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How to I keep my dog from being possessive over bones?
We are trying to change our 8-month old dog's diet from kibble to raw (i.,e, "BARF", bones and raw food). He LOVES raw meat and bones, but gets very possessive, almost psychotic, over the bones. The other day we tried to take one away and he snapped at us. How do we stop this scary behavior?
asked by Tripawds 3 months ago
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petercurtis97 says
This is rather interesting. I have always made a point of making sure the dog is aware that I am handing the dog the bone and when I am ready cause I am the boss not the other way round. You are also fortunate he is young so he can be taught to obey you. Try this and offer a reward when he/she does it correctly once a dog has it leave him in peace to eat it. My two dogs share bones but that depends on dogs and their behaviour.
Skif says
Make your dog work for his bone and/or food. One of my dogs is a former stray, and he was very food aggressive when we got him. Make him sit, give paw, lay down. Start out by giving him only handfuls of food between tricks. Also, it's good to take it away from him. Obviously you will want to be watchful when taking it away. The more we made our dog work for his food, the less food aggressive he became. Also, when you reward him, don't do it immediately. Make him wait for about a minute before you reward him. If you can get him to calm down before you reward him, he will learn that a calm state of mind means he get rewarded. The more you do this, the easier it should become. Hope this helps some.
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