|
Welcome to the YorkieTalk.com Forums Community - the community for Yorkshire Terriers. You are currently viewing our boards as a guest which gives you limited access to view most discussions and access our other features. By joining our free community you will have access to post topics, communicate privately with other members (PM), respond to polls, upload content and access many other special features. You will be able to chat with over 35,000 YorkieTalk members, read over 2,000,000 posted discussions, and view more than 15,000 Yorkie photos in the YorkieTalk Photo Gallery after you register. We would love to have you as a member! Registration is fast, simple and absolutely free so please, join our community today! If you have any problems with the registration process or your account login, please click here to contact us. |
|
| LinkBack | Thread Tools |
06-24-2008, 05:38 PM | #1 |
Donating YT 500 Club Member Join Date: Mar 2008 Location: San Marcos, TX
Posts: 843
| Abbey is getting VERY snippy around food. OK I hope this is OK for this section, I wasn't sure where else to post it. I am having a new issue with Abbey. She is normally very loving and sweet and gets along with our other dog great. BUT recently when she is around food she gets MEAN! Her and Nuppy share a food bowl and we had never had issues and now, if Abbey is eating and Nuppy comes over she growls and bites her! And just now she was eating and I hadn't seen her go to the bowl so i though she was eating something bad so when I went to check what was in her mouth she BIT me!! What should I do? I wish I could do seperate bowls, but we free feed them and they would just eat out of the same bowl anyway. Suugestions??? Oh, one more thing, Abbey is almost 100% potty trained with peeing but still poops inside occasionally. When I catch her and disipline her (by yelling at her, never hitting), she growls and snaps at me! Now, I know she is not a mean dog, it's only with toys and food... Help!
__________________ Chelsey & Abbey We love and miss you MINNIE. Never far from our thoughts, Rest In Peace |
Welcome Guest! | |
06-24-2008, 07:45 PM | #2 |
Currently Suspended! Join Date: May 2007 Location: Ohio
Posts: 2,503
| Not sure what the answer might be. Sounds liek a control issue. You need to show her she is not in charge. YOU ARE, of everything including food and toys. I would suggest having seperate dishes for them, even though you do free feed. Also make her listen your command of "sit" before she gets her food. Then still don't let her have it until YOU say for her to. Oh ya, your free feeding, sorry, lol! I forgot I know with my 2, from the time they were first brought home, I would reach into their dishes while eating and rustle the food around. Just to let them know that I AM IN CONTROL of the food, not them. I don't have any suggestions about the toy issue though, sorry I'm sure someone will pop in and help though |
06-24-2008, 08:09 PM | #3 | |
Donating YT 500 Club Member Join Date: Mar 2008 Location: San Marcos, TX
Posts: 843
| Quote:
__________________ Chelsey & Abbey We love and miss you MINNIE. Never far from our thoughts, Rest In Peace | |
06-24-2008, 08:15 PM | #4 |
Currently Suspended! Join Date: May 2007 Location: Ohio
Posts: 2,503
| Your welcome And yes correcting it now while she is just starting to do this would be your best bet. |
06-24-2008, 08:46 PM | #5 |
YT 500 Club Member Join Date: Nov 2005 Location: Wisconsin
Posts: 776
| You need to control the food, not her. It's way easier to control her food aggression if you control the food, and you can't do that it it sits there all the time. If it were me, I would stop the free feeding and go to scheduled meals. Make them sit/lay down (whatever, make them do something to "work" for their food) before giving them their bowls. If she get growly/snappy when she has the food, take it away. She should learn that it's your food and that you're just letting her eat it. If they don't finish eating it, take it away. Don't let it sit out. Make them work for treats too. They have to sit/lay down/shake/whatever before getting it. Scheduled meals will help with the pooping issue too. If she eats at the same time every day, she'll likely need to poop at the same time. If you know about what time she needs to poop, you can watch for it more closely and get her outside before she goes in the house. |
06-24-2008, 08:57 PM | #6 |
Donating YT 2000 Club Member Join Date: Sep 2007 Location: North Carolina
Posts: 8,317
| Being protective of toys and food and biting you is behavior that must be taken very seriously as it will only get worse. I'd suggest trying the Nothing in Life is Free program to snap her out of the "Queen of the House" mode asap. Free feeding is absolutely out of the question from now on as you must control her food. Basic Training Techniques | The Humane Society of the United States Nothing in Life is Free Gaining control of your dog humanely |
06-25-2008, 09:54 AM | #7 | |
Donating YT 500 Club Member Join Date: Mar 2008 Location: San Marcos, TX
Posts: 843
| Quote:
__________________ Chelsey & Abbey We love and miss you MINNIE. Never far from our thoughts, Rest In Peace | |
06-25-2008, 10:13 AM | #8 |
Mimi & Gabby too! Donating Member Join Date: May 2006 Location: Vineland, NJ
Posts: 3,208
| I would put them on a feeding schedule. Don't get me wrong I'm guilty of free feeding but I have changed that around. My furbutts are now on a schedule and I love having them on a schedule. They also look forward to their food. KellyV is right...they will also poop at the same time everyday. At least mine do and they only poop twice a day. Toy problem - Gabby had a toy obsession when I rescued her. Everytime she would act up I would take the toy away and then she would go on time out. Its been about 7 months now and she's doing wonderful. It can take some time...but you need to correct it now and show her who's the boss. |
06-25-2008, 10:27 AM | #9 |
Donating YT 1000 Club Member Join Date: Jul 2005 Location: Chicago Suburbs
Posts: 3,306
| Sammy has a pooping in the house problem (we didn't get her until she was 10 months and she wasn't trained so this is a hard habit to break) anyway she always goes at the same time every day - in the morning and around 4:00 - so I just take her out at those times and DO NOT let her back in until she goes. I have to sit there with her and watch her and it's a pain in the winter but it's better than poop on the floor. Once she goes then she can have freedom no problem. NILIF is awesome and a good way to treat the issues you are having and a good way to teach tricks. Good luck! (I have to brag about my Loki though, who would never, ever poop in the house and he hasn't since he was like 6 months old. He is so good. He has other issues... but he is still such a good boy )
__________________ Last edited by Erin; 06-25-2008 at 10:28 AM. |
06-25-2008, 10:36 AM | #10 |
Donating YT 1000 Club Member Join Date: Jul 2005 Location: Chicago Suburbs
Posts: 3,306
| Oh I guess I should also suggest you teach the DROP command. Loki gets snippy like that if he has something he shouldn't or if he has the last bit of bully stick and I go to take it away before he swallows it. I taught him "Drop" and I trade him for a treat. I used to carry treats, but now that he knows and follows the command I will give it and he will reluctantly spit out whatever into my hand and I will walk over to the treat jar and give him a cookie. If it's a stick, I will usually go get him a new stick (which of course, is not at good as the icky slimy chewed stick, but whatever). Anyway I also taught him "leave it" which is helpful for when he goes over to sniff his sister's food bowl. Loki is quirky in that it's not a resource guarding or control thing because he totally lets his little sister walk all over him. It's just that he loves food A LOT and he's also scared of his own shadow so he's very "sensitive". He prefers to be given commands like "move" and "off" rather than physically moved off the couch. Sam on the other hand struggled just to learn "sit" Again we started later with her, and I don't think it's an intelligence issue for her because she is very smart. She just has better things to do than learn tricks and commands, like catch flies and hunt birds and bunnies. She is my independent one.
__________________ |
06-25-2008, 12:00 PM | #11 | |
Lovin' to the MAX!! Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Yorkieville
Posts: 2,774
| Quote:
My girlfriend told me that I should feed them away from each other.....I feed them at one end of the kitchen island, so I put Madison's bowl on one end and Max's on the other....it was amazing the difference it made in Madison's eating habits. He stopped that growling completely and now eats like more of a gentleman, hehe. And he doesn't inhale his food like he did just to make sure that someone else didn't get it first. I still feed them their snacks at the same end and that's ok, but I think it's good for them to have two separate bowls away from each other even if they do 'share'. Good luck!
__________________ Seana and Max and Madison too! Come visit me at: celebritydogwatcher.com | |
Bookmarks |
|
|
| |
|
|
SHOP NOW: Amazon :: eBay :: Buy.com :: Newegg :: PetStore :: Petco :: PetSmart