Posted: 12/26/2014 5:57:52 PM EDT
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One of our dogs is a 4 yo longhair weim. Like most weims, he's got lots of personality, and he's nuts. When he was a youngster he had food protection issues, he'd growl and snap at anyone or anything that got near his food plate. So we had a few discussions about just who's food it was. Now he's fine, though he won't tolerate the other dogs to mess with his food, they all know that so it really isn't an issue. If I go to his food plate he will stiffen his body and try to block me a little, but no growling or snapping and either the wife or I can move his plate - he watches with great interest and will follow the plate where ever you take it.
So last night the wife gave the dogs a treat - smoked pig ears. The lab and the other old weim grabbed theirs and went off and ate them. The Jaeger dog jumps up on the couch with his and kind of sits there for a while and eventually curls up like he's going to sleep for a while with the ear between his front paws. He growled at me a couple times when I got too close. That went on for a few minutes and I felt we needed to chat about the whole food thing again. He let me have it, and I gave it back to him and we repeated the drill a few times. Then he picked it back up, did the turn around 3 times thing and laid back down - but now the ear is between us instead of away from me, but he's still not messing with it. I picked it up and went to put it up somewhere where the other dogs couldn't get at it. Thats not going to work for him, he's prancing along side of me poking it with his nose (which is his way of saying, no, I really do want it) So I gave it back to him. He starts in with the little tail wag (longhairs have a full tail, he wags the tip of his tail sometimes when he thinks he wants to play and he's asking if it's ok) and his play growl with the thing between us. Eventually I figured out he wanted me to hold the damn thing for him while he chewed on it. Fuckin dogs, while I held it for him he ate the whole damn thing. |
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Quoted: Why do you have a traffic cone? Quoted: Quoted: My Rottweiller bitch will pick up a full size orange traffic cone, stuff her face all the way in, hold it up near vertical, and run around in blind circles crashing into stuff.. Why do you have a traffic cone? Orange Cones all over the place. a few intact ones in the driveway, and shredded, chewed up fragments ALL over the yard. I don't know where she finds them all, but we sure get a lot of cones since we bought the Rotty home.
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if I wouldn't play fetch with my Cane Corso, she'd purposely roll her ball under a chair or the couch where she couldn't get to it and pester me to fetch it.
I refused to play her game one day and she walked over to the armchair, stared at it for a few seconds while glancing at me a couple of times and then lifted the armchair completely on its side with her nose and got her ball. I couldn't even get onto her, I was laughing so hard as she pranced by and snorted at me. RIP Little Grace |
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Quoted:
How did you get him to stop being food protective? Grabbed him by the scruff of the neck and held his face down to the floor, firmly, and took his food away from him - every time he growled or snapped at me. They are pretty smart, he figured out pretty quickly that he was not to contest food ownership with me or my wife. I believe now if the grandkids wanted to play in his food dish he'd tolerate it. OTOH, if the lab wandered by his dish while he was eating the lab would get his ass pounded (the lab is very timid and won't hold his own ground). Usually if Jaeger is still eating when Jake (the lab) finishes his dinner, Jake will will sit off to one side and wait for Jaeger to finish so he can get past him safely. If Jaeger is having stomach issues and not eating he will attempt to body block you from taking his food and putting in the closet. But he won't growl or snap like he did as a youngster. "if I wouldn't play fetch with my Cane Corso, she'd purposely roll her ball under a chair or the couch where she couldn't get to it and pester me to fetch it." Jaeger does this as well. He'll roll his ball or his rock (He likes to carry around fist sized rocks) under something and bark at you until you dig it out for him. |
One of my black labs loves toys more than anything. If given the option between a nasty tennis ball or food (dog or people kind) he wall grab it and bring it right to you. Hike with him until he can't walk any further but then bring out a ball, you get a whole new pup! It's like Dog RipIts. He will fetch and drop any toy every time except for stuffed duck toys. He will not release a soft duck to no matter what and only ducks (even if it is not his own at a friends or families home). Any other shape of stuffed soft toy and he is an angel. Duck soft toys you can't pry out of his jaw. We are still working on this but to no avail so far. 
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| First weim we had had something of a hard mouth. I took a piece of tin, like stovepipe flashing from a hardware store, and drove a whole bunch of carpet tacks through it, then wrapped that tightly around a piece of wood and secured it so it couldn't come off, pointy side out. Then I took a bird skin and wrapped it around that. Fetch! It didn't take long for him to figure out not to hold too hard. |
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Ex's grandparents had a dog, Flash the Wonderdog, that rolled things. Sucker would roll buckets, balls, rocks, you name it with his snout. Saw him roll a rock into the stock pond one day and had his head underwater before he realized you can't breathe water. He would do it for hours.
It was compulsive I guess and as such I have great respect for it. Great dog. A border collie IIRC. |
I was too sick to play fetch with one of my dogs a few years back. She would grab the tennis ball and put it in my hand and I would just put it on the floor. This pissed her off to no end. Later that night as we were getting ready for bed, she jumped up on my side of the bed, looked me dead in the eye, and pissed on the bed. 
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Quoted:
I was too sick to play fetch with one of my dogs a few years back. She would grab the tennis ball and put it in my hand and I would just put it on the floor. This pissed her off to no end. Later that night as we were getting ready for bed, she jumped up on my side of the bed, looked me dead in the eye, and pissed on the bed.
Awesome! Jaeger dog hasn't pulled that particular stunt yet - He is VERY persistent when he thinks it's play time though. Usually around 11:30 or 12:00 when it's time for lights out he grabs his ball and starts jabbing you with it. If that doesn't work, then he'll roll it under the bed and bark at you until you get it for him. You can't outlast him either, tried that before. |
| I have a Lab-greyhound mix who won't chase a ball or frisbee, but will chase reflected light all day long. He wants to be let out in the yard on the sunny side of the house and after a minute will bark to come back in. When you open the storm door the sun reflects off of the window and sweeps across the lawn, with Tucker in full pursuit. While the light is out there he won't come in. He will however wait until you go back in, and bark to come in again just to chase the light. A disco ball will put him into full overload. |