid anything I may have accomplished with my peanut butter. It makes me sick the way she thinks she needs to "fight fire with fire" when it comes to aggression. Later on I had to give Quins his second feedings, so I brought another gob of peanut butter on a spoon along, thinking maybe I could distract him while I put his food in but nope, his behavior was actually worse this time. He really has some nice looking teeth. lol I did get him to calm down a bit though, although I had to use the spoon to push his dish in the slot, and then pull it back out again when he was done (he's a real foodie, loves to eat).
But can anybody offer any advice for working with this dog? Maybe I should continue with the peanut butter? I don't want to see him condemned to life in a kennel run forever, he's a young dog. I do see a good dog in there somewhere. And he's a smart dog, you can see it in his eyes. He watches me when I walk past, looking like he's thinking, perhaps going "This one isn't like the others, she never screams at me or anything." Quins will wag his tail and look happy when I talk happy to him.
Help me help him to stop being a goon!
Quins also has a nasty food aggression problem. He tries to attack when you give him his food, and when you attempt to take the empty bowl away. He is in your typical kennel run made of chain link with a slot to slide food in and out, and a guillotine door you pull down to block him either in the inside or the outside (this is how we clean his kennel). Today, I tried to make friends with Quins by putting a gob of peanut butter on a spoon and feeding it to him through the door. He licked it, then bared his teeth, growled, jumped, snarled, the whole shebang (kinda comical with peanut butter on his front teeth). But I sat there on the floor, waited out his little temper tantrum, and continued feeding him peanut butter when he calmed down. I actually had him calmly eating peanut butter, and he didn't react again until I stood up.
And THEN (here is where my vent comes in), the kennel manager, who's training is very much correction based, tried to work with Quins about 30 minutes after this, and yells NO! at him repeatedly as he's gnashing his teeth at her, and I think banging his dish at him (I heard the yelling and banging, but I couldn't really tell exactly what was going on, I was in the kitchen, I can't stand to watch her "training"). You can imagine how much this helped. I think it pretty much undid anything I may have accomplished with my peanut butter. It makes me sick the way she thinks she needs to "fight fire with fire" when it comes to aggression. Later on I had to give Quins his second feedings, so I brought another gob of peanut butter on a spoon along, thinking maybe I could distract him while I put his food in but nope, his behavior was actually worse this time. He really has some nice looking teeth. lol I did get him to calm down a bit though, although I had to use the spoon to push his dish in the slot, and then pull it back out again when he was done (he's a real foodie, loves to eat).
But can anybody offer any advice for working with this dog? Maybe I should continue with the peanut butter? I don't want to see him condemned to life in a kennel run forever, he's a young dog. I do see a good dog in there somewhere. And he's a smart dog, you can see it in his eyes. He watches me when I walk past, looking like he's thinking, perhaps going "This one isn't like the others, she never screams at me or anything." Quins will wag his tail and look happy when I talk happy to him.
Help me help him to stop being a goon!