Stopping Food Aggression in Dogs

To understand food aggression in dogs, you must also understand where the aggressive behavior comes from. Wanting to guard food is a natural instinct in dogs that has its roots in a dog’s pack animal behavior. When another animal is perceived as a threat, a pack guards as a matter of survival.

Stop It Before It Starts

Once evidence of an aggression problem has surfaced, coping with food aggression in dogs can be extremely frustrating. This is why it’s important to prevent food aggression before it has a chance to start. Here are a few effective and preventative measures:

Build Up Trust

As you set your dog’s food bowl down, gently pet their fur. Then, just walk away and let your dog eat. This will build up your dog’s trust, allowing your pet to become comfortable with another’s presence during any mealtime. This is useful when your dog must accompany you on long trips or be boarded in a kennel.

Try A Treat

When your dog is eating, approach its space and toss some sort of treat in the food bowl. It helps if the treat is tastier then the regular dog food. After doing this for a month or so, your dog will associate a person approaching the food bowl with positive consequences. This association greatly reduces instances of food aggression in dogs.

Vary Feeding Locations

In some cases of food aggression in dogs, a dog will guard the room in which it eats. You can prevent this problem by feeding your dog in different locations around the home. This allows your dog comfort with eating anyplace.

Feed Little By Little

If your dog has already developed food aggression, there are a number of ways to reverse this behavior. Here are two ideas to start you off. Take away the dog’s food bowl, or remove it from the floor between mealtimes.

When your dog is hungry, then place the empty food bowl onto the floor. Once the dog realizes that there’s nothing in the food bowl, it will then turn to you. Just walk over to his food bowl, place a small amount of food inside, then move away a few feet.

When your dog finishes, return, placing another small amount of food in the bowl. Repeat these steps until your dog has finished eating, then remove the food bowl until the next mealtime.

Feed It By Hand

If your dog has become overly protective of the actual food bowl, then you must take take the bowl away completely. Feed your dog by hand. Once your dog has grown comfortable with this, you should then have it eat from your hand as it’s held directly over the food bowl.

This will allow you to reintroduce the food bowl and still maintain control. Once you are sure the food aggression in your dog has been overcome, you can drop the food in normally and let it eat from the bowl again.

Punishment Won’t WorkYou must never punish food aggression in dogs. It won’t work. Punishment is often a cause, or at least an aggravation, of this behavioral problem in the first place. Negative reinforcement will only make the problem worse.

A food aggressive dog needs to feel comfortable with you around before you will be trusted near its food.

STOP FOOD AGGRESSION IN DOGS NOW