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gadawgsfan User is Offline

SH
Posts:55

01/23/2013 10:44 AM
Willow is now 5 months old, and just in the past 3 or 4 weeks she has become aggressive while eating. she has always ate extremely fast inhaling her food, like she is starving. I have increased the amount per serving as she has got older. 3 or 4 weeks ago while setting her bowl down she hit the bowl and some of the food spilled out, so as i picked it up to put it in her bowl she actually growled at me, i was in shock she has never done this before, since then my wife,daughter and i have tried to seperate her from her food many times and she does the same thing. what can i do to stop this behavior. the last two days I have been feeding her by hand a little at a time and she is fine,but eats it out of my hand like a vaccum. thanks in advance for any advice barry

cynthiarose User is Offline

COLORADO

MH
Posts:133

01/23/2013 1:41 PM
Hi Barry, Definitely no expert, but I'll share what we did. My "in-laws" had a food aggressive dog and one thing they told us that helped break Penelope was to show her that they were in charge of the food. So when we brought Havoc home (our gsp) we started a routine with him right away. Havoc has to sit and wait while we get his food. When we're ready to put the dish down he has to lay down and wait until give him his release word (OK) before he can eat. Then while he was eating occasionally we'd reach down and play with his food and/or take the bowl away. Only once did he snap and when he did he got a thump on the nose and we took the bowl away. Your girl sounds like Penelope was. I know that the in-laws kind of used some "old school" methods as well because Penelope was so food agressive. Along with the sitting and waiting method, at first they also showed physical dominance as well at feeding time. They would pin Penelope down on her side or pick her up away from the food and restrain her. I should mention that Penelope is a mini dachshund so realistically doing that with a GSP might not work, and again the whole putting the dog on it's side or back is considered "old school" or cruel by some people. I can tell you that it worked for Penelope once she realized that people control her food, and that we have never had a problem with Havoc since we implemented the routine.

smatulewicz User is Offline

Michigan

MH
Posts:1197

01/23/2013 1:42 PM
Hi Barry. I had this happen with Bella once when she was a pup. I had a fear of having a food aggressive dog because my nephew dog is and never fully grew out of it. As a result, I realized I may have been creating the issue without realizing it. It only happened once, and she immediately submitted after, but I wanted to address it ASAP. What you are doing, feeding bits from your hand is a good idea. Also, if you aren't, make her work for her food (nothing drastic...Bella is required to sit and wait patiently, and I might ask her to do one "trick" and then I release her). It was suggested to me to feed her in her kennel but I found this to make her body language more anxious so we did the complete opposite and began feeding her in the kitchen and made it a point to be in there doing all sorts of things so she got used to commotion while she eats. She also ate very fast as a pup. Since I felt like she would grow out of that I didn't want to invest in a slow feeding bowl, and I put one of her large chew toys in the bowl instead so she would have to eat around it. For as smart as they are...it never dawned on her to remove it, so it worked well. We would also often call her away from her bowl for a treat, and since she is so food Motivated she would come quickly tail wagging for the treat and then return to eating. Our hope with this was she would learn she could leave her food, and it would still be there. We would also drop a treat or extra kibble in when we walked by so she would learn us being around her bowls was typically a good thing. Mostly, we stopped watching and analyzing her while she ate. Left her alone besides making normal day to day commotion I would purposefully bump her slighty when i walked by but not acknowldge her. Her behavior changed pretty quickly and we have never had another issue. The cat walks by her while eating (and usually sniffs her food before she has been released) she has eaten at other homes with all sorts of people around with no issues. It doesn't even cross my mind now which may in turn actually be the best thing I could be doing. Now that it has happened, be mindful of any anxieties about it that you, your wife or child may have. Don't think about it while feeding. Remain completely indifferent. I thought I was...but I was watching her like a hawk before it happened analyzing her eating behavior and wondering if we would ever have an issue, bothering her while she ate thinking it was good to get used to, trying to get her to slow down...which I think created the issue. She sensed all of that, and I didn't even realize it.

Splat

Illinois (Northern)

MH
Posts:3136

01/23/2013 1:42 PM
She needs to work for her food... mine have to sit and wait as I set the bowls of food down and then they wait till I give the ok to eat... sometimes they just have to sit other times they have to do a down... you may want to feed from the hand but keep doing things to make her earn it, like doing sits and downs stay and come ect...

Texas Belle User is Offline

Austin, TX

MH
Posts:7863

01/23/2013 4:59 PM
Don't punish the dog for this type of behavior as it often makes it worse. Instead feed from the hand like you are doing, progress to playing with food while they eat from the bowl always adding special yummy food, and finally taking the bowl away, but when you give it back you have added something yummy. The idea is the dog starts associating you playing with the food means I will get something special. Once the dog is good with you have others do it too. This is just resource guarding and if you don't fix it now it could progress to other items. There is a good book called Aggression in Dogs by Brenda Aloff that is a good resource that deals with this type of aggression as well as other issues.

Bev Quarles, the Pointer Sisters (Belle and Halo), the Outlaw GSP (Johnny Ringo) and the little Princess (Fauna) Yellow Rose GSPs "A dog has the soul of a philosopher." - Plato