Food Aggression

[Flamincomet]

Yesterday when I reached down to move Ghost's food bowl he growled at me, I immediately grabbed his leash, and as I reached for it again to take it away he actually snapped at me. The only other time he has ever been food aggressive was when we were heading back from my mom's house in Bellingham and we didn't feed him in the morning because his stomach gets upset with car travel. He snapped at me then, when he tried to get to my food and I pushed him away.

 

This time I have no idea why he would have been food aggressive, he is getting enough to eat, and his dinner was on schedule. I am hand feeding him now, but if anyone has other advice or thoughts they would greatly be appreciated, I've never had a dog with aggression issues before.

 

Thanks,

Autumn

[Rebecca, Irena Farm]

How old is he? Is he fed on a schedule or free fed?

 

There's a ton of exercises you can do to convince a dog that guarding the food bowl is a waste of time. You are already doing one, of course. Another simple one is to make him work for every bite - sits, waits, stays, even tricks. I start with feeding a dog on leash, so I can correct without complicating things by getting in the dog's space (that's a different issue to be worked on seperately).

 

For a puppy, many males go through a period where they just sort of try everything once. Actually, many females do too, but space and guarding issues tend to be more of a male thing in my experience (stranger aggression tends to be the dominant female "thing"). So, if you are talking about a puppy, don't panic - just keep doing what you are doing and play it by ear. Most likely you'll see it disappear and then you won't have any more similar problems - in other words, he's not "food aggressive" probably, just seeing what he can get away with.

[Flamincomet]

How old is he? Is he fed on a schedule or free fed?

 

There's a ton of exercises you can do to convince a dog that guarding the food bowl is a waste of time. You are already doing one, of course. Another simple one is to make him work for every bite - sits, waits, stays, even tricks. I start with feeding a dog on leash, so I can correct without complicating things by getting in the dog's space (that's a different issue to be worked on seperately).

 

For a puppy, many males go through a period where they just sort of try everything once. Actually, many females do too, but space and guarding issues tend to be more of a male thing in my experience (stranger aggression tends to be the dominant female "thing"). So, if you are talking about a puppy, don't panic - just keep doing what you are doing and play it by ear. Most likely you'll see it disappear and then you won't have any more similar problems - in other words, he's not "food aggressive" probably, just seeing what he can get away with.

 

He is almost 7 months old, I was thinking it might be hormones, since he's starting to hit that age. I'll keep hand feeding him, and thanks for working for food idea, I'll try that for his dinner tonight.

 

Autumn

[Shetlander]

How old is Ghost? If he is resource guarding food, it is very important not to react with anger or punishment which is often a very natural response on our parts. However that can make the problem worse. What was going on that you moved his food? Had he just started to eat and then you needed to move the bowl? Or had the bowl been down for a while and you were picking it up?

 

Hand feeding can definitely help him associate your hand with giving food and also see that you are controlling the resource. Another thing to do is give him his food in the bowl but only a small portion. Then as he is eating come up every so often and drop more food in the bowl. Again this helps the dog see a hand approaching his dish as a good thing. Make sure no one teases him in any way about food, so he doesn't feel he needs to guard it. Not that he needed to be teased to start resource guarding. Some dogs just do it very naturally. Don't take food away just to see if you can, even if you plan to give it right back. The only time I take food from my dogs is when I need to for safety or health reasons. They are always so surprised by my rudeness that they don't resist, just stare at me in shock.

 

There are lots of games you can play to teach him self-control around food and to wait for your ok before he eats. This can be done one kibble/piece at a time or by making the dog do a stay before he is released to his entire meal.

 

It is important to do everything you can not to give him the opportunity to practice this unacceptable behavior. So if he isn't eating all his food but objects when you go to remove the bowl, then I would give him less to eat at a meal. If he was guarding the empty bowl, I wouldn't feed him in a bowl but instead make him work for his supper. I do this quite a bit anyway and my dogs seem to have fun when we train or play games in order for them to earn their food.

 

Hope that helps.

[Shetlander]

Ok, double post . Yes 7 months could be part of why he is doing this. Dogs that age often start testing to see what they can get away with and maybe if there is an opening in the leadership for them to take over.

[Rebecca, Irena Farm]

Yup, just the right age. He's just testing the waters most likely.

 

Another game. Put some boring kibble in the bowl, then let him take a few bites, then have him back up and lie down or sit, and stay. Take up the dish, tell him what a great dog he is for staying, and pop something super yummy in the bowl (I'm not talking better kibble, I'm talking roast chicken or liverwurst), put it down, keep telling him he's a good boy, and release him.

 

I made the mistake of squashing this behavior rather harshly the first time I ran into it, with Ben, and now he needs an extra special "OK" to eat when I'm around. He never was sure what he was corrected for. The above exercise makes it really clear that letting you handle his dish is a good thing, and eating in front of you is not the issue.

 

Good luck!

[bcnewe2]

I made the mistake of squashing this behavior rather harshly the first time I ran into it, with Ben, and now he needs an extra special "OK" to eat when I'm around.

 

Funny that you say that. I have one old girl that has to have a kiss on her muzzle before she'll eat. My DH watches the old girls when we go out of town. The other day I started to tell him how strange she ‘s getting about her kiss (won't eat without it) I said "Raven is so strange, before I feed her..." DH says, "I know, you have to kiss her on the face." I asked how he knew...he said Raven told him. This from a guy who says he hates my dogs....tell me another one!

 

7 months is a hard age. They try everything at least once. I agree that harsh corrections are usually overboard, they already have that teenage confusion thing going on. Just gentle reminders of who's in charge helps more. When I need to take away a food bowl around here I usually use my foot to scoot the bowl away from the dog. Not because anyone will bite me, but it's more a habit from working with strange dogs or rescues. I think it helps that I'm not bending down leaning into their space. When they are eating they are usually so into the bowl that they could easily confuse me with another dog. It would be momentarily but so is a snap. I don't usually mess with food. I don't want anyone snapping if I need to pick it up but I'm not a big fan of fiddling with a dogs food once I give it to them. I find it confusing for them. I want the ability to do so, but don't.

 

Just my 2 cents

good luck

Kristen

[Guest SweetJordan]

I didn't have time to read through everything that was said. However, I'll share part of my story in case it may help you. My mom's dog had horrible food aggression issues, to the point where if someone was making her food you couldn't even touch her because she would bit. We have no idea how old she was when she was brought home though(she did spend two months in a shelter). Anyway, part of her problem was that she thought that she was alpha. So I worked w/ her to show her that the humans were alpha and not her(I take care of during the day while my mom is at work). Well that worked really well, but she still had issues w/ food. So then I began during training sessions to put food on the ground and I would pick either the wait or stay command. It taught her that I or any other human had control over the food and not her. Later somewhere I read that is a good exercise to do w/ a dog who has food aggression issues. I think that it helped a lot. She also does a sit and wait for her food(which I have always done w/ my dogs except my first one who was a submissive wetter, as I needed to do some of the opposite things w/ her). Anyway, now if she's eating someone can move her bowl, push her back, stick their hands in her bowl and she doesn't do anything(of course I only did this to test how she was doing, and yes I did risk having my hand bit). She can also be touched when the food is being made without biting. It took a while to get her there but she made it.

I know in the case of my mom's dog her story is different. She was probably middle age when my mom adopted her, but I wanted to share in case any part of it will be of help to you.