Well put Sarah. It'll be people like BB who are the ones going about slagging owner's off for having skinny, mangy dogs without taking the time to stop and wonder whether that dog has just been rescued by those people who are working on improving it's quality of life. Your judgemental-ism is your first mistake BB so there, you aren't perfect after all.

I help owners in puppy classes and beyond and can say it is not an uncommon problem - this goes for all sorts of owners/dogs/situations and it's not always the owner's "fault" (ie some dogs start to guard their food because the breeder encouraged all the pups to eat from the same bowl) and sometimes the owner has tried to do what various books/programmes/friends/whatever may have suggested and sometimes sadly that advice can be incorrect

It's actually very easy to make a dog "guardy" (whether over food or other objects). As Donaldson says, they are hard wired to guard anyway. All they need is the trigger.

I do believe it's important to take professional advice as a whole, because even if some owners have had "success"it may not always be suitable procedure for someone else and their own situation.

Wys
x

I personally have never suffered from a food aggressive dog. Probably just a matter of luck, but it could be because I have always made my dogs wait for their food? They are not allowed to attack the bowl before it is barely on the floor.

Right from the word go, as pups, adult rescues, whatever, they have to sit and be calm before the bowl goes down. Bum on floor before bowl on floor ! Then I stand up and tell them to wait. Especially with a rescue, they don't of course, but leap on the bowl. I immediately say "no! wait!" and block the bowl with my hand. It took Tai about 5 seconds to learn what was expected of him, and he has never looked back. Puppies sometimes pick it up immediately too, but sometimes you have to work at it. But it is a simple way in my opinion of teaching them that actually it isn't their food, it is YOUR food, but you are allowing them to eat it. Once we have mastered this, I then teach a "wait" command where once they are sitting and calm, I tell them to "trust". This can be done with the food bowl, or at any time with titbits. With Hal, I could leave the room and he wouldn't touch his food, not sure that Tai would be that good, but he will wait for a long time. The magic words are "paid for", although you can say anything you want of course.

I find the "trusting" thing an excellent way to bring a dog back into line who is starting to take the michael. He who controls the food, controls the pack. It is a gentle way of demonstrating to your dog that YOU are boss.

I am not saying it is, but this could be the reason why I have never had food aggressive dogs.

'fraid not. Woody has been taught to sit calmly at dinner time from day one. We say "wait", then put the food bowl down, pick up the water bowl, fill it and he doesn't get to eat until we say "go on", yet he's food aggressive (although we know this is because of things we were doing wrong, just saying the "wait" thing isn't enough to stop it happening, that just teaches them control).

Is it with his food bowl Pidge, or with other stuff?

yes Tilly has too - we taught this early on. She won't touch anything until given the command.

During an average day he gets ''some'' of the following:

*Breakfast - kibble in the bowl in the kitchen.
*Gravy bones - when he goes into the crate or when he does a wee in the new toilet to reward.
*Coachies - for training or when out on walks.
*Frozen Kong - with kibble, cheese and gravy as a treat or lunchtime snack.
*Hoof - as a chew
*Rawhide - as a chew
*Knuckle bone - as a chew
* Dinner - kibble in the bowl in the kitchen
*Carrot - as a snack
*Denta Stix - as a bedtime treat (cleans his teeth before bed ;o)

It started during one of his bowl feeds and became really bad when we gave him a knuckle bone for the first time ever on Sunday. So so far he has only ever done it, despite all of these things, with his dinner bowl and the knuckle bone.

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but what does he actually do??

First off, I would stop giving him all these higher value traits (for now) the more you give him the more he is going to become possessive off.


What you need to remember is that a dog does not know he is going to get 2/3 feeds aday.. the feed he gets at any given time is the feed in his moment, is the only one he is getting!!

I am not a fan of taking off a dogs food, (although you do need to be able to take unsuitable things away when you need to ) this is where the swap comes sin handy.

But regards their food... if he is possessive when you are feeding him, you need to make him realise that you are no threat.. he does not have to gaurd his food.

Instead of putting all his food on his bowel, put little bits in, adding as he eats..

If he is possessive over them, learn to swap... if you want him to give something up, swap it for something else.

The more he becomes relaxed over his possessions , the more he will be less likely to gaurd them.

But for now I would cut out all the highlighted.

Only introducing one at a time.. it will take time, but the basis of the exersice is to make him feel he does not need to defend his "treats" from invaders (you)

How long has it been going on for Pidge and how did it start?
It must be nervewracking dealing with this, as I say, touch wood, luckily I have not had to deal with it yet. (Aside from an incident with a bird feeder fat ball and a 7 week old pup that is....that was scary enough to merit me removing it with a stick,the fat ball not the dog that is! He is now a massive gentle giant of a dog so there is hope!!!!! )

As I have said, I have no experience of this, all I can do is say what I have always done with pups coming into the house...perhaps something may help..perhaps not.
I always tend to drop treats into the dogs bowls...add food to it etc, from as soon as they come here. Not every meal as I think they get fed up of you and it can create other problems,but once every couple of days I will drop food in and give the pup a tickle. (brief tickle...I extend the time gradually and start of with a place on their back...in the middle, that's a safe enough tickle spec... I gradually try and tickle their head for a split second as time goes on....I do all this really gradually over weeks and months.) After few months of that I will then sit and tickle while they eat...when they are about 8/9 months I will try and pick the bowl up when they are eating...only once, just to see if I can, thats all. I never do it again, ever. If someone kept picking up my dinner I'd 'ave 'em!!!!! As for treats and rewards, from the word go, I always take their chews away for a split second and give it back immediately, so they know they will get it back and that I am not a threat. I do it with toys too. I also secure a good drop and leave command....just incase they come across something dodgey and start to scoff it (not that it always works of course.......)

Hope some thing in that hekps a bit, as I say its work I do with pups from day one so anywhere from 6 to 8 weeks of age, sometimes though it does no harm to startright at the beginning again to reteach behaviours.

Thanks both of you. I must just say that that as it got so serious we're now getting professional help to sort it out and have started it today (so far so good).

I think the trouble is I made a fundamental mistake by taking his food away a few times and by petting him during eating. That and his bodily changes form the op' have caused him to go abit nuts.

Still, we're hopefully on the right track now and we know where we went wrong so should start to see some improvements soon. I certainly feel much more positive about it all today.

Thanks for all the advice though ;o)