My puppy started displaying food aggression a month+ ago and I've been trying to train her to accept that she can be touched while she ate and the food wasn't going to disappear besides into her own mouth and tummy. Things seemed to improve as she stopped growling much although she continued to vacuum her food as if she hasn't eaten in months or she's afraid the food will disappear. I allowed her to chomp away and I've probably been doing it wrong because today, she got worse.
She kept growling at me while licking her food, then suddenly bared her teeth, snarled and took a huge bite.
Definitely stop trying to train her to accept being touched while she eats. There is no need for that, and it's not going to help her learn that food isn't going to disappear. Clearly, it's making her nervous and if you continue down that path you could end up with a situation like the CM video that Carmspack posted, which is a sad case of well intentioned people following bad advise towards an easily predicted outcome. Dogs will not resource guard if they trust that you aren't going to start randomly yanking away valued things. Build trust. Be consistent, be fair. It truly is that simple.
I was very proactive when Halo was a puppy, more so than with any of our previous dogs. I taught her to bring me things, rewarded her with a treat, then gave her the thing back. We named all the toys, so I could ask her to bring me the _______ (whatever), happy praise, yummy treat, "okay, take it", and she got it back again. I did that every day with a variety of things. We played tug, I asked her to drop it, rewarded with a treat and we played tug some more. I held a bone while she chewed it, offered her a treat, marked it ("yes!" or with a clicker) when she let go of the bone and ate the treat, and released her to take the bone again. With a tug or a bone, I maintained ownership of the item by continuing to hold one end. When we were done I simply didn't give it back after rewarding her for letting go. For ball play, I taught her to drop the ball for a treat and then I threw the ball again. Eventually, resumption of play became the sole reward and I could fade out food rewards. It was all struggle free, and she learned that giving up something didn't mean she'd never get it back again, which built trust. So when she had something she wasn't supposed to have, she'd still bring it to me because of the large bank of trust. I'd thank and reward her, and put it away. At some point she could have decided it wasn't worth it to bring stuff to me anymore because I might not give it back, but that never happened due to the solid foundation of training I had done. It also helped prevent keep away games, where you end up chasing our dog all over the house to get something away from them. Instead she liked bringing me things so much that she made it a game. She will bring me an Orbee ball and I take it away and give it back a couple of times before she's satisfied and then she goes off and chews it. Or she brings me a bone to hold for her while she chews it:
Remind yourself that a food-motivated dog is super-easy to train because they'll work so very hard for their reward. Use that to your advantage! This is the only way I "mess with" dogs when eating. It's either part of training and working together, or the dog eats in peace. One or the other --- but not taking food away, sticking my hand in their bowl, or otherwise aggravating the dog eating from a bowl.
Excellent post, Magwart! When I have a young puppy I do some hand feeding out of the bowl, which I maintain possession of. But once I'm done and give the dog the food, I never take it away, or stick my hand in the bowl, or mess with the dog. I will sometimes stand nearby and drop good stuff in the bowl though. My presence during mealtimes is either neutral, or predicts something being added, like freeze dried liver raining into the bowl of ordinary kibble, never anything being taken away.
She is very very food motivated, to the point where she just goes crazy. She's willing to do her tricks for like, 1 second, then you have to treat her or she starts bouncing around.
Impulse control! I expand on that below, but she needs to learn that her behavior determines when she gets the food. I teach my dogs from the time they're young puppies to sit and wait while I put their food bowl down, and then release them to eat. If at any point they break the sit, I immediately pick the bowl up and wait for them to sit again. You may need to do this a half dozen times when you first try it, but she will figure it out. In the beginning I make it very easy, releasing to eat the second the bowl touches the floor. I gradually make it more difficult, working up to setting down the bowl and standing up all the way before releasing, then taking a step away from the bowl, etc. Eventually I can put the bowl right in front of the dog and walk 5 or 6 feet away before releasing. Our dogs are both adults now and they still get excited and spin in circles while I'm preparing their meals, but as soon as I pick up the bowls, they sit and give me eye contact. I don't need to say a word, I just wait for them to do it. I put down the bowls, close the gate between them (they eat in the garage - one in the enclosed pen, one outside it), and then say "okay". One time when Keefer was young, ONCE, he started to eat before I told him he could. I said "oops!" picked up his bowl, set it on the counter and made him wait until Dena was done eating before giving it back to him. Never tried it again!
In this photo Halo is about the same age as your puppy. My husband put down the food bowl, and she's looking at him, waiting for him to say okay:
BTW, I'm not a fan of CM in general, but I do like your idea of him smacking some sense into your husband! :rofl:
As for training leave it - I have never let the dog have the "leave it treat" and use a different treat to reward the "leave it." If they were constantly allowed to eat whatever they are supposed to "leave it", you could create some anticipation/frustration/confusion. In a real application of leave it, i probably don't ever want them to grab whatever I am asking them to leave it.
:thumbup: Agreed. Leave it means you don't ever get the thing, and you reward with something else. I've done "leave it" exercises using a dog biscuit on the floor, and also a bowl filled with goodies. After we're done, I pick up the biscuit or the contents of the bowl and put them in my treat bag. The reward always comes from me. If I'm working with a toy, like training the dog not to jump up and grab a tug for example, I usually use the "wait" command. They're going to get it, just on my terms and at my discretion. Initially, I ask for a sit and eye contact ("watch") before releasing the dog to take it, but eventually that becomes a default behavior so I don't need to say anything. It's automatic, because they understand that's what's required to get what they want.
Which reminds me to ask: How do treat bags work? I mean, don't they get dirty from the treats? Or do you put the treats in a ziplock bag and then into the treat bag?
Depends on what kind of treats you use. if I'm using something gunky or that needs refrigeration, I put them in a ziplok bag, which is easy to remove and put back in the fridge when I'm not using my treat bag. But there are plenty of treats that don't need that. If she's as food motivated as you describe, you can simply use her kibble as training treats, or at least mix it with a small amount of something more interesting. When Halo was a puppy, i'd measure out her lunch kibble, toss it into the treat bag, and whatever I didn't use for training went into her bowl for her to finish. I took her first week home off work, and after that I took long lunches for another month or so, and came home mid-day to spend time with her. Breakfast she got exclusively in her bowl because there was no time for training, but I did the same thing with her dinner kibble - measured it out and did a little training with it first. This is my favorite treat bag - it's large enough for treats and also a ball on a rope, it has lots of pockets for other stuff, including poop bags. I put $20 in the zip pocket on the back, my ID in the front pocket, and my cell phone drops easily in the smaller pocket inside the main pocket where the treats go:
https://www.chewy.com/doggone-good-rapid-rewards-dog-treat/dp/143031
This package from Chewy is particularly good since it comes with the belt (sometimes sold separately), a clicker, and a wrist strap. I put my clicker on a wrist strap, and hook it to one of the D-rings. Many other treat bags have metal hinges on the sides, which inevitably break. I prefer the magnetic closure on this one.
One of the things I really like to work on from the very beginning is impulse control exercises. That sounds like something that could really benefit you with your girl. The It's Yer Choice game by agility trainer and competitor Susan Garrett is sort of a default leave it, because the dog is not given any commands. It's basically a game of red light, green light, here the dog learns that the way to get the food in your hand is to stop trying to get the food in your hand. I like to add eye contact as an additional criteria, but you don't have to do that right away if you don't want. Polite behavior around food gets reinforced, pushy behavior doesn't get anything. I did this with Halo every day for weeks.
The more food motivated the dog is, IME, the faster and easier they figure out how to make the food happen.