Food aggressive dog

sassandgroove

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I've been feeding Garrus by hand and putting my other hand on him or putting the food in it because I want him to learn that my movement means more food not me taking it. When he snaps which isn't often I sternly say no, put him in his crate until he's calm and start again. Since he focuses on the bowl I haven't been feeding him from it. I work with it separately. I put it down and tell him to stay and then I move towards it and put a treat in it and release him. I repeat a few times. When I take it I hold it and put one more treat for him to take while I'm holding the bowl. I'm trying to show him that my moving towards the bowl means good things. He seems to be responding well.
 

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That's excellent! My way could have the dog knowing that he really does have to leave the food, which may be bad with dogs with that issue, then. The dog I did that with didn't really seem upset, so that may be a big difference. He was just warning everyone, and he thought it was OK to strike that posture around food inside (and it's not).

I don't think he really had an issue with food so much as a different expectation of how verbal and 'all-me' he was allowed to be around the other dog and me. I hope that makes sense. He knew he'd get his full dinner in any case (I feel sure), and some dogs may be truly afraid that they won't eat, depending on where they came by their food aggression. My guy was mainly just being mouthy, in other words ;) It was pretty clear with him.
 

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He's a really good boy. I can take toys and bones and even the other dogs bowls from him if I forget to pick it up ( they sometimes leave some when they eat.) I feel like it is just a time thing, that if we repeatedly have a positive experience with feeding time he'll figure out we aren't going to ever let him go hungry. I'm even working on letting him know I won't let the other dogs take his food either.

He's such a sweet boy, it's worth the extra work.
 

frimble3

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I would also think that a useful message is being sent by the other dogs' leaving food. If they feel it's safe to not gobble down every scrap of food, well, then it's not just your propaganda, is it?
 

sassandgroove

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Good point. Though my first dog was picky. We got her from a shelter but I think she was w a family That had a dog had puppies and just kept them till they were old enough to surrender, Because she has always been a picky eater. They gave her science diet with when we got her at the shelter and she rather starve than eat it. I used to leave her uneaten food out and she'd sometimes eat later but when I talked to vet that he said not to leave the food out because then she would learn that she could just not eat and it wouldn't be a problem so I do make a habit of picking up the food but she knows she's going to get fed later. Actually though when I read back that sentence it makes it seem like I should leave the food out for all the dogs. The thing is with the puppy is that it wouldn't be out for very long because he always checks all the bowls, or the places where the bowls were.
 

regdog

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I've been feeding Garrus by hand and putting my other hand on him or putting the food in it because I want him to learn that my movement means more food not me taking it. When he snaps which isn't often I sternly say no, put him in his crate until he's calm and start again. Since he focuses on the bowl I haven't been feeding him from it. I work with it separately. I put it down and tell him to stay and then I move towards it and put a treat in it and release him. I repeat a few times. When I take it I hold it and put one more treat for him to take while I'm holding the bowl. I'm trying to show him that my moving towards the bowl means good things. He seems to be responding well.


I'm so glad to hear that
 

sassandgroove

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Interesting consequence. I've been feeding Garrus by hand and I think it is helping but the other two dogs seem to think he's getting treats or at least special treatment. Yesterday Leela snarled at him while I was feeding him, and this morning I had to hand feed Hoshi too. I finished feeding him and checked the other two's bowls and she had only eaten half. I held some kibble in my hand for her and she gobbled it up so i fed her the rest that way.