Originally Posted by
R2L
this!!! couldn't agree more. although i do think it's important to let them respect you when you put down the bowl and don't let them attack the food half way, like i mentioned before. when they're pups its most easy to put them in their place. sometimes i stroke em a little bit after they start eating and then just leave and let them enjoy it. if you find it very important you can also learn them to chew stuff out of your hand. but there is no reason to take away food, or to battle them.
Exactly.
Silverback (for example) won't try to take MY food away from me. And, in the house, if I catch him trying to take a scrap from the garbage or sneak a tidbit from the table, he will basically ball-up and take the ass-kicking that he is smart enough to
know he deserves.
When I feed him and get a whole animal to do so, or a bowl of premium raw diet (tripe, livers, gizzards, etc.), Silverback is smart enough and obedient enough to
wait for me to set it all down for him. But once I give it to him, and he perceives that these raw food items are now "his," at that point in his dog brain he was
taken ownership of that meal ... it's HIS now ... and I'd better not f*** with it.
Really good dogs almost invariably have EGOS, and you have to respect your performance dog as an individual also, same as he respects you. Silverback
knows I am the boss. He knows what to do, and what not to do, and he knows when his sneaky ass tried to break 'the rules' and take a little extra. If he breaks the rules and tries to grab some chicken out of the garbage, he will sull-up and take his ass-kicking, because he knows he deserves it. He is smart enough to know he broke the rules. He is also smart enough not to piss or shit in the house, and even if he gets sick and has to vomit, he is even smart enough to run into "the dog room" and go in a crate to vomit (rather than on the floor or couch). Silverback is likewise smart enough to know that, during really rough play, that he can play-bite my hands, my arms, etc. ... but he will
never play-bite my face,
ever, no matter how rough we play ... Silverback will "shut off" and only LICK my face, even if I stick my face up to his in the middle of really rough play. He is a highly-intelligent, highly-obedient, absolutely excellent house dog.
But once I give him a kill, he is also smart enough to know that it is HIS now, he has taken ownership of that kill and he is also a BULLDOG with an EGO that isn't going to let
anything take what is HIS now. And I have to be smart enough as an owner to let him have his space, to let him eat in peace, rather than try to "fuck with him" and take back something that he really wants. That isn't proper training of a dog; it isn't a necessary thing to do either. All doing something like that is, is trying to break a dog's spirit and punk him out totally. And I for one refuse to do that to ANY dog, especially a truly superior dog like Silverback, who has a HUGE ego, and who gives ME all the respect in the world in everything I ask of him. Like I said, snatching your dog's deserved food from his mouth, while he's eating it, is basically not respecting your dog as an individual. Silverback 100% knows I am the boss. He 100% will submit to any ass-kicking he deserves for being a sneak when it comes to food. He knows enough never to piss or shit in the house. He knows enough
never to play-bite my face, under
any circumstance, no matter how rough we play, and he
never does. But I
also make sure that I respect him, and his ego, for the Alpha Male that he is in his heart.
Because he is smart enough, and bulldog enough, to know when something is HIS and he damned sure isn't going to let me, or anything else, take it from him either. And so I likewise try never to cross the line with Silverback, to give him his space and never to scold him for no reason, never to take the food out of his mouth, etc. That isn't "training" a dog IMO, that is being a control-freak, and then administering abusive bullshit punishment that the dog really didn't deserve. Hell, he is a CARNIVORE that needs to be left alone so he can eat and enjoy his "kill." And I for one try to treat my dogs with the respect they deserve, to feed them the very best primal ingredients I can, to scold them when it's necessary, but also to step back out of their way and let them savor what they enjoy most (a kill) in peace.
Jack
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