What do you think of this humane society's example of testing a dog??

Found here

Isn't it to be expected that when you reach for a dog's food some dogs are food agressive, and especially in a shelter environment might be scared of getting their food stolen from other dogs?

I have a Shih tzu who is 9 months and I tell you right now he would never never pass that chair test. He cannot even get down from the couch because he's afraid of heights. To the shelter people, why is this a good test?

Originally Posted by Pupcake

What do you think of this humane society's example of testing a dog??

Found here

Isn't it to be expected that when you reach for a dog's food some dogs are food agressive, and especially in a shelter environment might be scared of getting their food stolen from other dogs?

I have a Shih tzu who is 9 months and I tell you right now he would never never pass that chair test. He cannot even get down from the couch because he's afraid of heights. To the shelter people, why is this a good test?

I didn't know that they did this that poor dog i feel sorry for them they are use to fighting for there food.

I dont' think it was the chair test that made the difference, it was the snapping at the false hand. I've seen this on Animal Planet where they do the same thing to test the dog.

it's to see if a human can interfere with the dog's meal safely - if that were a child walking in and wanting to pet the dog, it'd be dangerous. And no dog pound or dog shelter wants the situation of adopting out a pet that is potentially vicious, with the lawsuits flying around.

it's sad, but it has to be done to protect the shelter from lawsuits from people who WOULD sue them over a bite.

Originally Posted by PugLuv

I dont' think it was the chair test that made the difference, it was the snapping at the false hand. I've seen this on Animal Planet where they do the same thing to test the dog.

it's to see if a human can interfere with the dog's meal safely - if that were a child walking in and wanting to pet the dog, it'd be dangerous. And no dog pound or dog shelter wants the situation of adopting out a pet that is potentially vicious, with the lawsuits flying around.

it's sad, but it has to be done to protect the shelter from lawsuits from people who WOULD sue them over a bite.

Well yes this it very true I didn't look at it this way. But yes still sad.

That is very sad...but it's true that it could've hurt a child by being food agressive. Fortunately, I've trained my dogs not to be like that. I can stick my hand in their food dish at any time while they're eating & they don't even growl. It is very easy to teach a dog not to be food agressive. All they had to do was teach the dog not to be food agressive if he was fine otherwise.

It seems rather harsh, and as PitBullLvr said, it's not that hard to train a dog not to be food aggressive. It's a matter of the dog knowing where it stands in the family pack, if you know what I mean. My dog is often clueless, but any of us can take food from her, including my granddaughter who no longer lives here, but Sunshine knows her place in the hierarchy and that MacKenzie is above her. She'll growl at the cats, though, sometimes.

Originally Posted by PitBullLvr

That is very sad...but it's true that it could've hurt a child by being food agressive. Fortunately, I've trained my dogs not to be like that. I can stick my hand in their food dish at any time while they're eating & they don't even growl. It is very easy to teach a dog not to be food agressive. All they had to do was teach the dog not to be food agressive if he was fine otherwise.

I can do this with my dog also but I really don't know what would happen if my baby did the same thing she seems to try and boss small kids around she used to do my nine year old this way and we told him everytime that she growl to spank her to let her know that he was not scared of her and she finally stopped.

A girl I used to work with had this great rott/hound mix she was fostering and he almost didn't get to leave the shelter alive because they said he was food aggressive. Well, she got him home and found that his "aggression" was more of a "guarding" because he was 15 pounds underweight and had been in a group cage so he had to compete for food. Once she got some weight on him, there wasn't a problem. Her six year old could hand-feed this dog with nary a worry. He could eat in a group of dogs and the only change was that he ate a bit faster. No growling, no hackles, no snapping.

I know there are plenty of dogs who rightly fail this test, but there are so many other variables to consider sometimes.

Dog adoption is a difficult “business.” Indeed as a person has already said: If this dog were to be adopted and then bite a child the dog pound would probably have a big law suit on their hands.

Thats sad.