Greedy Kai
Does anybody find that their Kai is excessively greedy? For example, Ciqala and Saru like to investigate new groceries, but after a while Ciqala will pick out some bag containing food and resource guard the heck out of it until I take it. Also, on walks, she steals smells from Saru: she will literally body check him to smell whatever he is sniffing- same goes for getting attention. Funny thing is, she doesn't get snappy about her food, just mine; however if I get near her while she's eating she does the whole "eat really fast so no one else can have it" thing.
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http://www.amazon.com/Mine-Practical-Guide-Resource-Guarding/dp/0970562942/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1328913609&sr=8-3
Saya would resource guard her food from the cats coarse all they wanted to do was rub on Saya not eat the beef tongue coarse Saya didn't know that.
She just growled and coarse the cat isn't too bright so I picked him up and put him in the garage he got the hint then.
Don't own a kai ken so can't help much.
My past dog would resource guard space and food and maybe my mom not sure all in the past sadly I didn't know what I know now so it was chaotic.
I hope things work out maybe someone has some good advice on this.
He does not resource guard from us at all. With us he relinquishes most anything very willingly - he might try to keep away some as a game, but that's just silliness! HOWEVER!!! lolol With Kitora though.... geeesh - so - we just got new tennis balls for everyone (3 new balls) He horded ALL 3, essentially sat on all of them as best he could and growled at her that they were his.... lolol Well, we took 2 of the balls and left him one; gave one to Mirra (who doesn't really like balls, however - in the spirit of being equal, lol) and started playing with Kitora with "hers". He wasn't to thrilled about that and acted pretty butt hurt about the whole thing. And seriously, when our backs are turned he'll go and take the ball she's playing with and sit on it again! He guards a lot of things from her! We joke that if he could talk he'd sound like the crabs from Finding Nemo "mine... mine... minemine..." What we do is just give him an "uh-uh" and use the word "share". I dont' know if we do it exactly right by the books, but if he growls, his pets/play stop and we will purposely go to Kitora (he doesn't growl about Mirra) and begin petting her and making a small fuss over her. It seems to be working.... Basically, trying to teach him (???) every body gets fair and equal love in this house... what a little pill he is!!! In the absolute best way, of course ;o)
He also guards his food. We were having real issues with this at first. The Kai are fed in their crates but Kunes and Ki are right by each other (small house) and they would have "issues" at feeding time. What we did with this is teaching that everyone gets their own food, no matter how long it takes for you to get to it. Ki really settled in very quickly with our feeding routine from the very beginning and only reacts to Kunai over her food if he started acting like he wanted to take hers. What we did was to make the dogs "wait" for their own food. It was extremely hard for him at first, and frustrating for him too. We didn't ever discipline him but we would have hold of his collar, sit on the floor by him and repeatedly tell him "sit" and "wait" ... "sit" "wait" while Kitora would eat her food. We took turns with them to show them that we were in control of feeding time and even if (for instance) Kitora is done with her food, we are not going to "let" her go into Kunai's crate to eat it. We would redirect her and then we would let him go in and eat his meal once the physical tenseness settled down some - usually he would signal this by finally sitting on his own with a deep sigh and muscles relaxing. It seemed like it would take forever, but in reality maybe only 5-10 minutes. We had to do this more with Kunai as he is more guardy... It's taken a LOT of work and a LOT of patience, but we have achieved peaceful feeding time (there are still days with glitches) but it has been worth it. Everyone goes to their proper spot to eat, no one tries to steal food from other bowls. Everyone has slowed way down with gobbling their food and we are now able to leave crate doors closed but unlocked for the dogs to finish their meals. What's great about it now is that both Kitora and Kunai will park themselves in their crates at feeding time and will wait for their bowl to be put down for them, all with wagging tails. Oh, that's another thing - we switch it up all the time as to who gets their bowl first. It works very well for us- everyone get their tummies full, no one is allowed to snitch someone elses food and trust in us that we will get you what you need!!!
Another activity that we do that I think teaches patience and "waiting you turn" is we will call all dogs to us for treats. We will then give a general "sit" command and whoever does sit first gets the first treat. We do have to pay attention while doing this so someone doesn't think they can jump in and steal what is being given to the dog who sat first. We avoid this by simply placing ourselves in a way where only the "sittee" can receive their treat....We will then give a "name/sit" to whoever needs to still sit. Then they get their treat. This takes a lot of time too but what it looks like now is:
Call dogs (dogs come running)
We say, "Sits!" (dogs sit, pretty much in unison)
"Mirra" (she gets her treat)
"Kitora" (treat)
"Kunai" (treat)
Not always in that order just depends on what order they are sitting in for me... but they never get the treat unless their butt is firmly on the ground. We are now working on doing this with the "lay down" command... this seems to be a little more challenging for them, lol. They'll get it though!
Oh, also - all dogs do get their own individual "lesson" time during the week. We leave the other dogs out and only one comes in for lessons and treats and loving...
Sometimes I don't know if all my babbling is helpful... lol but I hope it is... I would have to say though to sum it up that the majority of it hinges on teaching the "wait" command...if they learn that you can throw it out there anytime you need someone to check themselves....
Good grief, I didn't mean to make this such a long post - I hope some of it is helpful!!!
Then next incident was when we had a dog birthday and these two dachshunds came close to her while she was eating her peanut butter cake.
I've been teaching Mochi to "wait" and "leave it" by putting treats all over his paws while he's in a down/stay position. Eevee would come up and eat the treats off his paws! It's really funny but I reward Mochi heavily afterwards.
I had a Shiba who had a really bad case of resource guarding. It's a slow and tedious process to desensitize them but it can be done. I've had giant gashes in my hand from when Sasuke bit me but there were times when I was hand feeding him and petting him at the same time 2 years after we began training.
Ren would resource guard her food against my sister's dog, but that was because he would actually go and eat it the second it was unguarded.
@CarabooA That was a long *helpful* post, there's a difference! lol. Really interesting way to manage multiple dogs! Whenever Ren gets brother or sister I'll definitely be using those ideas!
Mika is the greedy one around here partially cause she's silly Mika and mostly because Mei and Koda have spoiled her silly. She is so entitled to what they have, and they easily give her everything. Mei was the biggest resource guarder until Mika came along. Now she lets Mika take treats right from her mouth. It's crazy!
Both girls won't let each other near their crates, but Mika will guard with a mean growl if anyone gets near her crate. Mei will initiate play to get Mika away like grab a ball and run. Mika will chase her to get the fabulous toy away. Oh and @CarabooA Mika does the same thing with toys. She hoards them and sits on top of them or runs her body all over them to get her scent on them like she's owns everything.
Mika guards food sometimes, but mostly we have worked that out because again Mei and Koda give her whatever she wants and don't check her like they should. The Little Monster runs the house and they love her.
I looked everywhere and couldn't find them. I finally just looked in Mika's crate and low and behold under her blanket was not only my slippers but my hat I wear to walk them in the morning and one of my running shoes.
Yep that pretty much sums Mika up. Lol
@tjbart17 - it is so CRAZY how similar these pups can be in ways... what lil boogers!! :oD Silly Mika!
@carabooA it was helpful. I do the same pre-meal exercise. it really helped especially when she was around 6 months and was really bad. now they eat together on command- sometimes she'll even eat under Saru if she pushes her bowl under him while they're eating. Then I just have to worry about her stealing his food (it's always an amicable takeover though, more like forced sharing.)