Food and Object Guarding

[Jhemphill]

Maximus lives with an female American Bulldog Medjai, they get along great, our family believes that Medjai thinks that Maxi is her puppy. She treats him like she is his mother, training, cleaning and disciplining him. The problem is that when we feed them, Max will run and guard his food even though Medjai has no interest in his food she has her own food, even if he does not want to eat it right then. He will run and guard it every time Medjai even goes the same direction as his food. He also always wants what she has be it a toy or a rawhide even though there are several laying around the house, he will lay by the rawhide or toy that Medjai has and put his paw or nose on it. Medjai does not care that he does this but if he is very irritating about it she will growl at him and he will back off. If there is another dog at the he will guard his food as he does with Medjai, but will also growl and show his teeth at them is they walk by anything that he is interested in even if they are not actually going to take or approach the person or object sometimes if they persist to get by him he will nip at their face, we always call him on this and remove him from the area, person or object. He does not like for other dogs to play with Medjai, he is very protective of her. I believe that this behavior is pack oriented Maxi knowing that Medaji is the leader of the dog pack, he is second and other dogs need to know that their place is last. Medaji is a very laid back dog and will just ignores Maxi if he takes something from her, or blocks her from an object and she knows that if she really wants the object she can lurer him away from it by tempting him with another object. Maxi nips at other dogs. Please let me know your thoughts and opinions on this behavior, if it is not a tolerable behavior let me know how to correct it, I do not want Maxi to have bad behaviors and would like to correct them.

[tandemgal]

J,
Emma will ignore her food bowl when she isn't hungry EXCEPT if one of our two cats come in. Then she runs to the kitchen (after they evaide her attemts to herd / play with them) and gobbles down anything left in the bowl. Figured it was her way of saying Mine!

I have found that now when the puppy Chloe comes to Emma's bowl she doesn't do that. Don't know if she thinks Chloe is better than a "Cat" or if she thinks of Chloe as "her baby". Either way I have to put Emma's bowl up now when she is finished so the puppy can't get to it - to harsh for her little tummy.

[Michael Romanos]

Hi Jh
The food thing is easy. Keep Maximus and Medjai apart at feeding times -different rooms. Don't have them together when handing out treats, biscuits, bones etc. It is unfair for your Bulldog to have to put up with such a strong willed food guarding dog. Don't give Maxi a stage in which to practice behaviour that you don't want repeated elsewhere. In most cases where there are two or more dogs in a family, it pays to keep theim separate at dinner/ lunch/breakfast times.

It seems to me that you need to have a firm hand on Maxi when he intimidates other dogs. It may only get worse if you don't nip it in the bud. A very lighweight, short chocker chain is the best to use and when Maxi does his Mike Tyson impersonation, give the lead a short sharp yank and say in a firm voice at the same time, NO. If Maxi complies, reward him with a little treat and some vigorous praise and fondling. Keep at this using the same methods and our very intelligent, super sensitive and most beautiful Corgi will soon settle into being a more well mannered and approachable dog about town.

It is good that Maxi looks after the welfare of Medjai unless he goes overboard without good reason in his protectivness towards her. When I had two Corgis - father and son - on three occasions they worked together like trained soldiers in helping each other out when attacked in separate incidences by a vicious dog ( a different one each time).

[Jhemphill]

Thanks Michael,

Maxi and Madjai are feed in seperate rooms, but our house is open so you can walk from the kitchen to the living room to the dining room as if it were a circle no doors between rooms so depending on which way Medjai goes she sometimes goes in the direction of Maxi's food. He will run to his bowl and guard it, she being the gentle soul that she is will just go around the other way, she is very clever and if she wants something she will find a way to get it. He really acts like a brat sometimes, if Madjai really wants what she has and Maxi is a real brat, she will growl at him and he knows that she is serious and backs off. Maxi has a chocker collar and we use it as you described in your post. We will have to continue to work on his bad manners. Most of the dogs that come to visit are large dogs as well as Madjei being quite a bit larger than Maxi, he seems to have no fear when he feels that he needs to protect Medjai. He was attached by a dog that got loose from it owners and did very well in defending himself and obeyed my husband when he was told to go to the porch. My husband was bringing Maxi and Medjai in from a potty break and romp in our yard, they are both off lead when in our yard. Medjai was being very stuborn about doing into the porch and keep trying to go back into the yard. Maxi was waiting at the bottom of the step to go in, my husband finally got Madjai to go into the porch and as he turned to tell Maxi to come on in he heard a yelp and saw the other dog bite down on Maxi's back, and Maxi rolled out of bite and started to come back at the dog which was quite a bit larger than Maxi. My husband grab the other dog by the collar and got control of him so he could not get to Maxi and told Maxi to go to the porch. Maxi went at the dog again and then went to the porch all the while looking back at my husband and the other dog. The owners of the other dog came running and were very upset that their dog at attacked Maxi and wanted to know if he was hurt, of course my husband did not know at the time because he had not examined Maxi, who after all was done did not have scratch on him, I beleive that all that loose skin and thick coat that Corgis have protected him from the bite. The other dog when it ran in our yard had some sort of band around it's nose, but this came off with little effort once the dog started his attach. During the whole attack Medjai was barking and growling on the porch. Since her breed was bred to take down bulls and wild pigs or boars she is very strong and has very strong jaws, when she was a puppy she would crush up rocks in her mouth and eat them. She also has a very high tolerance for pain, I have read that this is breed into them, because some people use them to fight wild boars (pigs) in competitions. We are probably luckly that she was not out in the yard when the attack happen because she would have probably killed the other dog protecting Maxi. Even as powerful and strong as she could be she is very gentle and laid back, when she and Maxi play Maxi will bite her face and she just gently pull him along the ground until he lets go. She is amazing and has taught Maxi many things including how to defend himself, they love to play wrestle. They are best of pals. Maybe I will have to start feeding Maxi upstaires so he will not be so worried about his food. We have and will continue to work on the nipping of other dog guests in our house.

[Michael Romanos]

Hi Jh
Different rooms can of course include bathrooms and inside-outside.

I had a Corgi who did not appreciate a greyhound at a large park and took a bite at him and scared this great big bounder - who was a racing hound - away at a great pace. Another Corgi I had didn't fancy my brother-in-law's Siberian Husky and sent him packing. So Corgis can often defend themselves and put others in their place.

[corgimommy]

We only feed in crates... we learned the hard way... no food aggression with humans but if one corgi bugs the other while eating, look out.. I like to eat in peace so I assume they do also