How would you stop

[NYboy]

A friend has 2 cavaliers age 7 and 3. The 3 year old has started growling and guarding her food bowl. How would you stop this behavior? Thanks

 

[Kevin565]

Is she guarding it from the owner or the other dog?

 

[NYboy]

Both will show her teeth and growl at owner. Is a very sweet and loving dog other wise ,they have a baby who just started crawling so this needs to be stopped.

 

[Oregon Blues]

Seriously, it does no good to explain to you how to train the dogs. The owners must have enough interest to learn how and they must follow through. There is really absolutely nothing you can do about it, NYBoy.

It has to have taken years of very bad training and very bad management to make a Cavalier growl at its owner. It's so out of character for the breed, that they almost must have grafted a gene into their dog. It's going to take a change of the entire relationship to the dog, and if they are not interested enough to make inquiries on their own, I doubt that they are interested enough to change their entire lifestyle.

That dog thinks it is the pack alpha and everyone else is his servant. It's taken a mountain of spoiling to bring a Cavalier to that point.

If you are going to become the new owner of the dogs, and are willing to go into a massive retraining program, then ask for help.

 

[Oregon Blues]

Just to try to save the dog's home;

If growling over the feed bowl is the only issue and they don't worry about it except that now there will be a new human baby, they can buy a sturdy plastic shipping crate and feed inside that. That will keep the dog and the toddler separated at meal time.

 

[TheSitcomGirls]

The way I have seen work is to only give the dog a few pieces of food in the bowl at a time. Then wait until the dog makes eye contact with you. (Hey, where's the rest of my food!) Then wait a couple of seconds and then add a few more pieces and so on. That way the person feeding is the person who controls the food. In the pack world the controller of the food is the leader of the pack! If the dog growls when you try to add a few more pieces then just stand there and wait until the dog backs away from the bowl. They always do if you don't give in...it's a matter of patience. No yelling, no words at all. All it requires is taking 20 minutes to feed and interact with your dog instead of throwing down a bowl of food and walking away.

But like Oregon Blues said....if the owners don't take the time to work at every day then there will be another dog without a home through no fault of his own.

 

[dainerra]

Hand feeding may help if the problem is just starting. Alsi check out "nothing in life is free"

 

[NYboy]

Thank you for replys, yes very spoiled dog, The owner are willing to do ANYTHING it takes to correct this. Dog is from top breeder who has been breeding for 30 years; long before they where AKC recognized. I sent them to this breeder, over the years I have had about 50 of her dogs as clients all great temperemts.I was asking here not because they don't care but because some people here have very good dog sense. I like the idea of hand feeding, Putting dog in crate at feeding time was what I suggested this am.