halo incident

[susan]

halo will let me take toys, balls from her and even let me put my hands in her food dish, but if i give her a fresh bone she growls if i go to take it. so i do not push her trigger.
this weekend i bought her a big knuckle bone. i did not know it would be any problem. it had ahole on end with marrow in it. somehow halo got it lodged on her bottom teeth and wrapped on her bottom jaw it was stuck. i thought great what am i going to do now, when i would go to reach to help her she would growl.so i called daddy in aqnd ask him now what? we sat down to see if she could get it off her self, and just kept talking to her. was gonna take her to vet. as we where sitting there she ran around hitting it on floor trying to get it off. i kept telling her mom cant help you cause you keep growling. finally after about 10 mins. she came over sat beside me and looked up at me with those sad help me pit bull eyes.
i told dad ok this is it i am going to open jaws and you see if you can get it released if not we will take her to vet. i was worried but i knew she couldnt bite me because she only had top teeth.
ready go i opened her jaws no growling out of her and dad was able to pull it straight up off her teeth and off her jaw. she turned around and licked me to death. its amazing how she knew she had to have my help and cooperated so well. we will not buy no more of those types of bones, or if we do will saw them in half so this doesnt happen again. was so happy she let us help and did not have to go to vet

[loverocksalot]

UGGhhh I typed up a whole thing for you and the reply did not go through so this one is just a test more to follow

[loverocksalot]

You have got to work this with her. Do not let her growl and get to keep the bone. What you need to start with is offering a trade. when she gives up the bone give it back.
This problem is known as resource guarding. google it and how to fix it. There would also be threads on it where I know I have helped others before.
Train the Leave it command. I usually used peanut butter for trading of a marrow or bully stick. Rocky did this same thing around 8 mos old although it was not a growl but a putting head down over the item and a little lip curl. Sometimes just running away with it. But if the item got too small or just needed to be taken away using the trade works quite well.
I had also worked my way up to being able to take away without the trade and pretend to chew his yummy bone for a while and then give it back then petting him and if I was able to pet without getting a signal to leave alone I gave him a peanut butter reward.
You may actually be reinforcing the growl by not taking the bone away. So if you offer the peanut butter and she leaves the bone and lets you take it now you will reward her with the peanut butter for giving up the bone. Might want to just give her the bone back letting her know you dont intend to just take the bone away every time you ask her to give it. Do you get what I mean?

[loverocksalot]

something like this
ahimsadogtraining.com/blog/say-please/

[johnr]

The "drop" or "give" command is critical! Pumpkin the Basset Mix From Beyond the Fringe has been my most challenging student yet, but we are getting there and I've already gotten her to move away from some things I could tell she would have dearly loved to guard. She's just a little too slow and sullen about it for my taste just yet.

[susan]

ya i hear ya. thats what i thought also but i think i remember mary saying dont push triggers so i wasnt really sure if i should work on this seeing it is bones only. she is great with food and toys no problems at all taking them away. i guess i was thinking like i said its bones only i should respect her wishes. but i would really like to break her of this in case grandkids are around. the trade method does seem to work well with her.

[RealPitBull]

Awww poor Halo. That must have been a little frightening for her. This is a good example of why I never give toys/bones when I'm not supervising.

Anyway, you might want to check out a book called Mine! by Jean Donaldson. It will teach you have to teach Halo to accept you approaching her while she is eating, has a bone, etc. It's a little book but really helpful. You want to work on this behavior now before it escalates as she gets older.