We have a 11 week old Boston Terrier, and have had her for about 2 weeks now. I am wondering if a change in our approach to feeding her is needed based on some behaviours we are seeing.
We set her food bowl down, and previously she just ate and wolfed it down just like that. On advice of some books we have read, we (kids and everyone in the family) would pet her, place more kibble in the bowl with our hand (3-4 times over the course of her feed, she would maybe get a third of her feeding total this way at the most), or another type of treat, to make her more comfortable with people around her bowl. She always sits just prior to getting the bowl, and does not get it until she shows signs of being calm/submissive (like not looking like she is raring to jump up again, trembling with excitement, etc)
We never used to have problems at all until about 4-5 days ago. She seems really distracted while eating, almost as if she expects us to be right there and feed her partly by hand, and if I go away to the kitchen (even if it is in eyesight of her) she follows us and is bouncing all over the place, same thing with placing her bowl in the kitchen where I am. I don't have time to just sit with her until she is finished eating! We have tried to feed her in the kennel with the door closed, but that is not successful either....she won't finish it and is "looking" for us. We have also tried setting timer for 10 min and taking the food to encourage her not to dwaddle, (I read it would get them to realize they need to eat and get it over with) but that isn't working either.
Another thing that concerns me is I think she is becoming a bit "aggressive" for lack of a better word, about her food. Not outright growling or baring teeth, but things like quickly turning and reaching her head back toward our hand if we pet her with mouth open but never any skin contact/growling so far (and that is not coming at her quickly in surprise, I have already sat there a bit and she knows I am there), or placing her paw up on my hand/arm, getting right into the bowl, and looking like she is trying to push me away, or like yesterday, when I just placed my hand on the floor curved around her bowl or held it in my hand for her....she jumped at me a bit, looking like she wanted my hand out of there. I have taken her food and stood up when this happens, asked her to sit, and when she is submissive looking again giving her her food back and praised her.
Any advice on this one? I am not sure if what I am doing (taking food away) is going to make her more possessive in the long run, but I don't want to "give in" to her either? Of if I overdid this well meaning advice of entering her bowl's space and now she expects me to hand feed her? And, I don't know if just shutting her in her kennel is the answer...I don't want her getting territorial about her food in there either.
As far as the rest of her behaviour, she sits when requested and takes a piece of kibble nicely, and generally is a calm dog, sits at the door before we let her in the house, when playing she is getting good at dropping a toy when requested even when a treat is not there to entice her to "trade", and we do things like getting her to sit before we get down to her level and play with her, and if she jumps up on us when we are down there we walk away until she calms. She is not possessive about toys that we can see, does not show fear/aggression at us reaching in her kennel, etc. Basically SIT is the command she understands the best right now and we use it to make her "earn" her food, interaction with us, etc. It's just I think I am noticing some "dominance" I think in the food area (plus the distractability, which is decreasing her intake) and I would like to nip it in the bud, pardon the pun LOL!
Any advice from you more seasoned puppy moms would be appreciated!
We set her food bowl down, and previously she just ate and wolfed it down just like that. On advice of some books we have read, we (kids and everyone in the family) would pet her, place more kibble in the bowl with our hand (3-4 times over the course of her feed, she would maybe get a third of her feeding total this way at the most), or another type of treat, to make her more comfortable with people around her bowl. She always sits just prior to getting the bowl, and does not get it until she shows signs of being calm/submissive (like not looking like she is raring to jump up again, trembling with excitement, etc)
We never used to have problems at all until about 4-5 days ago. She seems really distracted while eating, almost as if she expects us to be right there and feed her partly by hand, and if I go away to the kitchen (even if it is in eyesight of her) she follows us and is bouncing all over the place, same thing with placing her bowl in the kitchen where I am. I don't have time to just sit with her until she is finished eating! We have tried to feed her in the kennel with the door closed, but that is not successful either....she won't finish it and is "looking" for us. We have also tried setting timer for 10 min and taking the food to encourage her not to dwaddle, (I read it would get them to realize they need to eat and get it over with) but that isn't working either.
Another thing that concerns me is I think she is becoming a bit "aggressive" for lack of a better word, about her food. Not outright growling or baring teeth, but things like quickly turning and reaching her head back toward our hand if we pet her with mouth open but never any skin contact/growling so far (and that is not coming at her quickly in surprise, I have already sat there a bit and she knows I am there), or placing her paw up on my hand/arm, getting right into the bowl, and looking like she is trying to push me away, or like yesterday, when I just placed my hand on the floor curved around her bowl or held it in my hand for her....she jumped at me a bit, looking like she wanted my hand out of there. I have taken her food and stood up when this happens, asked her to sit, and when she is submissive looking again giving her her food back and praised her.
Any advice on this one? I am not sure if what I am doing (taking food away) is going to make her more possessive in the long run, but I don't want to "give in" to her either? Of if I overdid this well meaning advice of entering her bowl's space and now she expects me to hand feed her? And, I don't know if just shutting her in her kennel is the answer...I don't want her getting territorial about her food in there either.
As far as the rest of her behaviour, she sits when requested and takes a piece of kibble nicely, and generally is a calm dog, sits at the door before we let her in the house, when playing she is getting good at dropping a toy when requested even when a treat is not there to entice her to "trade", and we do things like getting her to sit before we get down to her level and play with her, and if she jumps up on us when we are down there we walk away until she calms. She is not possessive about toys that we can see, does not show fear/aggression at us reaching in her kennel, etc. Basically SIT is the command she understands the best right now and we use it to make her "earn" her food, interaction with us, etc. It's just I think I am noticing some "dominance" I think in the food area (plus the distractability, which is decreasing her intake) and I would like to nip it in the bud, pardon the pun LOL!
Any advice from you more seasoned puppy moms would be appreciated!
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: and I posted this in another thread, but it breaks down how to accomplish this really easily.
