Name- Loki
Breed- German Shorthair Pointer
Age- 7 months
Primary issue- Food / possession aggression (no bite history)
We responded to a client in York who called about his 7-month-old German Shorthaired Pointer who was showing dominant/aggressive behavior over his two teenage daughters. This was being displayed over a bone and a Christmas ornament. When they attempted to take these things from him, he growled and snapped.
Background- Dad has worked with several trainers and wants him to have good obedience and may eventually want to use him to hunt. Dedicated hunting breeds such as GSPs often have a hard time with being a house pet. Obedience is not their strong suit because they naturally move out in front of the hunter flushing birds. For this reason, they are often kept in kennels and seldom see a leash until they go from the kennel to the box to the field. As with all dogs, they are still 98% gray wolves, therefore respond well to Focused Based Dog Training (reality-based training).
Traditional talk n treat training with one handler (Dad) will have little impact on the way the dog sees the two girls.
It would make sense that the primary commodity for dominance out of food, water, space, toys, and attention, but it’s not. It is space. For a domesticated animal, food comes 1-3 times a day. Whoever is with the dog in the house is sharing space. So, ultimately for survival it is food. For dominance and hierarchy in the pack, it is decided with space.
For this reason, if you address food first, before effortlessly dominating the dog’s space you will make little progress. As soon as I came into the house, I dominated Loki by coming through the door without eye contact and sat on the couch. After having dad put him on the Immediate Correction Lead, I began to walk him inside. I then moved him out the door under control, and then we moved outside. Within a few minutes, we handed the lead over to Dan and he did the same. Then we went into a focus drill before moving inside and showing Dad and the girls how to leave the house and how to answer the door in such a way that they consistently show passive dominance every time the door opens or closes.
Dad had not fed him, so he was instructed to give me the bowl. At this time, I put bite gloves on that go up to my elbows. Without a word, I put the bowl down without saying a word. When Loki stepped towards the bowl, I moved forward, and he backed up. Dad trained him to wait and needed to be told to eat. Dad gave him the command to eat, and he dug in. As soon as I moved towards him, space, he began to growl. When I pushed him off the food, he growled viciously and began to nip as I pushed him back. His growl was a 10, his nip was a 2. No full mouth bite, only his canines. I felt very little pressure through the gloves. If he was a person, he would have been pushing me back telling me “Don’t make me”. Face it, whenever teeth meet skin, skin loses. The problem is that it is typically to the face or hands due to bending over and reaching down. He would only nip when pressed. As soon as I stopped, he stopped. This is the difference between posturing and real aggression. The first goal is that Dad stops talking to him during feeding time and only communicates with movement. When he gives the dog the food, the dog needs to be conditioned to move away. Once this is accomplished, he can get the girls to do the same thing. The dog has to be conditioned to respond to the slightest movement. If not, when the dog has something that he is not supposed to, or heaven forbid food drop and the natural human reaction is to bend down and pick it up, the dog sees it as an opportunity to use the “resource” to dominate space. If they growl and you hesitate or back up, you are simply lower ranking. When it happens fast, that is when people get bit or nipped. You cannot give your relationship to your dog to anyone else. If you simply let the dog have things, they WILL transfer that to other things. Thankfully Dad sought intervention at 7 months because this does not get any better as they age. They need to know where they fit in. Please also keep in mind that there was absolutely no indication during the appointment before the food was introduced that Loki would react as he did. The introduction of the food was the stimulus.
Warning-do not attempt anything described above without the help of a trainer who understands resource guarding. Also avoid any trainers who advise you to give them something to get something from them. This does not work out over time.