Bite the Hand That Feeds

From the Dog Crate of Tarma Shena

I have a dog in my house right now that is in a crate. Now, mind you, I am not against crates, I just don’t happen to use them as a general rule. I can write an essay at a later time if you would like to have an argument, I mean discussion, about them.

This one is to talk about food or rather feeding dogs, specifically hand feeding, and why I don’t. I belong to a lot of FB groups that do not actually relate to me or a topic I am interested in, but because no one lives in a bubble you wind up having conversations about other aspects of life in those groups.

Livestock guardian dogs, of course, are the most frequent ones I run across. I have chickens and I have an LGD, ergo other people in this chicken group must have LGDs as well. So we are asking dog training questions on chicken groups, goat groups, regional groups, neighborhood watch groups, and even cooking groups.

I get invited to these groups all the time because it’s a dog training question and we should not be asking chefs for dog training advice. I know it seems weird but you take just about any other industry, and people will tell you to hire a professional, but not training…. When it comes to training, everyone is an expert.

There is a fundamental reason for this in my mind that goes something like this;

I hire an electrician when I need something done.

Why?

Because I do not know anything about being an electrician and if you get it wrong it hurts.

Unfortunately, this is also true of animal training, the only difference being whether it hurts you, the dog, or both depends on how badly you mess it up. You could fry the blender or burn the house down, the choice is yours.

Back to feeding, specifically hand feeding, because that is supposed to be the topic of discussion today. I see this recommended as a behavioral modification activity more than any other except for tying dead chickens to dog’s collars. Talk about a subject needing its own writeup, we’ll go back to that some day.

Hand feeding a dog is a magical way to cure just about any negative behavior by making you the rainbow sparkled provider of everything good in that dog’s life.

There is a small portion of my brain that wonders why I have never seen anyone recommend this for any other animal? Why does it only work for dogs?

Anyway.

This is one of those instances where it works just often enough for people to think it is a good idea, right up until it isn’t. Much like dead chickens.

I’m not going to get into the human condition, ego fueling power trip that is the motivation behind most “food exercises” we do with dogs. I’m just going to talk about resource guarding. This is an inherently scary situation for most dog owners because we are made of meat and do not like the idea of having to fight for food. We gave up that activity long ago in favor of crocs and grocery stores. “Survival of the fittest” has been relegated to analogies and video games.

So here is where it goes sideways, as with any behavior, there is a matter of degrees. You can have a dog who shows mild stiffening when someone or something is in close proximity while it eats, or you can have this dog I currently have in a crate who came here willing to throw down, Alien vs Predator, over the possibility of a resource. What I had in my hand “might” be edible and she wanted it and was willing to take it from me by force.

Turns out it was my lighter and she didn’t want it after all but in a situation like this hand feeding is not only a bad idea, it’s downright dangerous. Now, not every dog is as bad as Maggie, and I took her in as a favor because I’m an idiot, and everyone needs a highly aggressive, resource guarding lab mix in a crate in their house. Right?

I bet you had that on your holiday wish list too.

I know that dogs do not think like people, and I really don’t find resource guarding all that scary, in fact, I’ll take it over fear aggression any day of the week. It is a natural behavior I can relate to. But the idea that I can “win” an argument over a resource by withholding resources is just plain ludicrous. I know there are a whole group of you that just had a seizure over my word choices here, but resource guarding is an instinctual behavior molded and tempered by Survival of the Fittest.

You can sit there in all your human self righteousness and talk about how bad it is while you lock your house and your car before shuffling into the grocery store for your weekly basket of resources that you will bring home and stow away where the dog can’t get it.

Happy Holidays.