Food aggression

[Skippydarla]

sorry for posting heaps of threads but i wanted to know when does food aggression become an issue? She growls at my other dog and her hair stands up when my other dog goes near her food and esp bones! I wanted to make sure she's not aggressive towards humans but i dont want to stick my hand near her food incase she bites.. I really want to know incase i need to make sure the kids stay away when she eats

[Quando]

Originally Posted by Skippydarla

sorry for posting heaps of threads but i wanted to know when does food aggression become an issue? She growls at my other dog and her hair stands up when my other dog goes near her food and esp bones! I wanted to make sure she's not aggressive towards humans but i dont want to stick my hand near her food incase she bites.. I really want to know incase i need to make sure the kids stay away when she eats

Growling at the other dog may not be something you want to see, but it happens. The best thing to do is to keep them away from each other when they feed. You will probably not be able to stop it.

Growling at you (in case she already does) is an absolute no go! How old is she? This is something that you should start training when they are young by taking the food bowl away from them, putting your hand into the bowl and letting them understand that you can always do this, no “ifs” or “buts”

If she does become aggressive when you or the kids are near when she eats, this must be stopped.

[Skippydarla]

I dont know if she is aggressive towards us when she eats. Mainly because im too scared to test her. I used to take her food away when she was a pup but stopped cause I figured she was used to it and understood that im the alpha.
She has never faught with my other dog, only growled and her hair stood up.

Should i try to take her food away? and if she reacts what steps should i take to stop it?

[Quando]

To be honest I don’t know what to advise, if you are scared of the dog she will sense it, and that is not really not good because she will then take control, and as I have mentioned this is an absolute no go.

From what I understand she is not reacting aggressively? You can try to see how she reacts when she is eating by walking to her when she eats and try to remove her bowl. If she does growl I would prefer not to advise what you should do. If my dog reacted that way, (kill me if you want) I would thump it without thinking twice (and I mean thump it), and I would give it hell.

I would never tolerate that. It’s hard to (for me at least) to give you any advice on this, if there is a problem I don’t want you getting bitten because of advice from me.

How old is she?

[Skippydarla]

Sorry forgot to answer that. She is 15 months. My partner would do the same if she ever bit anyone of us. Thats why im scared.
And i would not even hesitate to take her to the vet to be uthanised because in my books no dog should bite anyone for anything. I dont want to leave it too late to find out so im not sure on what I should do. I will try to walk past her or pat her when she feeds. Im not game enough to take her bowl away but when i am confident enough that she wont react i will try.

Thanks for your help

[Skippydarla]

Also just wanted to add that i would thump my dog if it hurt my kids (not by accident) .. But its not likely that it would hurt her LOL

[Quando]

Originally Posted by Skippydarla

Sorry forgot to answer that. She is 15 months. My partner would do the same if she ever bit anyone of us. Thats why im scared.
And i would not even hesitate to take her to the vet to be uthanised because in my books no dog should bite anyone for anything. I dont want to leave it too late to find out so im not sure on what I should do. I will try to walk past her or pat her when she feeds. Im not game enough to take her bowl away but when i am confident enough that she wont react i will try.

Thanks for your help

Wait, wait, wait!!!!!!! You mean have the dog put to sleep? No, no...you have to try other things first!!!!! Dogs can bite, there are a million reasons why this can happen, sometimes just to protect themselves or because they have been hurt. I never meant for you to take such serious actions!!!!!

[TheBoz]

As Quando said in his last post, you should try other methods first! Many dogs might bite out of fear, because they are hurt, etc., but can be trained not to do so. When the Michael Vick dogs were rescued, many of them were aggressive towards other dogs and humans. However, they were rehabilitated and most were placed in forever homes. Please contact a behaviorist if your dog does in fact show food aggression.

As for your hesitancy to see whether you pup will in fact growl/bite while you take her bowl away, you could try to remove the bowl by using a long stick (i.e. a broom handle) and tape something on the end that could resemble your hand/skin. Many rescue shelters tape a fake plastic hand on the end of a long rod and do this very test in order to assess whether the dog is food aggressive. I'm sure you probably don't have a fake hand lying around, although with Halloween coming up you could probably pick up a hand prop quite easily! By using this method you can remain at a safe distance to avoid injury if your pup does attempt to bite the towel/hand. This is just a suggestion and may not work for you or your dog, however I wish you luck and please ask any other questions about trouble shooting this issue.

[Gypsiemouse]

You might want to implement NILIF (nothing in life is free). Basically means you control everything and she must sit for her food, to have a leash put on or taken off, etc...

Here is a link to some info about it, but you can also just google it for tons of tips.

Nothing in Life is Free

[firstboxerowner]

Also maybe try to add something yummy in the middle while she is eating that means you interrupting her meal is basically for her own good . Maybe give her half her food and then add the other half while she is eating by saying "you want some treat, here" and put it in the bowl?