Behavioral Problems with Border Collie

Problem: 2 year old Border Collie growling around food and bed.

We have a 11 year old female Border Collie (Athena) who I have had since she was 8 weeks old. She has no behavioral problems and is pretty much a perfect dog. We got a 8 month old female Border Collie (Skye) about a year and a half ago. She is now two years old. My wife is home with them almost every day and they get walked two times a day and play the rest of the time. Athena is the A dog but Skye desperately wants to be. Skye lifts her leg and pees over the area where Athena pees on a regular basis.

95% of the time Skye is great. She comes when called, walks off lead, never runs away, and is very easily trained. The problem that we having with her is that we cannot get her to stop growling when we approach her food bowl or when we come to pet her when she is on her bed. She has not tried to bite us or anyone else at this point, but we feel this could easily happen.
We have tried coming back and forth to her when she is eating, sitting next to her and feeding her by hand, taking her food away from her, and pinning her when she growls. We haven't had much success though in helping the problem. We haven't tried anything consistently though. When she is in bed, if we come to close to her, she growls. If we try to move her off of her bed, she sometimes pees.

We understand that dogs are instinctually possessive about food and that their beds are the place they want to feel secure, but we think that this behavior is unacceptable and dangerous. Any help that anyone could provide to stop Skye from growling and feel comfortable when people are around her and her food and bed would be much appreciated.

Thanks,
Bill

Have you tried consulting a behaviourist? My BC is much like that, but he never growls at us, just the other dogs.
We have had unimaginable issues with our boy, mostly due to error on our part, but after working with a behaviourist we better understood the "why's" to what he was doing.
He is still quite the resource guarder but he has lessened his tendancies.

I think you need to realize (you might already) that your dog is doing this out of fear--not dominance, aggression, or anger. She guards her possessions because she is afraid that you are going to take them away from her.

You need to be consistent in gaining her trust. A lot of people advocate the "Nothing in Life is Free" technique, where your dog must earn every piece of food, treat, or anything else desirable. For example, instead of sitting next to her, stand up and have her do some tricks for each handful of kibble. (For the first few weeks, get rid of the bowl altogether)

Most importantly, be consistent. Being positive and then trying to fix this by pinning her just confirms her fear that you are unpredictable. Try to set up a routine that will put her mind to ease.

(By the way, our 7 month old Border Collie is slightly food possessive towards other dogs. When she was 4 months old she would snap if our other dog walked past her. We have trained her to the point where she doesn't care unless he has his face in her food bowl eating her food. Then, she just quietly growls to let him know that it is hers. It's all about trust.)

Mine! A Guide to Resource Guarding in Dogs by Jean Donaldson

Well to start I'll talk about possessiveness over sleeping places.
Don't let her on your furniture, if you really want to then only let her on when you say it's ok. You also must teacher her an "off" command so she will remove herself from your furniture without you having to touch her.
To teach off you lure her off the couch (bed, whatever) with a treat and praise her when she goes off. Then let her back up and repeat over and over, it will be fun to do for her. Once she gets off quickly when you begin to lure you can ad in the command word. Say "off" then lure her down. Don't show her the treat just make your hand move like it did when you have a treat in it and were luring her off. Now this time tell her off and give the treat then lure her to her bed and give another treat. Then, once that goes well a few times, tell her off and don't give the treat lure her to her bed, then she gets the treat. Do that tell her off and have her go straight to her own bed. Eventually she will learn what off means and where she should go instead.

Now you said she guards her own bed. Find out how close you have to get before she starts reacting. Whether that is growling or freezing and staring at you, whatever shows she is uncomfortable. Back up a little from there and sit down, don't stare at her and make sure you are not nervous, breathe normally and don't be stiff or staring at her. Then toss her small treats from there. Once she begins wanting them from you and looking to you for more actually reach your hand out and give them to her (if your hand can get that close of not reach it as far as it goes and toss it). If she is completely comfortable with this then get up and leave. The next session will start in the same place but after you reach out and give the treat a few times you can scoot forward a bit and continue with the treats. Do this over and over. If at any point she starts to react stop giving treats but do not move away right off. Wait a few seconds then get up and leave (unless you are in immediate danger). Next session start a little bit further back to where she was not reacting a spend more time there. Continue until you can be sitting right next to her giving treats. Then begin holding the treat out to her and when she starts taking it from you also hold out your other hand to pet her. Remove your hand when she finishes the treat. Do this until she is completely comfortable. Then reach the petting hand out first and then the treat. That way being petted is a predictor of good things.

Do a few more sessions like this going right up and sitting beside her, petting and giving treats. You can start to fade out the treats by giving them every few times you pet but not every time. Don't pet her right on top of the head, pet her body or sides of her face if she likes that, just not right on top of the head, they don't usually like that.

If you are too worried to do this then get a behaviorist. If she actually lunges when you try to go near her then I would get a behaviorist.

I will do the food possession post in a minute, I have to go do something right now.

Also get that book houndlove recommended.

for food:
Get rid of the bowl for now as Herschel said, put it up on the counter where your dog cannot see it. You control all food, not him. Feed him from your hands, have him sit then give it to him from your hands. After a few meals of that bring back the bowl, empty. You put the empty bowl down for him and stand at the other side of the room with another bowl that contains his meal. Grab a small handful from the bowl and walk up to him and drop the handful into his bowl. When e finishes it walk to the other side and get some more. Feed him like this for a while. It teaches him that your approach to his food bowl is a good thing. Eventually she will start looking for you to bring the food to her bowl, this is a good thing, it shows she realizes you control the food. Once she is comfortable with you doing this you can continue but instead of being across the room move closer and closer each time until you stand beside her as she eats each handful. Then change it a little. Begin the way you were before, next to her bowl, her's empty and drop a little in. Then again and once more. This time when she finishes wait. She should eventually look at you wondering where her food is. At this point PICK UP HER BOWL and put the handful in, then place it down. Do it this way for a while. (If she is not comfortable with this then slow down and go back to the last step). So she will learn both your approach to the bowl and your touching/lifting the bowl is a good thing. it is important when you begin this that you do not pick up the bowl until she looks at you. if you do it as soon as the kibble is gone there is the risk that she is still licking the remnants and may become agitated. if she looks to you, you know she is done and wants more.


DON"T DO THIS. This teaches he that you are going to steal her food and that in order to keep it she must guard it.

Eventually you will come to a point where your approach and touching of her empty bowl is happily excepted, she wants you to do it. now you must work with a not so empty food bowl. Give her a fourth (or third if she can finish a fourth too fast) of her normal meal, have the rest prepared in separate bowls of fourths on the counter (so each bowl contains one fourth of her normal meal). Also have something super yummy on the counter, how about some chicken ripped up for her. So place the bowl with a fourth of her food down on the ground and when she starts to eat walk over and throw some of the chicken in. When the bowl is empty pick it up, put the next fourth in and once again when she begins eating walk over with some chicken and throw it in. Do this until she is done with the entire meal. then leave the room.

Do this for a while. Then do it in halves instead of fourths approach the bowl with the chicken a few times. Then continue with halves but only approach the bowl with chicken once each time (per half). If that all works well then give her the full meal and approach multiple times with chicken. Don't lift the bowl up to give the chicken simply put/throw it in. Later you can cut it back to one approach per meal(do it in the middle of the meal), do that for a while, stand by the bowl while she eats (once again, breathe normally, move normally, don't be stiff and don't stare at her head). You will come to a point where she is fine with the food bowl approach and you no longer have a dog who cares if you come near her while she eats. YAY. You can eventually stop with the chicken but if you have some left over meat from dinner (assuming there are no weird spices or onions on it) save a little and throw it in while she eats dinner (just do it when you can to brush up on the training, not every time or anything). To brush up on bowl lifting you can wait until she finishes her meal and then pick it up and throw some meat in and give it back.


Why are you doing this? I am astonished by the amount of people who really think this teaches there dog something. I finished "The Other End of the Leash" and figured out an alpha wolf actually never forces another dog onto his back. The other dog ALWAYS does this voluntarily. The only time a wolf forces another onto his back is before he kills it. Your dog must be scared out of his mind when you do this, he feels he needs to protect himself from you.


This suggests she is scared. It's best not to physically move a dog from their sleeping place. If you want her off her own bed use "come" or if it is furniture use "off".

It is very possible she is toy possessive also. Work with her on the "drop it" command, teach it if she does not already know it. If you do a search in the training section I'm sure you will find many threads on how to teach it. if you want help finding a thread on it ask me to find one for you.

I really hope this helps, remember to take it slow. If she seems agitated at any of these steps then go back a step and stay on it longer. This is not the type of thing you want to rush. Oh and for the part with the chicken, you don't have to use chicken any food she likes and does not usually get is good, A meat is preferred since it is better for them than other people foods. If you have any questions about what I wrote please ask me, I may be hard to understand sometimes.

Also get some books on dog behavior like "The Other End of the leash" by Patricia McConnell. And that book recommended by houndlove on resource guarding issues. "The Culture Clash" by Jean Donaldson is good also, it's a dog training book but also covers how they think which is important in training. Good Luck!

Thank you very much for all of the replies. This makes a lot of sense to us. We will get the books and try the advice. Thanks again!

Bill