[JESSJAME5]

Toby, my ACD puppy, he's now 5 & a half months old.. I posted awhile ago when he was 17 weeks old that I had discovered he had food aggression when it came to my friends dog. Since then we've just avoided all food situations with other dogs and it's been okay... He was doing fine too if OTHER people gave him and another dog treats, but if I give him and another dog a treat he gets verryyy aggressive. So he's resource guarding anything that comes from me.

Last week at the dog park he was playing with another dogs ball, as he always does. Some people just bring a bunch of balls and throw them for all the dogs to chase, and he loves joining it. But when I went to toss one of the balls, another dog came over to us to play and Toby went aggressive on him. So now he's guarding even toys that "come from me".

A couple of days ago at the park I tossed a huge stick in, the park he was playing with, and then another dog tried to enter the park and Toby gave the dog that "look", basically telling it to bugger off or he'll go savage on it.. And I've seen him do this look here at my parents house yesterday to my parents dog when it tried to come in the house with Toby and I...

I don't know how to get him over this, he's very socialized, we go to the dog park every day. But the older he gets, the more things he wants to "guard" and get aggressive over.. Someone suggested I tie him and another dog up just a bit away from each other and have him watch me give the other dog treats, and give Toby treats when he's calm and not overreacting...? To show/teach him that it's OKAY when I give another dog a treat or a toy..

Just not sure if this idea is worth trying or not, I'm a bit more worried about what will happen after he comes off the leash, if Toby will decide afterwards that he wants to get aggressive over what happened..?

Any help greatly appreciated..

 

[spotted nikes]

Doing that would make him frustrated and more aggressive.

 

[JESSJAME5]

That's what I was thinking - that he'd be more aggressive with that dog. But is there anything else I can do to work him out of this?

 

[Amaryllis]

I'd stop taking him to off leash dog parks. Look at it from my perspective: I have a dog who loves other dogs and loves to run, but I've stopped taking him to dog parks because of people who keep bringing their (whatever) aggressive dog, even though they know he's likely to go after my not at all aggressive dog.

How is he with other dogs overall? Dog aggression is common in dogs, but it varies from selective aggression- Aggressive to some dogs in some situations- to complete dog aggression- aggressive to all dogs in all situations. Dog aggression is largely genetic. You can socialize your dog up the wazoo, but that might accomplish lessening the DA at best. I have to wonder if your dog is growing into DA.

I had a severely DA dog. There were no dogs he did not want to kill.(most DA dogs wont go after young puppies. Muggsy did.) I trained him to behave in my presence on a leash, but off leash in a park? No way. You manage DA dogs, keep them away from dogs/situations that set them off.

I could be way off base about the DA, but I think continually putting your dog in a position to fail is frustrating for both of you.

 

[JESSJAME5]

He's amazing at the dog park, there's not really any dogs there that are aggressive, it's the same group of us every afternoon and they're all wonderful. Whenever there's a roudy/rough dog we see coming, a lot of us know to leave. So he's never been in the situation really where a dog has been aggressive at him. At the park though he's great, he has lots of play signals, he play bows, jumps up and down, he even does this weird spinning thing where he's facing the dog, then spins around really quick to kind of "bump" the other dog with his butt, he'll do all his play signals until they play with him. He's very gentle too with smaller dogs, he rolls around on the ground with them and all. Then with the bigger dogs like my friends lovely doberman, they play a bit tougher rolling around jumping all over each other etc. He absolutely adores other dogs and people.

The only situations where he's set up to fall is if there's food involved. I can't bring treats anywhere near another dog cause I know he'd not be happy about it. That's the only thing that makes him aggressive, when I have his food/treats. And that one time, the ball. He seems to be doing fine here at my parents this week with the other dogs here, they're playing with sticks and stuff together and sharing. I threw a stick and they both went for it. But I wouldn't dare bring the food out.

I just want to overcome this food issue and the resource guarding me problem as someday I'd like to get a second dog and if he's going to be like this it just wouldn't work very well.

But overall, no, I don't think he's dog aggressive at all. Unless I give food.

 

[Greater Swiss]

Caeda isn't DA at all, but she does tend to get pushy with other dogs around me, especially if I've got treats. I'm not sure if I can really help you but I can tell you what I've done to get Caeda a bit less pushy. I give both treats at exactly the same time, at least they're both busy chewing, and more interested in the treats than each other....a couple of times I did stuff like give Caeda an awesome treat and the other dog just a regular low value one. I've also put Caeda in a down-stay (I had to have her tethered somewhere the first few times for this), and went to the other dog and gave it pets and treats, and if Caeda was at least relatively calm I gave her a super value treat, tons of praise and let her go play. I can now down-stay her and give another dog a pet and treats but I've got a short time window for it...getting there.
Don't know if that helps, but maybe some modification of this type of thing could be used....I'm sure others will have better info for you. Of course with actual aggression its far higher stakes....Caeda is just pushy, but I dealt with it to ensure it didn't become aggression.

 

[JESSJAME5]

Yeah that's why I want to deal with the very few occurrences we've had before it becomes too much. That's what I was suggested to do basically, the tethering and high value low value treats. If I was to give him and another dog a treat at the same time he'd either swallow his or drop it and go for theirs just because it's come from me. But if someone else gives them both a treat, he's too busy chewing to bother with the others. It's just cause it's from me. But no food/treats involved he's amazing overall with other dogs.

 

[JESSJAME5]

Just tried it with them both tied up - he went fine. He figured out pretty quickly that if he sits and waits nicely he'll get treats too. However my parents little dog decided to go after Toby when I took the little one off the leash. Toby didn't really fight back, growled a bit though but he was caught off guard I think. But I think with a better 2nd dog to try it with, he'll figure it out very quickly. He's just never been in the right situation where he's had to share anything with another dog before. And I don't blame him... If some random person came over to my house and was eating all my food and playing with my stuff I'd be annoyed too for a bit.