Macsmum

Over the last wee while I have noticed a funny behaviour with my Mac - probably once or twice a week I will come home from work and find he has taken a shoe off the back step and put it in his bed in his kennel. He never chews the shoes or damages them, it's like he just likes having something of mine or my partners with him! Am I reading too much into this/does anyone else's dog do this?!

Hi everyone, I am just after some advice regarding funny behaviour around food in my 1 year old pup, Mac. From day one, whenever I fed Mac, i made sure to put my hand in his bowl, touch his head etc, so I was confident he wasn't going to snap at me or anyone else if I needed to take food off him etc for any reason. He was great with this and we never had a problem. About 4 months ago, Mac spent a few days at a kennel when we were out of town and not able to take him too. This was his first time at a kennel. He came home and we noticed that if we tried to touch him while he was eating he would growl and stop eating, tail would go between legs and he would shake! The kennel owners said dogs are always separated for feeding so I am just assuming he was upset just by even having dogs in the kennel next door! He was very timid at that time and I was anxious about how he would cope with all the other dogs. Since then he growls every time we touch him around his bowl, I can take bones and other things off him no problem but his biscuits are a no deal! I have tried the approach I used when he was a pup, touching or patting for a minute then leaving him to it, sitting beside him while he eats etc but it doesn't seem to be working! I don't feel its an aggressive growl and I don't feel nervous putting my hand in his bowl, I think its more to indicate that he's worried about the situation and I don't want him to be stressed around his food! Does anyone have any techniques they have used to combat this kind of behaviour? Thanks in advance, Nat and Mac.