# Bone and Biscuit Growling



## popalina (Jan 31, 2013)

Hi, Wonder if anyone can help with tips on how to stop my adorable 20 month old, Rosie, growling at me when she has a "tasty" bone or biscuit/chew.

She has a crate as her bed and loves it. When she goes to bed at night, I give her a biscuit and try to stroke her,she tenses up and gives me a growl, not a ferocious one, just a "leave me alone with my biscuit" one. 
She also growls, when anyone goes to stoke her if she has a nice bone or chew, during the day, not in her crate.

I believe this is food guarding but I really don't want her growling or being protective over her treats.

The strange thing is... she is such a fussy eater. She will often leave her breakfast all day and eat it at tea time. Sometimes she leaves her meals for a whole day!
I swapped and changed her food when she was a puppy to find something she would eat as she was fussy with every food.
We have settled on Wainwrights wet tray, grain free,seems the best, although she's never enthusiastic. She never growls around her meals.
Should we stop giving her treats, biscuits and the odd bone? Seems a shame as meals alone can be boring and she does like a biscuit treat.
Really must stop this growling, scared she may get worse and bite!!
Advice welcome , please.


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## DB1 (Jan 20, 2012)

Hi, there are lots of useful posts on here with regard to resource guarding, I've still not worked out how to do links but I'm sure if you use the forum search tool you will find lots of info - better than mine too, but I would say you really need to start the swap for higher value training, I would do this outside of the crate (as if she feels threatened by you putting your hand in she can't get away), find some treats you know she really loves and couldn't refuse, usually bits of cheese, liver or sausage do the trick, give her a biscuit or chew and then offer the very tasty treat, let her have the biscuit or chew afterwards, she should learn that you coming towards her is a good thing, that she will get something extra, not lose anything. Some think you should be able to take anything from your dog, others would say leave her alone with a bone. 
I wouldn't leave her meals down all day either, leave for 20-30 minutes then remove and offer again a few hours later.


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## Meredith (Mar 30, 2014)

Have you tried seeing if she'll trade it for something even better. Maybe start with the thing she is the least possessive of and trade up. I personally use the command "drop it" in a very friendly voice while offering the better item. Once the item is dropped I allow him to gently take the new item. Give her tons of praise and then give her back what she had. She will learn you are no threat and that giving up what she has is rewarded with even better things. Once she's willingly giving things up you can start just giving her back the original item or occasionally just praising her and keep the item. This has worked very well for mine. 

I had to start with really good stuff because I handled the situation poorly initially and made him more possessive. At first I was holding the entire jar of peanut better at his nose while asking him to drop it. Lol. Now we worked up to the point where he doesn't even need a treat to drop something although I will generally give him one.

edit: I was typing this while you were typing your answer DB1.. Didn't mean to copy your post


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## Meredith (Mar 30, 2014)

DB1 said:


> Some think you should be able to take anything from your dog, others would say leave her alone with a bone.
> I wouldn't leave her meals down all day either, leave for 20-30 minutes then remove and offer again a few hours later.


My fear of just leaving them with a bone when they growl is someday in his life a child might approach him with a bone as much as I try to avoid that situation and I want there to be as little chance as possible that my dog will snap at a child in that situation. I've heard of so many stories of children being inappropriate or not respecting boundaries and getting bitten and unfortunately for the dog they will be the one blamed.


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## 2ndhandgal (Aug 29, 2011)

You are right that she is telling you to go away when she is growling, from her point of view why are you giving her something tasty she will enjoy and then stroking her - are you going to take it away from her? 

She needs to learn that people around her things are good and you are no threat, so no more giving bone and then stroking, instead when she has her bone you can give her extra yummy treats too and walk away. If she is not comfortable with this even you need to take a huge step backwards and maybe throw treats to her. The idea is she see's your approach and says "oh good someone is coming" rather than "Oh no - what are they going to do" Ultimately you want to be able to swap whatever she has - but to start with this needs to be something really high value so maybe cheese or liver - something she will love more than what she wants. At all stages though the dog needs to be totally comfortable with what you are doing - any hint of stress in the dog and you need to rethink how you are handling it.


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## Millie123 (Oct 8, 2014)

So sorry this is happening. There are some fabulous people with great advice here- we are going though a similar issue. We got a great book called 'Mine! A Practical Guide to Resource Guarding' Easy to read and would highly recommend it. Keep us posted...


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## popalina (Jan 31, 2013)

Thank you all for your help. I'll keep you posted


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## sugerlump (Oct 6, 2012)

ginger did that when she was young. so what i did was i would keep giving her things like bones and stuff and then i would keep taking it away and then giving it back.so finely she learned that if i take something away ,that i will give it back..
she still does it a little with things that she's not suppose to have like string and things like that.but all in all she is pretty good at giving things up


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## popalina (Jan 31, 2013)

Thank you Sugarlump. Will keep trying to swop things with Rosie and see how she goes


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## sugerlump (Oct 6, 2012)

she has to get it in her head that you will give it back and you won't keep it if it is some thing that your not going to give back then give her a treat in place of it .but she has to know that what you take from her you won't keep OK good luck


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## DB1 (Jan 20, 2012)

for now I would swap rather than try and remove anything without something better to give, ensure she can smell that there is something more interesting and hold it out to her, she can sniff that first then you can remove the first treat, let her have the 2nd then give her back the first, in time she should leave something she has in anticipation of getting something better.


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## fairlie (Sep 7, 2013)

This is another one that new puppy owners can start from day one. Their stuff is your stuff, their food your food. Sit with them while they eat and offer really yummy tasty treats as they relax, take their toys often and offer treats in exchange always giving the food or toy right back (unless it is contraband in which case trade up).


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