My 5 month rottweiler picked up a dead pigeon and would not drop it, despite all attempts with different voice tones and showing treats, how do I attempt to take the item from his mouth without him swallowing or getting aggressive ?

Did you try distracting him with something else?

Are you training him?

You're the boss,the top dog, make sure he knows it.

If he is ignoring your commands, he does not know it.

Yeah, I tried distracting him with his treats and his favourite game but he was determined to keep the pidgeon.
I am training him and normally we are doing well, and normally he listens to my commands but when it comes to food and dropping things he becomes another possesive dog. Any suggestions ?

Every time you feed him practice picking his bowl up and taking it away.

Put it down for him to eat, let him get a mouthful or two and then pick it up.
When you pick it up make sure he is calm and settled before giving it back to him, this is also a good way to teach him the command 'sit' if you haven't done so yet.

For extremely aggressive dogs it's recommended to use a 'fake hand' on a pole but with a 5 month old you shouldn't have a problem picking it up and taking it yourself.

Dear Shazamataz.

Thanks for your really helpful tip, I feel that this could really work, I will give it a go. At the moment I keep my hand in the bowl to learn the sharing thing, so I feel this would go well.
Thanks again

Yes the hand is the bowl is good, they need to learn that it's OK for you to touch their food, and if they growl and try to scoff it all down that is not OK
When we get a young puppy we are always taking food and toys off them until they get used to it and learn that I am the dominant one so I am allowed to take their food and toys if I wish

Thanks, I'll let you know on how we get on... but I just hope I don't have another pidgeon scenario... but it will help on other situations so thanks again...

In a pack dogs hunt. The more dominant dogs eat first, the others get whatever is left over.

You dog feels he's dominant. A submissive dog would never ever try to keep the food from the dominant pack member.

Bribing him with treats is showing him that you are indeed the submissive.

Shazzy's suggestion is great. No more treats to get him to obey. Treats are only given to reinforce good behaviour, not to correct bad.

Good luck.

Thanks Altenweg

So, other than using treats only for good behaviour, what tips do you have to show that I am the "pack leader" and what other tips do you have for this type of scenerio ?

Just out of curiousity, what if it was an emergency? As if what he had in his mouth was going to seriously hurt him? And you had to get it out then and there.

I know what to do with my dogs, but they are small.

What would someone do with a larger dog who doesn't know his place yet?

EDIT: Or maybe the larger dog has a smaller dog in his mouth!:(

Just out of curiousity, what if it was an emergency? As if what he had in his mouth was going to seriously hurt him? and you had to get it out then and there.

I know what to do with my dogs, but they are small.

What would someone do with a larger dog who doesn't know his place yet?

EDIT: Or maybe the larger dog has a smaller dog in his mouth!:(

I actually have a rather sad and scary story for that scenario...

As some of you know my mom has Great Danes and Poodles.

2 two old poodles (both 10 years) are in a separate section on their own because they are both entire males, and so is the Dane, it's just wise to have them separated.

Well... the Dane decided one day to go out in the backyard and jump a 6 foot fence. Dad heard a horrible noise coming from outside and ran out there.
There was the Dane with one of the poodles in his mouth.
Dad ran on instinct and crash tackled the Dane to the ground... luckily he let go.

Many, many many stitches and a permanent limp later the poodle survived.

We still don't know what happened to this day. The Dane has been with them for over a year and never had a problem before.


Looking back the normal thing to do would be to wither get a cdold bucket of water or a blanket to throw over the dog but when you see something like that you don't think, you just react.

Thankfully, my little feller is great with other dogs and people, we just have to get over the issue with food, which Shazamataz advise will work wonders, which I have started doing. But it would be interesting to hear from the experts their advise on your good points on how to handle this sort of situation.

In an emergency you can lift the dogs rear legs off the ground. Not sure why but this causes them to release.

I do the grip hold.

Form a claw with your hand. Put pressure on the side of the neck. This is what mommy does in the wild when the pup is misbehaving.

Pin him down, put the hold on the neck. No, you're not grabbing. No, you're not being forceful. Just enough pressure so that he can feel it. Keep him pinned until he submits.

Never be angry. Be calm and assertive. Yes, that's Cesars method and I have to say, he's a genius when it comes to dogs.

Just out of curiousity, what if it was an emergency? As if what he had in his mouth was going to seriously hurt him? and you had to get it out then and there.

I know what to do with my dogs, but they are small.

What would someone do with a larger dog who doesn't know his place yet?

EDIT: Or maybe the larger dog has a smaller dog in his mouth!:(



I have always have big dogs - many of them were rescues and had various "issues." I have had dogs that were food aggressive. I don't expect my dogs to do circus tricks BUT I have always worked on "drop it" (no matter what) and coming when they were called even if they did nothing else when I gave a command. Sometimes it takes a long time. Some dogs could be bribed with food, then they would drop whatever they had, then I would pick it up and tell them they were good dogs (my dogs do not get food as a reward as a general rule); others had to be grabbed by the back of their necks and shaken. It depends on the dog.

I don't know if OP shows any hesitancy about taking something from the dog (and that can be a problem) but if the OP has shown any type of reluctance (Rotts are, of course, big dogs) then I'm sure the dog is picking up on it.

Shaz, your story was frightening! My dogs are big, a small dog lives next door, occasionally they see the small dog and it's no problem - UNLESS/UNTIL the small dog runs from them. Then I think they would chase it down, less realizing it's a dog and more knowing it's an animal running from them.

And as far as Dahlia's suggestion - amused me to no end. Probably makes sense but... really?