My puppy growled at me today. What should I do?

[DogLuvvr]

My 11 week old puppy was seriously working on a piece of rawhide and growled at me when I tried to take it.

I pried open his mouth and, when he released it, I said "drop it" and praised him. Then I gave it back to him.

A minute later I tried to take it again and he growled again. I repeated "drop it" when he finally released it.

I tried it again. Same thing.

What should I do? His teeth are like needles and I don't want him to bite me. Should I offer treats when he releases the toy?

 

[Dekka]

Practice trading less exciting things at first. Also you can give things back 'better' than when you took them. ie with a small smear of peanut butter on them. Or trade for something better.

 

[Lilavati]

What Dekka said.

I just want to emphasize that you need to deal with this NOW. Resource guarding from humans is a very dangerous habit for a dog to get into, and if he's doing it that young, then it really needs to be handled right away.

 

[Dekka]

Another point. DON'T let your pup see you have something better on you or with you when you take the object. Otherwise your dog will only give things up if he sees treats. The treat or better object should never become part of the cue.

 

[DogLuvvr]

Thanks everyone.

It totally took me by surprise because my hands are always in his food with no problem. I can take away food from him at any time. Usually I can take away his toys too. This came out of nowhere. I agree that this needs to be dealt with immediately because I don't find it cute now and I certainly won't find it cute when he is fully grown.

 

[DogLuvvr]

Dekka, when you say to trade "less exciting things" what exactly do you mean? Can you give an example? I really like the treat with some food on it idea and will definitely try it, but was just curious of what a less exciting toy/treat would be.

 

[Gena]

Dekka, when you say to trade "less exciting things" what exactly do you mean? Can you give an example? I really like the treat with some food on it idea and will definitely try it, but was just curious of what a less exciting toy/treat would be.

I was thinking along Dekka's lines, so I'll tell you how I would set it up. Give pup some boring thing he's had for a while. Encourage him to chew and let him chew a minute or two. If he's being fine with your approach, simply say "gimme" or "drop it" or whatever then give him a better chewy or that chewy back with cheese spray/pb/cream cheese on it. The whole idea is that what he has may be good, but you've got something even better. I would probably "ground" him from rawhides for a while until I had a pretty good trade game going.

 

[DanL]

Less exciting things meaning not rawhide which your pup seems to value. Maybe a toy or something that the dog enjoys but doesn't guard like a high value item like rawhide.

also, not preaching here, but please be careful with rawhide.

 

[RedyreRottweilers]

Play the trade game OFTEN. I always let a puppy trade up, in other words, I offer something better.

I do not take thing from puppies while they are learning, EVER, without offering something to trade.

By always presenting your puppy with something better, he will lose his anxiety about someone taking things that are important to him.

I never understand why people want to take a dog's food, toys, or other items he is enjoying without offering something in return. IMO doing this CREATES resource guarding issues, and DEVELOPS the puppy's natural anxiety about possession of his resources.

I have Rottweilers, have had for a number of years, and obviously with a large powerful strong tempered breed such as this, being able to safely approach a dog if you need to, to remove something is important. I teach this by always trading with the dog, by routinely hand feeding him some from his bowl, and by FREQUENTLY putting things INTO his food bowl as he is eating that are extreme high value.

If one hand is going to be taking away, my other hand is ALWAYS giving.

 

[Lilavati]

One thing I did a lot with Sarama (who didn't have this problem, but I wanted to make sure she didn't get it) was to get her to give me the prized item, praise her effusively, give her a treat, and then give her the item right back. I'm just borrowing it, you see

Putting things into the food dish is good too if he is protective of his food.

 

[Renee750il]

Lilavati, that's exactly what I've always done with mine, whether they were pups or adult rescues.

I don't have kids, so I was never terribly concerned that my dogs allow other people to reach in their mouths - frankly, I'm not really enthusiastic about my dogs obeying anyone else, but they know that when I reach into the mouth it's for a reason.

 

[wishbone]

Practice trading less exciting things at first. Also you can give things back 'better' than when you took them. ie with a small smear of peanut butter on them. Or trade for something better.

We did this when first introducing yummy raw bone to wishbone.

 

[DogLuvvr]

Thanks everyone for explaining how to "trade up." I'll start working on it with him regularly to get this under control.

 

[Squishy22]

I'm no professional, but I've also allways thought that you should trade. Even trading with treats is better than outright stealing it away from him, against his will. All thats going to do is reinforce his urge to defend what he has. I cringed when you said that you just take it away from him. He is young, work on it and he will get better.