Food agression

[Mason JB]

Last night I descovered that my 4 month old american bulldog has become agressive when he has food.

Just to fill you in on exactly what happend, last night I gave each dog a bone to eat. The other two ate them..and mason deciced to play with his and tease the other two with it. I didnt want to see a fight in the mddle of the room (esp. with guests visiting). So i kneeled down to take it from him, and he lifted his lip and snapped at me. I took it from him and verbaly corrected him and brought him to his crate at the other end of the house for a few minutes alone. After about ten minutes I brought him back out made him go on his bed an gave the bone back to him. I kept my hand on it while it was I his mouth and he was fine, so i let him have it and chew on it for a minute then I took it from him and he was fine. I did this untill the bone was eaten.
This morning I did the same with his bowl of food setting my hand in it an moving it around. He was ok untill it was close to empty then he started snapping at me.

I have never had a dog act this way, so I'm not really sure If what I'm doing with him is the correct way to get him to stop.
Any imput is greatly appreciated

Thanks!

[Roxy]

Try hand feeding your dog, I think I have heard been advised in the past. And I use to add food to the bowl while they were eating.

Ceasar would say, make the dog back away from the bone, then step in and take the bone. Being worried about taking the bone the dog will pick up on it, be assertive, it's your bone not his.

[OrsonDogge]

yup try hand feeding his kibble to him, or feed it to him as his training treats therefore he has to work for his food.

[Mason JB]

Ok thanks. I will try that.

[forever_pit]

I have a 5 month old AB who is possessive over food items as well as high-value toys.
This is how I deal with it...

Gator only gets food or toys I know he is possessive over when all other dogs are put away (my dogs are crated and rotated anyway but figured I would state this from the get go. You certainly don't want the food aggression turned toward one of your other dogs cause then you may have a fight on your hands).
I don't take things directly from Gator - meaning I don't grab a bone out of his mouth. Rather, I give him a command before I take the item. For example, when Gator has a raw bone I will walk up to him and tell him to sit. He does it and that leaves the bone on the floor. I reward for the sit and remove the bone. IMO since he will obey a command and then allow me to take the item and put it away we still end on the note that whatever it is is *mine*.

I should also note that give his propensity to possession I do not give Gator high value treats when other people are over. IF I give him a raw bone (seems to be the most high value thing we have encountered yet) it is with everyone's understanding that they do not mess with the dog. Period.

ETA: My pup is already hand fed as the only way he earns food is through training. Train or go hungry. LOL.

[Lisa]

foreverpit made a good post.

However, I think we need to remember that the majority of people with 4 or 5 month old puppies have not even begun training yet. How many puppies this age have been taught a release command and understand it 100%? How many are solid with sit or down? Not many. It's not fair to walk up to a pup and start telling it to let go or whatever without teaching it first in a positive manner and minus any stress. That is confusing to a dog. All that dog knows is that it's got something of real value to them and someone is trying to take it away while talking to them in some language they don't understand. Unfair.

With young pups who don't know anything, how about offer them something else of high value in exchange for the bone? Show the pup the item, and while they go to take that, take the bone. Once the pup is older and has learned a release command, then you can justify walking up and commanding them to give it up. Until then I think we should cut our dogs some slack.

As far as meal time goes..I am not a believer of pestering dogs while they eat. I think we should respect them enough to let them eat in peace. I can't stand it when I hear people say its good to take food away from a dog while it's eating. All that does is teach the dog that humans are a threat to their food which is the exact opposite of what we want. How would we like it if we were eating something and someone came up and tried taking our plate away from us? How would we feel if this happened every day? Eventually we would become defensive and possessive over our food. It would only be natural. Pester the wrong dog enough while it's eating, and you will be sure to CAUSE food aggression and probably get bit in the process! Either leave the dog be while it eats, or when you put the food down, put only half the meal ration in the bowl and instead of taking food away, ADD more food as the dog is eating so it learns that human hands bring more food to them rather than steal what they already have.

I very much think that food aggression is a learned behavior with many dogs. Sometimes due to people pestering their dogs at meal time and other times due to feeding multiple dogs too close together where they can challenge each other for each other's meal. Meal time should be as stress free as possible for a dog.

[Mason JB]

Lisa you made some very good points.
I dont take food from him, and the incident with the bone I was going to replace it with something he could chew and swallow really quick..Due to him snapping at me I had to correct him.
The main reason I am concerned about this is he is around kids often. He is great with them, but I dont want something like this happening to a young kid..

[Roxy]

Originally Posted by Mason JB

Lisa you made some very good points.
I dont take food from him, and the incident with the bone I was going to replace it with something he could chew and swallow really quick..Due to him snapping at me I had to correct him.
The main reason I am concerned about this is he is around kids often. He is great with them, but I dont want something like this happening to a young kid..

I always added nice food to Roxy's bowl and hold the bowl and praise her. Some dog just won't have it, but both mine are use to children.

They did grow up together.

[hami2127]

i usually always pet Yuri while hes eating 1) i jsut like to and 2) it helps him to know that its ok for people to be around your food cause they just want to love up on you

[tt557]

Originally Posted by Roxy

I always added nice food to Roxy's bowl and hold the bowl and praise her. Some dog just won't have, but both mine are use to children.

They did grow up together.

Love that photo!!