Toys and Bones

Many years ago I had a wonderful Black Lab, he was the kindest, most gentle creature, loved everybody...........until he got hold of a bone! Then he turned into a snarling, growling monster! It would start the second you got within a few feet of him, he would never bite, you could still get your hand on the bone but it wasn't a pleasant experience so we tended to leave him to it. It was totally our fault as he was never taught not to be possessive, he was the same over his food.

This is not a mistake I intended to make with Neo so from day one he was fed with us sitting with him, fussing him and putting our hands in his bowl, the time spent doing this has paid off and we have no problems with possessiveness over food.

Hes 16 weeks now and I've been putting off giving him bones as haven't wanted to deal with the fallout! then someone rightly said 'wouldn't it be better to do it now rather than wait till hes bigger!' of course this made sense so off I went to the pet shop for some bones.

When I got back I did a few mins of training with him then gave him the bone. For the first 10 mins I held onto it which he was fine with then I went out and made a cup of tea came back and took hold of it again, asked him to 'leave' which he did, I even pretended to have a gnaw of it myself! The only time he snarled was when the cat decided to get in on the action. In my house the cat is higher in the pecking order than him so I told him off and made him allow the cat a sniff at the bone, he waited patiently until the cat wondered off again. So all in all it was a success.
I'll give him another one next week and repeat the process.

Hes also now having Tripe Sticks, these smell awful! but he loves them and has shown a little bit of possessiveness over them when hubby has been with him so that's being nipped in the bud at the moment.

I'm afraid I spoil him a bit when it comes to toys, each trip to the pet shop I like to get him another one as don't want him to become bored and start on the furniture, so far we've been lucky and he hasn't destroyed anything, I'd like to keep it that way! I swap the toys around every few days.

So on Tuesday I arrived home with this
Well, this is a very scary and dangerous toy, you wouldn't believe it to look at it but Neo assures me it is and shouldn't be approached without extreme caution and lots of barking and dancing around! I've seen him scared of the vacuum, the ironing board and the pushbike but never a toy! It is very funny to watch. Hes only happy when the scary toy is back in its box.


I'll keep getting it out and perhaps as he gets older he'll feel less threatened by it!