Food aggression just won't go away!

[doggiedad]

i think you should be able to touch your dog while he's eating.
i think you should be able to reach into his bowl while he's
eating, take the bowl away, hug him, call him to you, etc.
i started doing all of the above when my pup came home
at 9 weeks old. when you have children in the house
you definitely want to be able to touch the dog while
he's eating. when i had my last GSD i had my 3 yr old
daughter in the kitchen with me. i sat her on the floor
because i needed to use both hands. i turned around
and my daughter and dog where drinking from his bowl.
at 7 months old i'm not sure what plan of action to take.
whatever method you use i think it should be long, slow
and often. consult a trainer/behaviourist. give him his
space untill you have a plan of action. good luck.

[gotahaveaGSD]

Maya at the age of 5-6 mo. growled at me while eating. My wife and I acted right away to fix it before it became a major problem.

What we did was, we did not put the food bowl down till she looked at us in the eye and sat down on her own. Then after her eating for 10-15 sec. we then would walk in front of her food till she backed off and walked away or sat down. Then we would pick it up for 5-10 seconds then repeat the first step. (Look in the eye then sit then put the bowl down)

We did it for about a week then started to touch her paw,side,head,snout, and then we were able to touch the food in the bowl while she was eating. (That point took about two to three weeks. It takes a lot of work, but I can pick the food up at any point of her eating. I can also take treats away anytime I want to. This should be done with toys as well.

I don't think it's a good idea to give treats while bad behavior is going on. I think that is saying the bad behavior is a good thing to a dog.

Another thing I should mention that we also did was use our hands to mix or touch her food so she smelled our hands on her food while she was eating. Not sure if that had anything to do with fixing the problem but it just made sense to do it.

[Jd414]

Thanks for all the suggestions I guess I got some work ahead of me


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[sit,stay]

There were several weeks worth of professional work with the puppy between the first portion of the video and the second. They didn't show all the incremental baby steps they took to get from point A to point T. I think the video was intended to showcase their results, and not intended to be seen as a how-to offering.

OP, simply doing what you see being done in the second portion of the video might cause more harm than good. My advice would be to discover the baby steps they took and follow that protocol. Otherwise you could end up reinforcing the wrong behavior, which could lead to more intense guarding behavior.

Good luck.
Sheilah

[sit,stay]

Originally Posted by Marc

As I say, this may not work with all dogs, but it gets the message across that if they guard their food, it WILL be removed.

But wouldn't taking the food away in reaction to the guarding cause the dog to guard even more intensely, since you have now confirmed that losing the food is going to happen? They aren't just concerned they'll lose it, they now know they'll lose it?

I think that replacing one behavior (resource guarding) with another (say, sitting and making eye contact without the food being removed at all) would be more successful. They learn that there is no danger of losing their food, and the potentially dangerous behavior of guarding is replaced with a behavior that they can be rewarded for.
Sheilah

[Cassidy's Mom]

Originally Posted by Jd414

Yea but I know plenty of dogs who have no issue with there owner touching them while they eat...

Yes, but that doesn't mean that it happened without any work on the owners part to get there. Some dogs just aren't that food motivated and don't have guarding tendencies in general. Those dogs would probably be fine no matter what their owners did or did not do. But not all dogs are like that. And often well meaning people do things to prevent resource guarding that end up actually creating it or making it worse.

Since when I bring home a new puppy I have no idea which kind of dog they'll end up being, I start working proactively to make sure that they trust me not to randomly take things away from them for no reason - consequently, there's no reason for them to guard anything from me. I've never had a dog that I couldn't touch while they ate or that growled at me when I was near their food bowl, but I also don't mess with them once I release them to eat. I can walk by them, I can stand near them, and I might give them a pat on the side before leaving them to eat, but I don't pet them all over or stick my hands in the bowl, or take it away while they're eating.

Originally Posted by msvette2u

Well he's not the other dogs. I'm glad he's not that bad, but he could be.
My dogs, none of them, are bothered by us walking by, because we don't fiddle with them while they eat; there's just no reason to.

Exactly.

Originally Posted by Marc

My point is that you dont need to push a dog to threshold to fix that behaviour.

It really goes beyond that - pushing the dog to threshold not only own't fix that behavior, it's likely to exacerbate it. This is one of those things that well meaning people do that can cause food guarding issues.

Great posts, Sheilah!

[Jd414]

Alot of different opinions


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[msvette2u]

Originally Posted by Jd414

Alot of different opinions


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Yep, but if what you're doing isn't working then change it.

[Jd414]

Ok so I spoke with someone who owns GSDs and always owned dogs and they said if the dog ever growls I need to put him on the floor on his back and crate him. They also said a good wack every now and then is ok and to make sure he understands that growling at me or anyone in my family is unacceptable even if it means disciplining him enough to the point he crys/runs...

I know a lot of u in here aren't going to like that but it is what it is...

This method seems a little aggressive but does anyone think some dogs need tough discipline?


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[Jd414]

Originally Posted by msvette2u

Yep, but if what you're doing isn't working then change it.

I understand that... I'm saying there's so many different opinions how do u know which one really works


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