Ut Oh! Bone Aggressive! Need Help!

So we gave Malone this nice big bone (pressed rawhide) to chew on. I don't like him chewing on it for TOO long because he starts to swallow chunks of it when it gets soft. So after about 5 or 6 minutes, I bent down to pick it up and he:

1. wrinkled his nose
2. let out a very low growl in his throat proceeded by
3. a very high pitched bark

He was NOT happy that I was taking his bone away, and I was not happy that he snapped at me. :eek:

So my question is, how should I go about training him to be OK with someone taking his bone away. And what is a good effective way of disciplining him when he DOES do this bad behaviour?? We start dog training in 2 weeks, and I'm going to address these questions with the trainer, but I would like to get some other opinions as well, please!

Nawtee Malone!! :(

Okay, i hope this doesnt sound like im mean.. But when we had cami she would snap at us sometimes when we were taking her toy away.. (she'd be chewing on it) and she would growl.. So i just said no and gently popped her on her nose.. it worked cause she doesnt do it anymore.. :D

Mr. Malone! Nawtee Nawtee!!! You should be very grateful that your mommy even gave you that special bone!

A very good friend of Sadie's, Bella, does the same thing! So sorry that I don't have any advice, though!

Kai has never snapped at me for doing something he doesn't appreciate but he does do that to my siblings. When they touch him in the wrong place, he takes a nip and growls a bit. If I'm there, I'll correct him by saying NO! while I hold his muzzle firmly followed by about 5 seconds of eye contact. Of all those, he hates the eye contact the most...he can tell when it's a "you did a no-no" kind of eye contact.

Chester gets on his high horse and tries this every once in a while. So I put him back in his place. Here's what I do until I feel that he understands that I'm the boss again:

Before he gets anything (food, treats, to go outside, to get on the couch-anything) he must sit first.

He eats only AFTER I do. Never, ever before. I do this with all of my dogs, all the time. (in the pack the alpha dogs eat the best food first and leave scraps for the lower ranked dogs)

He must sit and allow me to walk through a door or walkway first, then he can follow.

I once had to make him sleep on the floor after a very nasty time when he wouldn't get the message that I am alpha. That was so hard on me-I cried myself to sleep, but he actually snapped at me when I tried to take a bullstick away from him. So it had to be done.

Hope that helps. Usually the 'sit before' works (I like the sit before the best) and the walking through the door thing is effective, too.

Ohhh I do what micki does also. I really liked the pack leader eats first bit because kai knows not to beg because his time will come when I'm done. Also, I thought I'd add that I also roll kai on his back when he's "pushing" it. I automatically make him submit to me..mwhahaha lol

Uh Oh! Nawtee, Nawtee Malone! *shakes finger* Sorry, I don't have any advice, but I think that both ideas from CamCamPup33, and binka_nugget should help. Good Luck, and Malone, be a good boy!

I'm with CAMCAMPUP, nothing a pop on the nose can't cure!
Sierra thinks she's "All That" once in a while, and that's all it takes and she's put back in place!
And she still loves me Just as much!!!!:D

Angus has only growled at me once in 12 years for taking away a treat. He did exactly the same thing Malone did. So, I reach down picked it up & guilted him into feeling soooo bad. I think I hurt his feelings:o But he's never done it again!

Nebo's never growled at me over any toys/treats/etc. (he will growl at other dogs if they get near his food however) He'll let me take anything out of his mouth.

What I would do is to let him know that the bone belongs to you, you are just letting him borrow it. Hold the bone while he chews on it. Praise him and pet him while doing this. Gently take it away now and then. If he is good about this, reward him with a yummy treat and praise, then give the bone back. I wouldn't allow him to chew on any bones/etc. by himself for a while.

BAD MR. MALONE!!!

You already got great advice.
Sheba when she was young, low growl if I put my hand near a butcher bone or a pig ear.
So, I repremanded her, and took away her bone.
Than for the next few days, I made her work
for treats, and I would feed her by hand from her food bowl.
After her 2nd repremand she never growled again.
Periodicaly I keep this up, to make sure
she does not fall back on this bad behavior..

Sending hugs to Mr. bad boy Malone. :)

Timber is terrible about dropping the ball or the stick. She's rather have me play-fight it from her. So I distract her with something else. You give me the ball, I give you a treat. :)

Thanks ebberbuddy!! This sounds like great advice, and over the next few days I'm going to really work with him and stive to nip this behaviour in the bud! I certainly don't want this to escalate.

I'm going to print out the responses and have them for a quick reference!! :cool:

Max has done that since he was a puppy. Nothing we did would change him. So we work around it. When he gets something (or I should say when he use to get things), we made him go ito a corner & told him to stay there facing the corner of the wall while he ate his treat. It worked great, he stopped chasing & snapping at us as we walked by. Hes ok when u touch his food, u tell him to back off & he will, we do that every once & a while because he eats too fast (when ppl had spent the night) & choakes, silly dog.

But right now we still can't take a treat away from him, with our hands. So I take some slices of chees & rip them up & toss one infrot of him & then lead him away from the treat & remove it. He never gets agressive after u have it in ur hands.

But I know Max would become aggressive with my sister, because she has beaten & teased him to the point where we can't trust him with any sort of food when shes around & he refuses to eat his food when shes at dads. Max tries hard to love her, but deep down inside he spites her.
Can't blame him, she almost killed him 4 yrs ago with weed.


Oh & rawhide almost killed Max, he chewed off a chunk & tried to swallow it & it got stuck & we pinned him down & I put my hand down his throat to get it out. U might want to try him on a diff type of chew. Max chews on bleached cow bones, hes good with those.

Nawtee Malone!!!!!!!!

It sounds to me like you got great advice--Micki's and Amy's in particular.
Hopefully you can nip this in the bud so it doesn't become a problem:)