Food/aggression

[muggsmom]

I have read on several posts people suggest that food can contribute to aggression. Does anyone know of a case where food has been changed and the aggression has diminished?

[c0_re]

hmm does the dog maybe not like the new food there fore doesn't care?(unlikely)

Either way if you have food agression you should probably be controling resources a little tighter and go from there IMO. Good luck!

[BoxMeIn21]

Do you mean like food aggression or resource guarding?

[Ritz459]

With resource gaurding, I find that different food is a big factor. I can walk up to Chloe and pet her while she is eating or walk up to her and take any kind of forbidden object out of her mouth, but she gets extreamly possessive over rawhide (and real) bones. As a result, she doesn't get them.

With food aggression....I've never heard that food makes a difference.

[Estie]

I 2nd the no real bones and NO RAWHIDE! I learned this lesson the hard way last week!! Can a dog ever get over the resource guarding?

[britishbandit]

Originally Posted by Estie

I 2nd the no real bones and NO RAWHIDE! I learned this lesson the hard way last week!! Can a dog ever get over the resource guarding?

Yes, sometimes they can, but with a lot of work, a lot of patience. But not something I'd suggest working on alone without a behaviorist. It's much simpler to just not allow those items than to risk getting yourself bitten. I got a lot of advice and help when I decided to tackle this on my own, and with many many warnings that it was possible I could get bitten. I was lucky that I didn't, but I took things at a VERY slow pace, and tried not to push too much at once.

When I got PJ he was 7 1/2 months old, and had serious food aggression. Whether it be kibble, rawhide, bones....etc. It didn't take
much time to get him comfortable with me not being threat to his dinner, but rawhides and bones were a big problem. And having a 90lb + Rottweiler growling and snarling at me with huge dilated pupils and hackles raised, he just didn't get those items for a while, until I'd went back to the basics and implemented a strict NILIF first. It also helped playing give and take games with toys, and even simple things like hand feeding parts of his meals.

Now he is totally fine with rawhide, and certain bones. If it's a bone that isn't too big, he's fine with it, but something like knuckle bones, it's almost like he doesn't know where to start. He got one last Christmas as a "test", and didn't touch it for hours and hours, just lay there staring at it and grumbling non stop. So he cannot have bones that take a long time to chew on or are hard to "break in". So far that's only been the knuckle bones. But a HUGE progression from the day I brought him home.

I've never been a fan of people who actually suggest taking food items away from a dog though. Of course they should be fine with you being near them or even petting them while they have food, but
I've never understood giving a dog a rawhide or bone and trying to take it away, especially if you aren't planning on giving it back. I know in some cases, you just want it away from them while you cannot supervise, so taking it makes sense for their own safety. But it should be traded off with something else of high value as a reward for giving up the item. I'd probably become fearful of losing my food too if people tried to take it from me when I was in the middle of it all the time. And I think in some cases, doing this can actually cause the problem to arise.

I also don't have kids, so I didn't have that to worry about. Sometimes kids don't understand to leave the dog alone with such items, so if your dog has this problem, I'd say it's best just not allowing them. While PJ is fine with me and other adults around his food items now, I'd never risk him having them if there were kids in my house. Even watching the kids and telling them not to do something specifically and respect the dogs, sometimes they "forget". My nephew Connor used to run around the house all hyper and spastic because it got PJ and Tysa all excited and wanting to play. While most of the time after telling him not to do that, (and the reasons why), sometimes he still attempted it and I had to firmly and seriously tell him to stop.

Having always raised my dogs from puppies besides one rescue who were all fine and never had a problem with any kind of food aggression or resource guarding, so I was completely baffled when PJ arrived and he didn't trust and was fearful of me being a threat to his food.

[Ritz459]

I also don't have kids, so I didn't have that to worry about. Sometimes kids don't understand to leave the dog alone with such items, so if your dog has this problem, I'd say it's best just not allowing them. While PJ is fine with me and other adults around his food items now, I'd never risk him having them if there were kids in my house. Even watching the kids and telling them not to do something specifically and respect the dogs, sometimes they "forget". My nephew Connor used to run around the house all hyper and spastic because it got PJ and Tysa all excited and wanting to play. While most of the time after telling him not to do that, (and the reasons why), sometimes he still attempted it and I had to firmly and seriously tell him to stop.

This is my problem. Chloe is a lovely dog around me, but I decided the other weekend that Chloe is NOT good with kids. We had some relatives over and they had a six year old boy named Taylor. He was the most hyper, ADD kid I've ever met and he had NO respect for any of my animals. He came inside and made a beeline to Joey's cage, and Joey loves kids, but Taylor started shaking the cage and pounding on it. I told him to not do that, and showed him how to be gentle with Joey. He was fine after that, and then he saw Chloe....he would squeel, run away, poke at her, and Chloe would just jump and nip and go crazy. I thought he was going to get bit. Then he freaking hauled off and hit her and I told him that if he ever did that to Chloe again, I'd slap him across the face. That shut him up.

Since the kids don't know how to make Chloe mind (and even when I show them how, they just don't) she is a butt around them. If I was the only one home I don't think she'd have a problem chewing on a rawhide bone, but with the kids around.....not so much.

[Estie]

With Sammy, our new adopted 2-yr-old springer, this happened last week. A rawhide out on the lawn while I was painting the deck. I saw the look in his eyes and thought that he would never go after me, but I got bit and went to the dr. But before I left the house, he came in (with the rawhide) and sat down to keep working on it. I thought I needed to get it away from him before I left the house, so I gave him a treat while removing the rawhide. No problem at all. This is the only aggression I've seen in him, and mostly outdoors. In the house, I can play with his food while he eats, do just about anything - no response. Rawhide outdoors, much different scenario. He was turned in by his owners who were getting a divorce. He had been kept as an outside dog along with a 10-yr-old Malamute. I think that the people must have put the food in one dish to share, or thrown it out in the yard and each dog was supposed to fend for himself. He was emaciated when turned in to the Humane society - he had a tapeworm, and God only knows - how many other worms he had!! How could you have a dog, look out your window every day, see him getting skinnier and skinnier (even if you were feeding him?!) and not know something was wrong??

Anyway, I am going to an aggression and behavior workshop next weekend and will find out how to deal with it. Also ordered the book, "Mine, Dog owners guide to resource guarding" (I think that's the title). I've been told it is a very good book.

[Ritz459]

I'll have to look into that book Estie. Chloe needs some help in that department and since Blackie and Rose have never been that way (I can literally grab a steak bone or rawhide out of their mouths without so much as a growl) it is new territory for me.