How do you deal with a food aggressive dog?
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How do you deal with a food aggressive dog?
If you look at my avatar you can see that I am a dog person ;-) I had dogs all my life - and some of them had similar problems. Without knowing the dog and the owner I can give you only some general advice and tips. For more in-depth help I would suggest that you contact your local "dog training club" or similar. Your vet might be also able to put you in contact with the right association or person in your area.
The photo right hand side was taken by "WYSIWYGFOTO" aka Ed Endicott and the appropriate royalty license for its use was purchased by me ;-)
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Here my general tips and advice.
The reasons/ underlying issues
There are two, related, main reasons: The dog doesn't know his place in the pack and/ or think it is the alpha dog in the pack. Other contributing factors can be: the dog is not enough exercised, bored or has never been proper socialized. All this sounds horrible theoretic, so lets look at this from a dog's perspective of the world ;-)
A dog is a pack animal, it doesn't distinguish if this pack consists only of other dogs or is a mixed pack of animals and humans. In a pack of wolves or feral dogs normally only the alpha male and female are allowed to breed. When a puppy is born it "inherits" for a short time this "alpha status" from its parents, no member of the pack will dare to attack it or even to punish it for misbehaviour, it is under a kind of "child protection act". Only the other puppies in the litter will give it a "play fight" and so they establish the first ranking between themselves. As a puppy grows up, becomes a teenager in human speech, the behaviour of the pack changes. The older dogs or wolves now teach it what is considered proper behaviour in the pack. The rank of each animal in a pack is relatively stable and changes only when a higher-ranking animal becomes weak due to age, injury or illness. Then "rank fights" start, ending often with the death or expulsion from the pack of the previous high-ranking animal. That sounds horrible un-human (sic!) but it makes sure that the pack as a whole survives.
What does it now mean in a dog-human mixed pack, a family?
If you get a puppy it is, should be!, around 12weeks old. We used to breed dogs at home and we never gave a puppy away before it reached this age. Why? Because the "play fights" with the other puppies and the interaction with the rest of the pack are an important step in the socialising process of the dog.
From the dog whisperer...
Useful Links
- Dog Behaviour Dog Training Puppy Visits Nick Jones - Home
Dog behaviour and dog training are approached using calm techniques, with an emphasis on positive leadership throughout. An independently run company by Nick Jones MCFBA. - The Dog Whisperer - Cesar Millan's Official Web Site
Cesar Millan Center - Dog Psychology Center for Dogs featuring Dog Whisperer Cesar Millan. - All about dogs and the ones who love them plus a forum
All you could ever want to know about dogs! Get lots of free canine stuff, see dog pictures, explore dog names, learn about dog breeds, dog training, dog health and so much more. Plus a very helpful forum full of good advice.
So now the practical tips.
When a dog (either as a puppy or as an older dog) enters a new pack, the new family, you must make sure that the dogs knows its place in the pack. And has to be the last place in your pack's ranking order! The dog must understand that all humans are higher ranking then it! Why? To avoid that the dog starts to behave as the alpha dog and starts to play the boss! And that can include aggressive protection of what the dog considers as "its", may it be "its" food, "its" toys or "its" territory. So how do you achieve this? The following tips are valid either for a new dog or for a dog that needs re-training in this aspect. And as this hub was requested as "How do you deal with a food aggressive dog?" My tips and advice concentrate on this aspect:
1. Determine when the best time is to feed your dog. Dogs normally rest after a meal; larger breeds HAVE to rest after a meal to avoid serious problems like bloat (Gastric Dilatation-Volvulus). You want to feed your dog at a time when there is relative quietness in the house and when the dog can relax afterwards for a time, for example when the kids are in school ;-). That brings the stress levels down and allows the dog to relax more and be a bit less protective. Try to feed your dog always at the same time. In the ideal case that should be after the "human pack" has eaten, as the alpha wolves eat first and the lower ranking pack members last.
2. Establish a place and a routine to feed your dog. Always feed your dog at the same place and follow a certain routine. You will imitate the alpha wolf that comes back from hunting and shares the food with the lower ranking members of the pack. You even might to fake that you are eating a bit first and then giving the bowl to the dog to emphasise that. Have one "main" feeder in the family, but make sure that everybody takes his/ her turn to establish the idea in the dog that all humans are higher ranking pack members that share food with the lowest ranking pack member - the dog. Soon your dog will know when it is feeding time and follow you around as you prepare its bowl. Before giving it to the dog, fake that you eat a bit of it, then let the dog do something simple like "sit" or whatever command the dog knows to "earn" their food. Don't allow that the dog jumps around, and up and down at you, wait until it has calmed down and then set the bowl to the ground. Remember you are the alpha that decides when and what to give, not the dog that demands that you do it "now". When you have set the bowl to the ground go quietly away and let the dog eat. When the dog has learned to make "sit" for the food you can expand this to train him to "sit and wait" or "down and wait" making, until YOU allow it to go up and eat the food.
3. After the dog has eaten. When the dog has finished eating and wanders off to have a rest, remove the bowl. Don't let any food standing around until next feeding time. Where no food there no food aggressiveness ;-)
4. If you have several dogs/ pets and they are "food aggressive" amongst themselves, you must know who is the higher ranking member in the "dog only" part of the pack and feed them in this order, higher ranking members first. If you don't know that, are unsure or your dogs go through a phase of re-establishing their ranks feed them apart and out of sight of eachother.
5. Feeding at the table Don't feed the dog at the table whilst you eat, remember the alpha wolves/ dogs share the leftovers after they had their fill, not before. Remember that a lot of human food is not suitable for dogs, salt can damage its kidneys and chocolate can even kills smaller dogs. So the best is not to feed the dog at all at the table! If they are dog-suitable leftovers keep them until the usual feeding time.
6.Things that may help. Make sure that your dog gets enough exercise, a tired dog is less likely to get aggressive then one that has to much energy left over. Make a distingtion between food time/ place and other things like playing with your dog. Give the dog the possibility to "switch the chip" between playing and being fed.
Summary: Food aggresivity is a symptom of a dominance problem. The dog doesn't know its place in the family and/ or believes itself higher ranking then one or more human members of the pack. Rfox has written an excellent hub that gives a lot of sound advice how to (re)establish the human leadership in your pack at How To Prevent Dog Bites Involving Children In case you liked my hub feel free to give it a thumb up or leave a comment in the box, I would be especially grateful for comments that help me to improve the lat-out etc of my hub, please BE critical! ;-) SY
The cutie below was captured by "Shooter" aka Michael Adams. Also for this image I have purchased the appropriate license ;-)
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Comments
Lucky you ;-) But it shows also that you are "well behaved" people that know how to bring up a dog! SY
I have a food aggressive dog, but he is 1 years old and we rescued him from a pound. He was full of ticks and has wounds on his ears and cheeks. He has gained weight and being better with us and our other dog. He does growl when I am around him and he is eating. I have started making him sit before I give him his food, so next I will try "eating" some and maybe that will also help. I appreciate your hub, it helped me.
Well done you! For rescuing him and for getting this far in his/ her/ its re-socialisation ;-) Anything I can do to help, just leave a comment on this hub and I will come back to you asap! SY
that in4mation was vey use full i knew most of it i just didnt know how to put it into pactice
Our puppy is 6 months old and she understands that humans are above her in rank but is very dominant with other dogs. we make her sit and wait for her food but she barks and bites at the older dogs if they even come near. We remove the food and wait for her to calm down if this happens. Is there anyway of correcting this aggression? She also acts very dominant (not aggressive) when there is no food.
She gets pretty scared actually when we're outside and there are new humans/sounds etc. around but she's great indoors and plays well and listens for the most part.
Thanks
My 3 month old English Bulldog puppy has expressed aggressiveness. She is a barrel of laughs usally. But sometimes she can be "mean". I have 3 other dogs in in the house and I have witnessed her aggressive behavior both with the other dogs and with myself. She can be alone or with the other dogs and certain things just seem to get to her. Certain ways we pet her and of course treats or chews and toys... trying to keep her out of things.. she is ready to fight whoever. lol I love her though and want to help her find her place in our pack! :) Any tips?
@Kendra and I love my bull puppy!
Sorry for coming back to you so late. It seems to me that both puppies show a typical "teenager" behaviour. They try to find out their place in the pecking-order. @Kendra, are the other dogs the same breed? Smaller? Which gender do the older dogs have? It might just be that she tries to become the next pack leader, if you try to avoid that try feeding the other dogs first and try to "support" them in their leader role. But perhaps it is just the first sign of a future pack leader (after the humans obviously ;-)
@I love my bull puppy!
I am not too familiar with the breed, perhaps you should contact better Whitney05 http://hubpages.com/profile/Whitney05 she might be able to give better advice. In all cases you shouldn't tolerate that the puppy is agressive against you or other humans! Make clear that fighting against you she will always loose, you have to be the pack leader, not she! What breed are the other dogs?
SY
My other dogs are pugs. Smaller than she of course. All my dogs are female. My worries are more about her growling and showing teeth to me! My pugs have showed her who is boss. lol She tests them but even though she is bigger and stronger they show teeth too. :)
"I love my bull puppy!" Simply do what your older dogs do, show the puppy who is the boss! SY
my dalmation was fine untill had spade, now growls and goes to bite when trying to put her to bed at night or got a bone, but not if eating her normal food, she will let you remove this no problem. this only started after had her done, does worry me as we have a 1yr old and an 8 yr old kids
First of all, it is very difficult to give an advice without seeing the dog/ situation. Do you have some sort of doggie club in your neighbourhood or a puppy-meeting? In all cases it is wise NOT to let the kids alone with the dog, especially not the youngest one. Growling when "put to bed" might be more related to separation anxiety then to being aggressive. In all the cases "punish" here when she growls by telling her off "NO!" in a sharp voice or shaking her gently by the neck. Dalamtians are in general intelligent dogs that are very eager to please, it shouldn't be too difficult to "explain" to her what acceptable and what un-acceptable behaviour is. Last but not least, make sure not only to read this article, read also RFox's hub http://hubpages.com/hub/How-To-Prevent-Dog-Bites-I great info there! All the best, SY
First of all, it is very difficult to give an advice without seeing the dog/ situation. Do you have some sort of doggie club in your neighbourhood or a puppy-meeting? In all cases it is wise NOT to let the kids alone with the dog, especially not the youngest one. Growling when "put to bed" might be more related to separation anxiety then to being aggressive. In all the cases "punish" here when she growls by telling her off "NO!" in a sharp voice or shaking her gently by the neck. Dalamtians are in general intelligent dogs that are very eager to please, it shouldn't be too difficult to "explain" to her what acceptable and what un-acceptable behaviour is. Last but not least, make sure not only to read this article, read also RFox's hub http://hubpages.com/hub/How-To-Prevent-Dog-Bites-I great info there! All the best, SY
Hi, thanks for the tips. Glad that my dog behaves rather well in this regard. Have you got tips on handling food aggressive kids?
cheers,
Nops, but you could try the same tricks like for a dog, should work also ;-) SY
Hi. I have a three month old puppy who attacks other dogs if food is present. It doesn't matter if she has just eaten or if she has not. she still attacks them no matter what. any advice?
For the first time ever I'm experiencing a food agressive dog. The two dogs in question are mother and pup.. Mother is 3 and pup is 2 (it was an oops litter).
Mother won't let her pup eat, even though there are two food dishes. She has no issues letting my golden retriever eat (he is silent pack alpha). I'm not sure what to do. This just started yesterday for the first time and we had to seperate my two females as the mother had pup by the throat and wouldn't let go and pup was retaliating.
Once we were able to get them seperated, they calmed right down again... The hubby and I didn't let either resume eating until they both lost all tension (mother and pup were even cleaning each others ears and face). Then we allowed mother back to her dish first (higher rank) and pup back a few minutes after, when we were certain that everything was calm.
The calm lasted about a minute before Keema attacked again.
We've seperated the dogs for the time being, and I plan to socialize them still away from food, but am keeping them seperated when they're unsupervised or eating.
They've been together for 2 years, ever since the pup was born and have never been seperated before and have never been in a fight before. I'm at a loss and completely confused with the looming 'why now?' question. It came completely out of no where.
I'm really hoping you have a suggestion for me on how to fix this problem/
@meagan Which of the tips in this hub have you already tried and what was the outcome? SY
@Jenna
Difficult to answer the "Why now?" I would certainly feed them separate for a while. Do they show signs of "rank fight" also on other occasions? I guess the rank in your pack was until now like this:
1. Humans 2. Golden Retriever 3. Mother 4. Pup (2 years, also now really a teenager, not a puppy anymore)
Without seeing the dogs I would guess that the pup tries to get a higher rank in the pack. And the mother being food aggresssive to "tell her off" and/ or "put her back in her place".
I would observe them and feed them separated for a while. How bad is the fighting and what breed are they? Can you risk it to let them "fight it out"?
Important in this time of change is that none of the dogs tries to "out rank" the humans, keep an eye on that. SY
@ SY -
I'll start with the dogs/breeds:
Tyson - teenager/female/cross catahoula-golden. She was an oops.
Keema - mother/catahoula
You've got the ranking down perfectly, and I don't believe it's changed or in the process of changing. We never had issues with Keema or Tyson trying to outrank either my husband or I and it doesn't appear that either will try now. But I'll definitely keep an eye on that.
With the rank of the three dogs, once again, there's never been any rank issues, it seemed to just fall into place naturally. Keema seems to naturally submit to dogs larger than her (tyson is slightly smaller) and Kobe naturally slipped into the Alpha role of the three. Tyson has always been an extremely submissive dog. She submits to any animal on or off our property, including visiting dogs, our cat, etc. A good example is my mother's one dog. He's a little 8 pound min poodle/terrier cross and she will fully submit to him - it's actually somewhat humerous.
There have never been any 'rank fights' among the three dogs. Occasionally Keema has extremely gently pushed Tyson aside if she appeared to be testing the boundries - but I don't think that was ever anything more than a puppy/teenager taking things too far with the mother keeping her in place.
They had each other by the neck - with Keema initiating it - and neither were giving any signs of backing down. Both had a couple of small punctures, nother terribly serious, but I stepped between them and slowly forced the two apart with my legs. Causing them to back away from each other so they wouldn't bite me - both seemed to back down slightly once I was in the middle... I assume because they weren't about to challenge me. It was a pretty nasty fight and I think it might have been worse if both didn't have that famous loose skin around the necks in catahoula's. So I'm not sure it's a risk I want to take.
I am feeding them seperately for now, but I don't want that to be permanent. The plan for now is feed them seperate and let them socialize supervized (in case it escalates further - in my experience catahoula's are not the type of breed that forgets things).
Are one or both of the bitches spayed? If you don't intend to bred with Tyson, that would be a possibility perhaps? If both are spayed, do they get enough exercise/ work to do? Bored dogs that have too much energy tend to get easier "stressed" with eachother. Space, have both dogs enough space for themselves? SY
Neither are spayed at the moment. Maybe I'll get Tyson spayed...
Both do get tons of excercise/work.. Keema likes to herd things, so we let her do that and work with her on that and all the dogs get walked daily - a couple of miles, plus we have 27 acres of them to run/play on and we are out playing with them all the time and constantly working with them mentally through training and working.
Thanks for all your help. If you have any other suggestions I'd love to hear them!
If you don't plan to breed with Tyson it might be a help to spay her (also to avoid further oops) Remember that wolves/ dogs also use the pack rank to decide who is allowed to breed. Normally only the two alpha wolves breed in a pack. Spaying Tyson would make her smell "neutral" to Keema. It might helps, it might not. If the problem doesn't solve itself over the next two weeks or so you might look for help via your local dog training club etc. A "hub" can only give some tricks&tips, but as I can't see the dogs it is difficult to give further advice. But I hope all calms down and you have a lovely Christmas and Advent time with your family and your four-legged friends ;-) SY
Jenna, sorry, seems your comments didn't get approved first time round, anything else you need help with? SY
Thank you for the opportunity in correcting my dog Marilyn. She is a 5 lb 2 1/2 yr old yorkie pooh. About 4 months ago she started to growl at me. Especially if I go near her when she is with my husband. She is now growling at me when her food is out , she never did this before. She lets every one in the house pet her while sitting with my husband as for me soon as I do she growls. 63 days ago I took her to the breders she was not happy. Is she possible holding a grudge??? Now that she has 4 puppies her behaviour is getting worse. Should I put her on her back and hold her neck and tell her no...my husband says to do this, it works for him.
thank you
Carole...lost and getting broken hearted
First of all be very careful when handling her, Yorkies a very fragile ;-) But yes, you have to show her her place in the family, at the moment it seems to me she believes herself to be the rank highest female in the pack, but that is your place! So yes you have to get your "pack rank" back from her, your husband is right, just tell her off each time she does growl at you (also your husband should do it) So next time she growls at you when she is with your husband you BOTH have to tell her off and then ignore her for a while. Ignoring works a tread with some dogs;-) Hope that helps and Happy New Year to your whole family pack, SY
PS No, I don't think that she holds a grudge against you because you took her to the breeder ;-)
Thank you for the very quick response...And a very happy New Year to you and yours.
Another ? after I give her a treat or food and she does not eat them right away should I take them away including the treat. I gave her a treat that she saved and when I walked near she started to growl.
Thank you
Carole
Don't take it away but also don't allow her to growl or snap at you. SY
Thank you for linking to my site as a useful link :)
Happy new year...keep up the good work!
Nick
You are welcome Nick! Feel free to comment here as much as you like, sometimes two opinions are better then only one ;-) SY
working
aprilkerr says:
11 months ago
I think my dog is about as non-food aggressive as you can get. We've been very lucky to have such a well behaved dog.