Hi, thanks for all your replies everyone! A little added info...he was castrated a few months ago, from what i undestand Ruben was basically walking around in his own filth and that of his siblings before his owner purchased him, he wasn't in the nicest of conditions so i can only assume the previous owner was a terrible one. He was only about a couple of months old when she got him and he was underweight, i could easily feel his spine, ribs and pelvis, now he is a much more normal weight. We get him to sit before giving him his food, he's prefectly fine with that, but will start growling a little if you go near him whilst he's eating. I wouldn't like to test to see how close i could get. He's generally a nice, care free dog, but has his moments. A behavioural specialist would be a great idea to help with all his problems, hopefully she'll take the idea into consideration.

I really do care about him and just want the best for him so he can live a happy life without worry.

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PLease if i could beg you i would , please get your sister to call in a proper qualified dog behaviorist, as they are going to create a nightmare dog .

you have a 10 month old Dobe GSD cross so in just a few weeks you will have a 6 or 7 stone 54 sharpe teeth delivery system with attitude.

if they persist in hitting the dog or using negative methods of training then this dog will end up biting someone and being put to sleep as a dangerous dog. It will not be the dogs fault at all it will be your sisters.

food agression is just a manifestation of agression agression. if its food this week it could be anything else next week.

you need to get to the underlying cause of the agresion, given the sitiuation i would have a good guess that this is fear agression.

the example would be if you went into a pub for the first time and someone punched you in the face, you would be very worried the next time you went into that pub again, and if the same person came near you you would either run away or your guard would be up, if with your guard was up you again got punched you would be learning an important lesson ......this pub is dangerous so what would you do if you were forced to go back into that pub again? you would try to act as tough as possible and on first sight of the bully you would hit them with an ashtray........

you have a nervous dog and you keep on hitting them , or making nastey noises and shouting at them. These actions are not going to calm the dog , they are not going to teach the dog anything other than to escillate the situation into greater violence.

please get a behaviorist in as soon as possible, there are lots of simple things that can be done to turn this dog round your sister just needs to be shown them before it is too late (for the dog or your sister).

It is never to late to correct behavior in a dog if you have time , patience and a positive attidude towards your animal.For the poster who has the Rottie with food issues no offence intended but even at the age of three this could be cured in a few days or weeks and would reduce a huges element of risk from your home.

My current Doberman was a basket case rescue at age 8 months, nervous to the piont of cowering in the corner having been abused by humans and dogs. It takes time but he is now a wonderful family pet and loyal guard dog, he is most days fed by my 5 year old son, who makes him sit whilst he measures out his Kibble, the dog waits in the same sit position whilst he walks the 20 feet to the bowl , puts the food in then walks back to the dog, puases a few seconds more before releasing him to go get his grub.(adult always in the room with them)(dobe has been with us 12 months )
All training is done with love and positive re-inforcement.Hence a three stone 5 yr old is in perfect saftey with a 7 stone Dobe.

will smaller dogs and different breeds owners can get away with sloppy training and poor behavior, with Dobes GSDs and Rottie types we have to be extra careful not to further ruin these breeds reputations with another accident.

all in my humble opinion.

Badwolf

Im sorry if I came across as saying that this wasnt a problem. It can be but not all cases are as bad as they seem. i was just pointing out that some things can be managed easily.
My rottie has no other aggressive tendancies and when his bowl of food is put down, which he sits for patiently, it lasts a meer matter of minuits. it causes no harm for me to leave him be. As there are no small children I do not see the point in correcting something that really isnt the issue. the swapping technique with anything else he gets hold of works just fine. there is no need to physically remove things from the dog. he is willing to wait for a treat next to the cupboard while i collect the object, which he can see me do, he is happy and so are we so there is no problem. Why change the dogs behaviour when there are other ways of doing it.

I was meerly pointing out that the problem isnt always as bad as some people think. When the kids were younger I wouldnt of alowed this problem and as a behaviourist myself I have fixed the issue in previous dogs for myself and others. I just wanted to point out that in some cases there is no need to change anything. unless your planning on taking the food bowl from the dog there is no issue unless there are young children in which case its different. In which case i would recomend that a leave or drop should be taught.

but to solve a food /toy issue is just a case of making the approach to the 'possesion' a good outcome.

for the food issue, its a case of adding more to the bowl, or approaching with favorite food treat to show that you only bring good things to the bowl and that far from taking food away you are actually going to supliment the food with something even tastier.

perhaps i was also lucky that to bring my Dobe out of his shell i hand fed him scrammbled eggs for the first 3 days,again making me as the bringer of food not the taker away of food.

that is of course on the assumption that the protection of the food is a fear issue or a learnt issue over got to keep the food or someone else eats it /takes it away.

the food agresion could in some cases be a dominance issue, in which case different approaches would be needed.

best wishes

Badwolf

I think food aggression is probably the most difficult to resolve and in the past I've tendered to simply remove the food at the first sign of it and reward when when they are passive. The problem is when it is so bad that you simply can't remove the food without being attacked.

A dog is a pack animal but aggression is not acceptable in the home for obvious reasons. I've kept ex police dogs and would never accept aggression it was always zero tolerance. The dogs should look to you as you are the pack leader. A dog that barks at a welcome guest should be removed from the room and ignored, after 10 mins bring he dog back into the room and remove again if bad and continue to do so until be behaves. This might take some time.

Im sorry but again I must disagree (i do this often) i do not agree with the pack theory. you do not have to be the "pack leader" dogs know the difference between people and dogs and that is reflected in the way they act and communicate with us. I dont think dominance is the issue here. Dogs are not aggressive to each other to gain status. Dogs int he wild are scavangers. they accept other dogs and interact with them but they dont often live together. Dominance came from people watching unnatural wolf packs years ago. wolf packs naturally are the parents and offspring there is no aggression their either. the other dogs do not try and take over the leaders as they would be mating with their parents leading to insest (nature doesnt want this) when the wolves are at breeding age they leave to find a mate and start their own pack.

As iv said before you just need a good behaviourist. if you let me know what area you are in ill see if i know anyone int hat area for you or ill come myself if possible

all the best

Dog are Pack animals, heck come to a big city and see the packs of strays that form each summer

weather you subscribe to pack theory of not a dog will absolutly try to take a dominant position over you if allowed ,and if you work hard and keep them in place it only takes a few slip ups or for you to have an off day and the dog will attempt to re-assert itself over you

why else is it that they always seem to play up worse when you are ill or not having a good day yourself?

AIMHO

badwolf

well im sorry buti know that when im ill or am having a bad day all my dogs have actually been very good about it, keeping out the wy or providing me with cuddles when i need one. I have met many dogs in my time and i have yet to see one that trys to dominate. packs hierarchies are formed through respect and submission. Anyone who has watched a natural pack of any canids will know that.

I think this reiterates the importance of early training when puppies.

Personally, I always do a little hand feeding with our puppies. It gets them used to hands in bowls which should prevent food aggression, and my philosophy is that prevention is always better than cure.

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My dogs have a lazy day if I'm ill, they've never played up when I've been ill or stressed out.

So you think dogs are incapable of telling the difference between their own kind and humans?