[bobt]

Hello,

When I feed my 9 month old JR I can take her food away, pet her head & neck & put my fingers in the bowl with no problem. (had to work at that when she was real young.)

When I let her chew a rawhide on the floor, if I get close to her out come the teeth and she growls at me.

When I let her chew a rawhide while she's on my lap, she's fine until I try to pet her neck or head or attempt to take it away from her. If I pick her up, she drops the rawhide. Each case I take the rawhide away and let her calm down. Sometimes that's the end of the rawhide for the day and sometimes I'll give it back to her.

I want her to chew rawhides so she won't chew the house but I need her to stop showing her teeth (even though they're nice) as well as stop her growling at me.

Any ideas?

Thanks!!

[RedyreRottweilers]

Actually, you don't want to force her to stop her display. What you want to do is address the underlying fear and insecurity that is causing her to display this behavior.

The reason she is warning you is because she finds the rawhide very high value, and she is fearful that you might take it. So in order to really address the problem we must address her fear that you might take the rawhide.

I do this by giving the dog a treat that is tastier and higher value than the rawhide, while she is chewing it. Such as a piece of cheese, or a left over piece of table meat. I don't try to take the high value item. I just feed the dog great treats while it has the high value item.

Once the dog's anxiety is decreasing, and it is taking the treats without anxiety, and calmly going back to the high value item, then I will start to play the trade game. As I reach for the rawhide with one hand, I offer the treat with the other. As the dog drops the item to take the treat, say out. Give the treat. As soon as the dog eats the treat, return the other item.

Play often.Once dogs learn this game, they love it, and their anxiety over high value items will melt away.