My dog did something today that blew me away. I love it when I see a dog do/figure something out that is useful to me, that I know I could never teach it.
My dog is 6yrs now and I've had him for about 1.5yrs. All this time he lived in the house with me, my wife, and our 4 year old daughter. For about 4 months now I'm keeping a rottweiler bitch. I don't like her temperament and she's on her way out as soon as I find a new owner. In the meanwhile I have to deal with her bad upbringing, one aspect of which is that she's ravenous and will break house rules to get at food.
Today for the first time she stole something from the kitchen counter. But I wasn't there to see it so I didn't correct her for it, so I was already pissed. Only an hour later my daughter was eating breakfast, sitting on the sofa and watching TV. I was in the kitchen and heard her say "Katy no stop". I looked around the corner and saw the bitch reaching for the kid's food. Needless to say she got a good correction. But I suspected that it wasn't enough.
I noted that my dog was also hanging around closely waiting for a handout from my daughter, but he was much more polite about it keeping a respectful distance. I might have corrected him too but since the bitch definitely needed a strong correction he ended up just watching me correct the bitch.
Half an hour later I was in the kitchen again and heard growling. Took a peek in the living room and this is what I saw. My daughter left her plate with some leftover food on the sofa. My dog was lying down in a corner about 10ft away from the food. The bitch was reaching for it. My dog was making the most ferocious face and growling sound without getting up from his spot. His lips were drawn back so far that the corners of his mouth almost reached his ears, he was trying so hard to look ferocious it was comical. It was as if he was making the worst possible warning he could come up with without having to get up/change position. The bitch would back off the food, turn her head and look at him and growl, then turn her head back and try to reach for the plate again. At which point my dog would growl again and she'd back off again. This happened for a few cycles with me standing very still so as to not change the dynamics of the situation and see what happens. Then the bitch backed off completely not having touched the food.
It could be argued that my dog felt the abandoned food was his and was guarding it. But he showed zero intention to actually get it. Also there's been food left in places many times before and there was never such guarding behavior from him. It's almost as if he saw me correcting the bitch and understood that the food is not to be touched by her. Whether or not this is the actual thought, it was great to see him display natural guarding behavior. And the face he made was priceless. I gave him a piece of the food from the plate at the spot where he was lying.
Smart guarding behavior
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