Husky Help!!

Question
My boyfriend and i have a 15 weeks old female siberian husky. she is very sweet most of the time. however when ever my boyfriend tries to take her bone or pet her while she is playing with a bone she snaps at him or growls.This is very strange because she NEVER does this with myself. and since we have had her (since she was about 9 wks old) we have been training her to not have a problem with people petting her while she eats. I am not sure what to think about this. But my poor boyfriend feels like she doesn't love him!!! If you have any ideas as to why she is doing this i would love some insight!! thanks jessica

Answer
First of all - don't worry, this is completely normal behavior for a dog.  Chances are, the dog feels more comfortable with you and just doesn't trust your boyfriend as much.  There are some simple ways to help fix this behavior.

First, try to make sure you are addressing food aggression at every opportunity around her regular feeding.  I've written about this before, but basically the idea is that you should work in stages:

1) Feed some kibble from the hand before giving her the bowl of food.

2) Feed some kibble from the hand while she is eating - preferably away from her food bowl.  Some dogs won't be interested in it, so sometimes upgrading it to a treat helps.

3) Feed the dog closer to her own bowl from your hand.

4) Place your hand in or close to her bowl with the food to give her extra.

5) Add some kibble to her bowl while she is eating.

6) Take kibble out of her bowl to feed to her while she is eating.

7) Take food out of her bowl and hold it, then give it back.

These stages are the rough idea of doing one for a week or so, then moving on to the next one.  You are basically just conditioning the dog that your presence around her food is a good thing - or at the very least, not a big deal.

Next, make sure your boyfriend is ACTIVELY involved in her training.  She should be sitting, laying down, and walking with him without an issue.  He should be able to give her treats and such and reward her - but she needs to be trained by him too.  Also, make sure he is involved feeding her, and that she does something before feeding (a sit, down, or something).  This helps establish him as a provider as well.

Last, understand that treats like bones are prized possessions to dogs, and technically, they are allowed to protect them.  Therefore, he must (for right now) ALWAYS trade up.  If she has a bone and he wants to pet her, he needs to bring a treat (kind of a peace offering).  Bring the treat, let her have that while he pets her.  Eventually, she should learn that he isn't there to take her bone.  And if he does, she gets something for it.  After working with this (often for several weeks), you should be able to approach the dog without anything and be fine.

My four year old female still growls at me when she has a good bone and I sit next to her to pet her . . . but it's more just a "Please don't take this!!!" growl than a warning.  It takes some time to get to know your dog to know the differences, but I still trade for her quite often, and I think that's why she still growls (she's playing the game - if I act like I REALLY want to keep this, I get something else if he wants it).  Interestingly enough, she protects socks the same way . . . .

Hope that helps and feel free to write back if you have other questions or need clarification.