A few months ago, I discovered the 鈥渄o not make a fuss of your dog鈥檚 food aggression issue鈥?theory on a dog-feeding forum. The main idea goes like this: resource guarding issue in dogs is quite natural and hard for owners to shoot, so is not a big deal; And as long as your dog always shows obedience and submission to you at other times, you can just leave it alone after putting down its bowel and let it finish its meal without any interruption.
The reason I ask is this: generally speaking, my two-year-old golden is a good boy to human and friendly to its counterparts; he is quite willing to do what鈥檚 asked and wait and resist the temptation just before his bowel until getting the 鈥済o ahead鈥?command. The biggest problem is: while enjoying its meal, however, it feels uncomfortable if petted on the back or any part of its body, and sounds warning signals if its food is touched. But, it is ok if just being watched. After applying so many methods to correct him, I do not see any chance of eliminating this problem, to a lesser extent though.
The conventional wisdom says that, as a pack leader, you want to make sure you can grab anything from your dog, even take anything away from your dog鈥檚 bowel or mouth. And in no circumstances, you tolerate your dog growling at you.
So do you think it is acceptable that your dog is a loyal follower to you in most cases, except that it really cares with someone touching it or its food while eating?
Anyone supports this 鈥渄o not make a fuss of your dog鈥檚 food aggression issue鈥?theory? Food aggression is serious and should NEVER be ignored, even when it is minor. What if a child grabbed your dog's bowl and was bitten??? Food aggression can escalate and even transfer to other areas if not taken care of. DO NOT IGNORE IT!!!
You should be able to take anything from the dog without encountering aggression - no exceptions.
Start with giving your dog an empty bowl because they don't feel the need to guard an empty bowl. Then place a few pieces of kibble in the bowl and pet him in between giving the kibble. This will help him start to see a hand coming towards his bowl as a good thing since that's what provides the food. Petting him inbetween will get him used to being touched during feeding time.
If he shows ANY aggression, don't give him any more food until he calms down. Getting food while he is aggitated only teaches him that he can get his way by acting aggressive. Only give him food including treats when he is sitting and acting submissive to you.
Keep working on it, because the potential problems aren't worth avoiding the work necessary to correct it - trust me! I have trained dogs for over 10 years and I have never seen a food aggression issue not escalate. my dog is exactly the same. i saw a documentary once about some of the things that dogs do that relate back to wolfs in the wild and i think this is one of those problems. in the wild if you have your food you dont want anyone near you because they might steel it, so when you pat your dog whilst it's eating it feels threatened. so dont worry about it, there's no issues with your dog. No. You really should be able to take food away from your dog without putting yourself or others in danger. What if your dog were to pick up something dangerous, thinking that it was a tasty treat? You would want to be able to take it from him for his safety.
We used to have a dog that was protective of her food the same way as you describe your dog. If her head was down and eating, she would growl if you reached for her or her food. It took some time, but we were finally able to get her to the point where we could make her stop eating and let us take the food. Of course we never took her food away from her for meanness, but we would take it for only a moment every once in a while, just to remind her that she needed to be willing to let us take it. Then, after praising her and petting her for being obedient, we would give her food back to her, along with a special treat of some kind. The positive attention and special treat when her food was returned assured her that we weren't trying to steal her food...instead we were simply reminding her of the "pack order." i don't agree with that theory . my police dog wont ever growl , snap or bite when eaten ,
here how you train him to quit, let him skip a meal ,
put on his choke chain , place the bowl about 6ft away
tell him to sit .then pick up some food in your hand , feed him by hand ,and only by you hand ,this could take a while ok . he got to learn that he has to share the bowl and the food ,when he eaten maybe a hand full .place the bowl down,but out of reach of him ,he got to learn ,in able to eat , he must behave ,i would hold the choke chain with your left hand and try to get to the food, ,if he growls, correct him i mean level ten, bang , now let try this again tomorrow , if he wont stop try a muzzle ,so you don't get bitten , to really explain to you , in much more detail an email would work , but don't put up with this , next time it could be a child getting bitten , he protecting of his food that all .but need to stop today .. I do not agree with it. The dog is young now but food aggression issues tend to get worse with time. You should be the pack leader in all areas. What if you have friends over and their young child approaches your dog while he's eating a bit of food someone spilled? I would continue to pet him while he eats. In fact, touch him every time he eats. He should associate touch with food. Over a few weeks, pet him closer and closer to his head while he eats. Eventually you should be able to touch his food. When he growls, tell him "No!" My brother has a wonderful, sweet lab about the same age. No one has worked her about being food possessive. The other day I went over to visit, with my dog. I didn't know this about her. She wasn't eating but just because her food dish was on the floor, she attacked my dog. I was shocked because she is such a wonderful dog! I'm going to have to tell my brother that he has some work to do! Why touch your dog while he is eating anyway? Just leave him to eat his food quietly. Keep the petting and loving for other times. No dog wants to be fussed while it is eating. They automatically think you are going to take their bowl away.
I have always fed my 9 dogs all together and have never had any aggression issues. I put their bowls down and stay with them while they eat but I never try to fuss or pet them while they are eating. I know many dog owners who support this theory - they believe that because it's a natural dog behaviour, it can even be harmful to the dog to teach it otherwise, giving it an unnatural relationship to food and also make it suspicious of you around its food.
It's not a training (or lack of training) method that is applied to any of my pets. Yes, it is the right of dogs and wolves in wild animal packs to protect their food, even against the alpha. However, my familiy is not a wild dog pack - and having a dog with food protection can be potentially dangerous, especially if you have other small pets or children running around. I know one of the pet owners, who uses the theory you mention, has to tip toe around her dogs when they eat, giving them wide berth, which basically means that she can't walk around in her own house as she pleases during feeding times. Something like that is unacceptable to me.
Also, if my dog gets hold of something dangerous, then I want to be able to take it away from her without risking getting bitten.
I find the best way is one of mutual respect and trust. While all my pets are taught not to be protective of their food, I rarely touch them while they are eating, and I don't take their food bowl away unless I have a very good reason to. I've never experienced any down-sides of teaching my pets not to be food aggressive, on the contrary, I have no food fights, no squabbles, no growling etc. My dog would even give me her bone, because it was easier for her to gnaw on it if I was holding it steady for her.
The only situation where the theory would have a point for me is if the food-aggression is addressed poorly, in which case the aggression could escalate and the owner would probably have been better off just leaving the dog alone in the first place.
In your case, if sounds as if you can live with your dog's food aggression, but I would still say that you will have to keep an eye on it to make sure it doesn't escalate. well, if someone kept snatching MY dinner away just to see if they could it'd piss ME off. So i don't make a point of trying to take away my dog's food. HOWEVER, i am able to take away other food, like if he picks something up. I need to be able to do that just to help keep him safe.
a big part of the problem with "food aggression" is that people try to take food from dogs while they are eating and go about it in a lot of wrong ways. You refer to being a pack leader. That means if you try to take food you need to do it in a way the dog understands as the action OF a pack leader, not just a person being a pain in the ***. It involves the right movements and the right body language. If you don't know how to do it correctly with an older dog it's safer not to try. If you're starting with a very young puppy he'll grow up used to your sillyness and be ok with it. |
