Kym's Tale - Chapter Two - Aggression Over Food

 

Pups are sociable little creatures by nature; they don't do well left alone for long at first.
We took it in turns to come home each lunchtime to feed her, but we could only stay about twenty minutes, and then she was left alone until we finished work. Her housetraining went to pot; we didn't even know enough to get her a crate, so she went back to peeing and pooping all over the hall. The smell when you opened the front door would knock you over!

 

Housetraining a pup isn't easy at the best of times; you have to watch them like a hawk for signs that they need to "go" (circling round with nose down; looking agitated, and so on), so that you can encourage them to go only on the puppy pad or newspaper (in those days!). This is also the procedure after meals, when they wake up and a million other times in between. Then you make as much fuss of them as if they'd just won Crufts, and over time the connection is made in the little puppy brain that peeing in this place makes you happy. Your puppy loves to please you. But you have to teach her how. And you can't do that if you're not there!

 

As she got bigger, she began to get aggressive over her food. If you walked within about five feet of her bowl, she'd put her head over the dish and growl menacingly at you. No, it wasn't cute - it was quite scary. She meant it! Then this behaviour extended to toys; she decided that everything belonged to her, and she wasn't sharing.

One day we (foolishly) gave her a bone, thinking she'd have a wonderful time chewing it. She did indeed.

And refused to leave it, snarling ferociously when we came near. She wouldn't go out, she wouldn't come and eat; she just lay there and guarded that bone. And when Bob tried to get it away from her, she snapped at him, missing his fingers by a whisker.
So I tried to entice her away with a titbit, so that he could pick it up, but she wasn't having any of that, and when I got too near with the biscuit, she went for me too.
I don't mind admitting I was scared!
Finally Bob put on heavy gloves and manhandled her away from the bone and that was the last one she got! But from then on I was afraid of her - and she knew it.

 

Letting her know I was frightened was Mistake Number 2.

 

Continue to Chapter Three.