Bones, puppy teeth & my poor finger! Advice!?

[graceb]

Love the first pic, I think hes saying who me? I didnt do anything!

Sorry cant help with Bone sinareo not ever had any problem with Dexter re food, bones. Ive never taken food away from him after Ive given it to him, but I have stuck my hand down his throat a few times when he has stolen something like a cooked chicken bone and retrieved it
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Grace & Dexter

[Lisa/Colin]

Ouch! Hope your finger is Ok.

I've never given Hektor a 'real' bone yet and I wonder how he would react. I am, like you 'In charge' of the food, I make him wait for his dinner and tell him when I am going to remove any item from him, like a toy or a hide chew and have never had any issues (with food at least ).

Mylo is still a baby, at least he has done this at this point and you can address the issue now before he gets any bigger.

Good luck

Lisa

[Craig C]

I don't tell Bran when I'm going to take something off of him, although I do make sure he can see me making the approach. So far at least, he's never made any objection at all. He's not had any bones as yet, and I'll need to see how he reacts to them. I'm the one who usually feeds, walks, plays with him, etc.. but I have made a point of my brother, mother etc.. feeding and walking him as well whenever possible.

The Springer Spaniel we had stopped getting bones as he got very, very possessive of them. Growls and hackles up if anyone got within a couple of feet, and biting if you tried to actually take them off him. I've got several scars on my thumbs from that.
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Craig (& Bran)

Bran's Photo's

[Lorna]

Because they are rescues and often have health issues, I have to be able to put my hands in their mouths and get anything from them. My 2 must give up bones when told. Starved dogs have to learn about food taking and leaving it. I feed them in the morning and John feeds them at night. This way we are both 'in charge' of edibles'.

They both love bones but Poppy would steal Basil's bone given the chance. She steals his treats and he lets her. Big soft wimp!
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Regards,
Lorna, Basil & Poppy
Great Danes are not substitute children. They are much more important than that!

[Jack]

Me being me I have made a point of being able to sit with my pack whilst they eat and remove items from them if I choose whether they are prepared for it or not, whether I signal my intention or not. I've done it since they were babies because I wanted dogs that would NEVER snap at ANY person whether food was around or not - I did this specifically with children in mind. We have no children but plenty of our friends and families do and I wanted to be 100% sure that children would be safe in our home should they visit. I'm pleased to say they are but I would never ever drop my guard or leave any child alone with any dog no matter what its breed or nature.

We have NEVER had a food related "incident" other than the bone that was swiftly dealt with. Actually there is just ONE other thing that Ella is incredibly possessive about and that is the biscuit tin. I don't know why but she goes into guard overdrive if it's around and I DO mean overdrive so it is NEVER allowed to be lying around where she can see it because her entire body language can signal "Red" in an instant. At those times I don't feel as if she's "with" me she is completely and utterly fixated. I'm working on it with her but only when it's just me and her. No other distractions and certainly no other furries are allowed to pass between her and said biscuit tin. I adore the bones of her but trust her when the biscuit tin is in the equation and she has reached level 10 fixation - no siree!!!!
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Staffies are my life! Visit us at www.staffies.co.uk

[John Thomson]

Just scanned through this post.........

a couple of things to note.

firstly a bone is as high a value treat/food item as you will get for a dog so if they are going to get possessive ( or cause a fight if there is more than one dog) then a bone is going to be the trigger for it.

I would set myself up to be in control of this situation so that I can anticipate what will happen and be able to manage it.

Put a leash on Mylo......then introduce the bone.......any excitement or lunging will result in an instant correction that he will remember.........only when he is calm and submissive should he get the bone.......tonight he learned that biting your finger got him a bone so is likely to repeat that.

Mylo is a mix of two breeds that can be 'high drive' and as my daughter has a Shepweiler I know what you are dealing with..........keep on top of him now and it will make you life so much easier in the future.

He is a lovely natured boy and simply need to know who is in control of every situation.

john
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John Thomson
www.cumbernaulddogtraining.co.uk

[steve young]

Very interesting that dogs prize bones more than anything. Especially since it's his first. Which is why I dropped my guard, didn't expect him to treat the bone any differently to anything else I give him.

He didn't learn that biting me got him the bone, he learned that biting me got him a skelp, the bone taken away, being pinned down (gently) by the pack leader (me:)) and then ignored for an hour.

I spent a good while reintroducing the bone, making him leave it and let me take it on command etc. He even brought it to me later and left it at my feet, thankfully he'd cleaned it up a bit my then.

I'll continue again tomorrow until there's no issues at all. It's been a valuable lesson.
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Steve Young
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Dogs: Sasha (10 yr Lurcher, male) and Mylo (1 yr Shepweiler, male)
Pictures Videos

[John Thomson]

Well done Steve.........he needs a firm hand............

An easy way to work out treat food priority is to put down more than one at the same time.......you can quickly learn what is most important to a dog.

I feed bone to my dogs and it is the one thing most likely to cause a dog fight.........a great stress buster for a dog and super for cleaning their teeth........was it a marrow bone or rib bone?
Morrisons supermarket sell 'bones for stock' at around 25-30 pence.....worth looking out for but don't feed to many to quickly at it can cause constipation.........you will need to learn what works for your dog.

johns
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John Thomson
www.cumbernaulddogtraining.co.uk

[shirley c]

My mum could never feed the Ridgebacks bones, with 5 ridgebacks at the time it was recipe for disaster. Luka tried the growl thing with his 1st bone but has been fine since....Moya is bad, she will growl, she used to be like that with her dinner too, but being a stray, I imagine she was pretty starved too, I just use caution but ca now remove things from her...carefully.

Pixel and Scooby are easy, they will give up whatever....well with Pixel apart from treats, they are gone in a crocodile snap and your fingers too at times
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lurchers Pixel and Zev and whippet, Fen
3 cats, Greebo, Yu and Lexx - 2 ferrets and Dales pony Jazz and adopted pony, April

[Jack]

Well handled Steve!!!!

John I agree - bones are the worst trigger for dogs in general but for Ella, almost as bad is the biscuit tin. I have never seen her so fixated on anything else and it's completely baffling why she does it with this one item. She has never been encouraged to fixate on or guard it she has just slipped into that right from the first time she saw it as a puppy - the others are interested because they know it holds tasty morsels but they are polite and wait to see if they can get a treat (it is NOT guaranteed they WILL get a treat because if all it holds are choccie biccies they NEVER get so much as a crumb from those given the cocoa content), they don't fixate to anywhere near her level of intensity. Still we manage it, it's not a huge deal because we know how she behaves around it so nowadays it's not left lying around unless I am working with her on it.

About bones, one thing I would say is..........boy I WISH my lot had been constipated!!! I dunno whether it's a breed specific issue but lots of Staffies I know have had the runs following them being given bones. Ellas' was the most severe reaction I personally know of - I'd be interested to hear if anyone else's dog has the same reaction.
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Staffies are my life! Visit us at www.staffies.co.uk

[Emma Hardie]

[maureenmcl]

Guinness has had raw bones and as John mentioned had constipation but when my brother gave me a roasted bought nap bone he had the opposite reaction. So it must be something to do with how the bone is treated. I have also tried him with boiled bones and this also constipated him but then again he ate the lot nothing was left

So now I need to limit bones. Our greyhounds get the roasted bones and have the constipation effect with them so think it seems to be individual reaction rather than breed reaction

Maureen

[Emma Hardie]

Your probably right
still waiting to see how our labrador reacts however. .
one funny tummys bad enough!
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Emma, KT the greyhound, Robbie the lurcher, Pheonix (Pisces) & Soho (Stuart Little Junior) the Chihuahuas x
greyhounds make greyt pets! x
www.gal.org.uk

[Jack]

Thank God I am not alone Emma!!!

I don't think they have chance to warn of a dodgy tummy it just hits and they need to go NOW!!!! We had accidents IN the house as well as outside. Ella did her best bless her but she just couldn't control it and NONE of them are ever messy in the house.
Staffs have very sensitive tummies sometimes - just my luck I get 3 all together You would think to look at them that they are rough and tough and that nothing phases them but that couldn't be further from the truth.

I have them on a strict diet and treats are limited to what they can safely eat and not get the runs from and we don't deviate - if we do we get dodgy tums all round so it's not worth it from a hygiene or a health point of view.

The bones I gave were raw. Untreated and fresh in at the butchers that day. It's a local butcher used by many and there's no hygiene or health issues stemming from the premises so I KNOW it's my dogs constitution that's just not tolerant of them. I'd never feed cooked bones due to the hugely increased splintering risk so couldn't say IF that would have the same effect. I know a lot of people do give their dogs cooked bones and have no issues it's just not a risk I'm comfortable with taking.
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Staffies are my life! Visit us at www.staffies.co.uk

[Emma Hardie]

It sounds like its to do with the staffie breed since all 3 of yours get it - how do you cope! I've had to keep my eye on KT for the past 2 days for signs of needing to go!

Its robbie's bin raiding that gives him the tummy problems, but the thing is he gets it out the opposite way - he always throws up, and always does it conveniently in my room! And to make matters worse i ALWAYS stand in it, every time

aaah its worth it for our dogs . . even when they do leave us presents . .

i agree with the cooked bones. if i cant be bothered with the mess of raw butchers bones i'll give a rawhide chew instead - not worth the risk of cooked bones.
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Emma, KT the greyhound, Robbie the lurcher, Pheonix (Pisces) & Soho (Stuart Little Junior) the Chihuahuas x
greyhounds make greyt pets! x
www.gal.org.uk