B HARPERINK

So the title already said it, but I'm looking for some advice on how to keep our dog from laying down when seeing other dogs. It only happens when the other dog approaches us. She'll lie down and then jump up as soon as they sniffed at each other for a few seconds. Usually, it's all fun and games from there, but occasionally (more often in the past few months) she'll start to bark and growl instead and I have to forcibly pull her away. She does it more with me (F) than with my partner (M), though it happens with both of us. I'm not sure what the distinction between 'friend' and 'foe' is in her mind. The other dogs don't necessarily seem to have to show any aggressive/deviant behavior for her not to like them. Additionally and possibly relatedly, she also sometimes barks at men (never women) on the streets or when they visit our house. They're usually tall man with low voices. My guess is it's a small trauma, but I've never been able to pinpoint the source of the problem. She plays with other dogs daily in the park (off leash), so I don't believe it's a matter of socialization. She does the same thing there, but she'll get up when the dog is still a few steps away and it's much more playful. I've never had a problem with her behavior there. The easy solution would of course be to simply not let her meet other dogs on leash (I'm for that anyway, also to not reward the laying down behavior), but I'm thinking my behavior might be the problem here, and if so I want to correct that. I'm pretty sure she (also, if not mainly) does it to prevent us dragging her away. My nervousness at the situation probably isn't helping. For context, she's a 1,5 years old ~35kg lab/husky/Anatolian shepherd/Swiss shepherd mix, mostly lab and husky. She's always had a bit of a nervous streak and does show guarding/protective (and sometimes herding) behavior at home. She used to resource guard, but we corrected that. We walk her 3 times a day, two rounds of 20/30 minutes and one round to the doggy park to play for ~45 minutes. If she's still very active in the evening after that, we do an extra round.

@Adrienne Farricelli thank you so much for the insights! I think you've got it spot on (which is not a surprise, but still, I'm really happy about that!). It's interesting that you mention this, because we have had one instance where she tried to swallow the thing whole when I approached, so she indeed doesn't get any bones anymore. I do give her natural dental sticks and the occasional piece of beef lung or chicken leg, but she can only have one 'with me', i.e. I sit next to her while she eats it, and when she's chewed it down to a dangerously small part I'll break it into smaller bits right before her nose which she then gets to chew. That doesn't seem to trigger any negative behavior whatsoever. She's practically prancing as soon as I open the kitchen cabinet where I keep them, and her body language is much more relaxed overall. She doesn't show any signs of minding it when I'm taking it, and she won't try to take it from me. Far as I can see there are no signs guarding behavior when I'm there the whole time and show her where the food is non-stop. I think she's just used to it with the dental sticks, but I'll take it that's a good sign, because if she can get used to it with those we can work up to a point where she's completely comfortable with the bowl too. I'm also definitely going to try the metal slow feeder. I'm always in the room when she's eating or playing anyway, so I'll make sure to keep an eye on her - but from a distance. I have actually already read up a bit about desensitization on this platform because I wanted her to get more comfortable with her harness, and she responded great to that, so I'm confident we can make it work with this too! Thanks again for the in-depth response and the many additional resources. 😁

@JMFS thank you for responding! 🙂 Whenever we get another slow feeder (which is often, seeing as they're getting destroyed rather rapidly now that her adult teeth are fully out 😉) it's the same thing all over again, but we did try with a regular metal bowl and while she toyed with that one too she seemed a little less 'obsessed' with it. Then again, we didn't have to take that one away all the time because she couldn't eat it, so I think part of why that was easier is because she wasn't as scared of us taking it. I do still have that metal bowl, so training with that one might be a good start! 😁

@Adrienne Farricelli Hi, thanks for the quick response! To answer your questions: She won't leave the bowl for just a treat, and if I approach her with the treat she'll eat it but very reluctantly. She will leave the bowl if I take another toy and put some treats in it, but she'll make sure to also keep the bowl within her eyesight and will run for the bowl if I approach it too obviously. Basically what I do now is I fill the snake (a treat toy) and put it some distance away from the bowl, and once she's somewhat engrossed by the snake I'll sneak to the bowl and hide it behind my back so that she doesn't see me have it. It works about half of the time. I have a while back (when we were getting an injection to make her throw up actually, because she'd managed to reach a sausage wrapper before I could stop her 😅), and he basically said the same thing you're mentioning right now: labradors will eat. But, to also answer your third question, she usually does know the difference between edible and non-edible. She'll put a rock in her mouth occasionally, but when she realizes she can't eat it she'll spit it back out. The sausage wrapper was an isolated incident, and I image that was because it smelled really good. We did use another metal bowl for a while (not a slow feeder, just a regular one), but that was only for a short while so she didn't have time to build a true 'connection' to it. She did also treat it as a toy, which is kind of like what she's doing to her slow feeder, but it hadn't become as obsessive (yet). On the other hand, I don't mind her being a bit obsessed about her bowl if she can't eat it, so I'm definitely going to check those metal slow feeders out.

Hi all! I have a bit of an odd problem with our pup Knoet, a 7 month-ish old Labrador/Husky/Kangal/Swiss Shepherd mix, and I'm hoping someone can offer some advice! When Knoet just came to us she had food envy, which was fine because we expected it (she came from a rather large litter that was fed at the same time, with a long line of kibbles on the floor), and we 'fixed' this by getting a slow feeder bowl. Every so often we'd come near it and add some more kibbles or give her a treat, and that worked wonders for the food envy. However... Ever since she's gotten her big girl teeth, she's started to basically eat the slow feeder bowl with it. It's a plastic bowl, as seems to be the case with all slow feeder bowls (that I could find anyway), and she'll chomp bits of the edges after she's finished with her kibbles. I can't describe it in any way other than that she has feeding bowl envy. If she's eating, everything is fine, and I could even take the bowl away (though I make a point of it not to, since she's right to think that's her food), but once it's empty she'll start guarding the bowl like crazy. What I do now is I try to distract her, for example with another toy or some treats, and then I take it away, but that's not going great. I've also tried trading for high quality treats, but I don't think anything trumps the bowl in her mind. On top of that I'm starting to notice that she's becoming more guarded with other toys too, and I'm pretty convinced that it's connected because she mostly does that right after dinner too. If I'll try to touch her snake (a toy that you can put some treats into) in the afternoon, for example, it's fine, but if I do so after dinner she'll lay her ears flat against her head. I don't want to keep taking her bowl away from her, but I can't exactly let her eat it either (it's non-toxic plastic, but still). So, does anyone have any tips for a) food bowl envy, or b) getting a dog to eat slower without a slow feeder bowl? Either would solve my problem, hopefully!