Pig Ear Aggression?
Bailey is normally the sweetest puppy in the world. She gets a little rough sometimes during play, but she's never malicious or spiteful. She really enjoys pig ears so after her last one finally got too small for me to feel comfortable with her chewing on it, I bought her a new brand. I don't know if this kind has some crack or meth in it, but when I tried to take it from her because she had eaten almost half in 20 minutes(this was a fairly large pig ear), she growled and bit me. Hard. After that I began working with her on the"drop it" command and she learned what that meant with only 3 tries.
I figured that if I kept working with her on those sorts of commands that she would eventually understand that when she gives her toy to me good things will happen. So I gave her the pig ear back(I made her lie down before I let her have it). Fast forward 20 minutes and I was getting up to go to the kitchen and as soon as I stood up she barked and growled like I was trying to take her pig ear. This is all so sudden, this literally started an hour and a half ago. She's never had food aggression or toy aggression.
Does anyone have any advice on what I need to be doing with her, or what might be causing this? We don't randomly take her toys away except for when she's gnawed something down small enough that it's too small to be safe. I'm at a loss here. She's not aggressive with anything but the new pig ear.
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Beth on
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She just reeealllllyyy likes her pig ear. :-)
Have you tried trading it for something super high value, like chunks of cheddar cheese? Give her a few pieces of cheese, pick up the ear while she's eating the cheese, then give the ear back?
If that does not help, I would take the easy way out and just not give her pig ears any more. Sometimes certain things are just valued too highly by the dog to make it worth trying to train away from. I'd still work on trading with lesser value items so that if you ever have to, say, pull a chicken bone out of her mouth on a walk you are not likely to get bitten.
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Permalink Reply by Kayla Gervais on
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When I was trying to teach her to drop it, I would show her a treat, say "drop it" and then as soon as she did I'd take the pig ear. She was okay with that, and even doesn't mind if I hold on to it while she's chewing or if I take it from her 5 times in a row. It's like once she starts chewing for a few minutes consecutively she gets sort of in the zone(more like danger zone for me lol) and that's when the trouble starts.
She's such a diva, though. When she bit me I made her submit(we sit her down and put our fingers loosely around her muzzle until she sighs), and she did everything in the world to get out of it. She'd start snoring and act like she was sleeping, and then other times she snorts like she can't breathe. She has enough room to stick her tongue out as much as she wants so I know good and well that she can breathe. Drama queen!
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Permalink Reply by Bev Levy on
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I know that a well trained dog should give up anything when told to drop it but this is a difficult command to teach when you have a very high valued treat. I prefer the toss a nice treat (ex. cheese) to distract to take a pig's ear or bone etc. Once you have had a dog that has a strong instinct to keep it (i had one) you really need to know what you are doing to teach this. I don't like the rolling or muzzle holding to teach your dominance because certain strong willed dogs will see this as a threat and fight it. If you have ever been in a test of wills with a two year old you know that they will hold on no matter what! Most of us are not good enough trainers to handle this without causing the dog to think we are a little crazy! Google Nothing In Life Is Free to get some ideas on positive ways to assert your authority.
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This is why I'm confused about why she'd be doing guarding that pig ear so much. Bailey is a VERY submissive Corgi. She doesn't fight if we hold her muzzle and she sighs within 10 seconds every time, it's just that during that 10 seconds she likes to pretend that she's fallen into a very deep sleep. We've only had to use it 3-4 times since we got her. She's the most eager to please dog I have ever been around, so when she suddenly started guarding this one thing, I was floored.
I've had dogs all of my life so I'm used to training them and am familiar with NILIF. I will keep working with her, but if it doesn't get any better I'll just stop giving her those darn ears. She's such a heavy chewer I'm running out of things to give her, so taking it away means I need to find something else! She wont touch a nylabone unless it's the edible one(and she DESTROYED one of those in about 15 minutes. I'm talking adult sized), she's working her way through an antler as we speak, and she's not a huge fan of the kong. Puppy teething may be the death of me. Or my wallet.
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Permalink Reply by Anna Morelli on
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The pig ear is not a toy, it is a food item and, apparently, one she really really likes. When you teach give, or drop it, you don't start with something so exciting, you teach this with other things and HOPE that if the dog, someday, gets hold of something dangerous it should not have, it will respond to the training. I would only give her the pig ear to keep, it will not harm her to chew it completely, so you don't have to worry about it getting small. I would aim (at this point) towards having her feel secure enough about her pig ear not being taken away, that she shows no concern if anyone is in her vicinity. If you cannot achieve this in a few times, I would stop giving pig ears and figure it's not something she can handle, or you risk her learning this behavior and that could then spill over to other foods or items. Training is walking a fine line between preventing/correcting problems and creating them :-D
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Thank you! I think that she might be afraid that when I take it I'm not going to give it back, as when she's been chewing on an antler I took it when it became so small she could swallow it easily. It makes me feel better knowing that the pig ear being small wont hurt her, so I'll just let her keep it for now, but continue working with her on understanding that I'm not out to steal her beloved pig ear.
Love her heart, though. She acts towards this pig ear like I act around egg rolls.
Thank you for your advice, it really helps!
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