Talk to me about food agression?

How do you handle it?

What would you suggest someone who is experiencing it does to stop it?

I ried lots of things with Kismet, but in the end i think what worked was making the food bowl not an issue. I tried taking away the food (like you are told) But of course that made things worse and as so much good advice here on dogsey said, she just thought you were going to take it away and went ballistic... It made her worse...

In the end, dropping tasty treats into the bowl everytime I went past helped as did changing her bowl to a shallower one so she couldn't eat fast. When she stopped growling at me as I went over to her and started to look up to see what tasty additions I had, I started to give her the treat from my hand and praise her... All the while her food bowl was there...

It has taken... well I suppose 6 months, but she has either grown out of it, or all the training has paid off.

I have never experienced it with my dogs, but I would expect a dog of mine to behave himself when told about his misdemeanours.

If he didn't stop I would work on my relationship with the dog.

Mind you... saying that, it's not like she's cured... Woe betide any dog who tries to go for the same dropped treat as her... WW3 will ensue! I can give them treats together, controlled and one at a time. She's perfectly well behaved and will wait her turn but if I drop something and two dogs go for it... She'll attack...

Haven't figured out how to deal with this one yet... I have taught her 'leave it' and 'wait' which she will do as long as no other dog gets it either.. But if I put a treat on the floor and all three are told leave it. If I send one of the others for the treat.. She attacks them... At the moment I just avoid the situation... Don't want to put the dogs at risk... But we did have a problem on a field a few weeks ago...

An old boy and his corgi stopped to say hello to Kismet. Before I could stop him, I hadn't noticed, he reached into his pocket and scattered a few treats on the ground for the dogs !!! His corgi immediately launched at Kismet who retaliated.... There was quite a nasty fight, Kismet ended up with punctures to her face.. Corgi was fine...

It was of course all my fault... I have the big nasty wolf dog, he has a little corgi. I gave him my number and said if there were any problems in the next couple of days take corgi to the vet and I'll claim on my insurance... Nothing came of it. Corgi was unhurt... Kismet's food aggression is all a big dominance show.. Lot's of noise and pushing, but no bites...

But what can I do to stop people feeding her on a walk?

Get the dog used to having it's food taken away at an early age and also get them used to being touched whilst eating.

We did this with Monty. We never just took his food off him for the sake of this as this would most likely frustrate him so we'd take it off him and add his daily spoon of yoghurt to it or a nice extra titbit.

This was done on alternate days and the days where we didn't take the bowl away I'd sit on the floor next to him whilst he ate and stroke him a little bit.

Now he's good as gold with food and will have his bowl taken away freely and be touched whilst eating no problem.

My sister's dog actually hates being on his own in the kitchen to eat and carries his bowl into the living room!

totaly try and not make food an issue

with less high value things like toys teach a leave it to mean i will swap what you have for something even cooler just incase they have something nasty

teach that they are safe with their food, no human, or dog will take their food away so they dont have to guard it
nice things happen when people are around your food

has worked with mia who as a stray had major food issues, i can drop food and ask her to leave it, and of course reward with something yummy
ben can chew a bone in her presence, and i can scatter food on the floor for them both to share

it has taken six months but well worth the effort

Sorry I meant what if he is already food aggressive, how would you handle it?

Hi Pidge you haven't given many details about what you are calling food aggression, you may find this thread of help...

http://www.dogsey.com/showthread.php?t=102958

I answered about my progress in the link to the other post but just wanted to add that I initially made too much of a big deal about meal times with the protective behaviour & probably made it worse at first. It really is a slow process It's been 3 months now and I'm really pleased - a few more months and I will be able to eat from the bowl with her lol! Well the cat can so why can't I!!

I don't buy into this concept of being able to remove a dog's food despite what the books say. However, if it is an issue then you may find it worthwhile talking to someone like Barbara Sykes and attending one of her seminars.