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Water bowl aggression?
I have a 8 month old Akita, he is a wonderful dog very well behaved, but for some reason he is water bowl aggressive. He will attack the dog that goes to the water bowl, he is fine at a dog park, but at the other dogs house or at our house he will attack them. The first time it happened we we're at our house on the deck. I didn't know what to do cause he was fairly young, and I wasn't sure who started it. But this past weekend, we we're at a friends house and i know he started it. Its just becoming a problem its only happened twice but what happens isn't nice its bad. I don't konw why he would be water bowl aggressive i've never heard or seen this before in my life. He doesn't do it in his house just at other peoples house or outside i don't get it. Please some advice would be nice, and no snotty comments please. Thanks to all the advice in advance. :)
1 Answer
- ?Lv 510 years agoFavourite answer
You could try desensitizing him to having this happen, try getting a friend to bring their dog over and have it go over to the bowl while you have your dog on a leash. If he makes any move towards the other dog, barks at the dog, even looks at the other dog with too much attention (ears pricked, tail up, body tense) make it clear to him this is not OK. Give a tug on the leash up and to the side to off-balance him (pulling backwards only makes them want to go forwards, intensifying the emotion) and get very stern with your voice commands. Try getting him to sit or lie down too, giving him a command can help by giving them something they should be doing rather than obsessing over the water bowl. It's also harder to be agressive when lying down, and lying down/sitting and looking away from the other dog shows submission and acceptance of what's going on; he's not looking at it, not even paying attention to it, because it does not matter to him anymore. What you want is for him to learn to ignore the other dog, you are in charge and you say it's OK for them to be drinking 'his' water so he's got to deal with it.
Source(s): Just FYI, you accidentally posted this in Fish- you'll probably get better results re-posting in Dogs.