Methods in preventing it from developing into a real issue.
Part of a series of short training videos.
This video is on food aggression with puppies and methods in preventing it from developing into a real problem behaviour. Food aggression can be very dangerous especially in households with kids, so preventing this behaviour from developing is important. If your puppy does display food aggression these methods will help to change your puppy’s perspective and to see you being around their food as a good thing not that they need to protect it from you.
There are some reasons to why your puppy might display food aggression which could be they are not being fed enough and are starving, they have a negative history of having its food taken off them, food aggression is a natural behaviour for your puppy to display as they are used to having to fight and arguing with their litter mates for their food. Not dealing with this behaviour can make it develop into real problem putting you and anybody who lives with the pup in risk, for example you are having your tea and drop some food on the floor you go to pick it up but your puppy is there and is going to eat it before you know it they have bitten you, because you was picking the food up. This food may have been unsafe for your pup to consume so being able to pick it up the food without risk of being bitten is important for you and your puppy.
These methods may also work with older dogs but you need to consider their history a lot more and look into why they are reacting. The behaviour has probably had a long history of being rewarded because if their actions of being aggressive get their desired result of you leaving, they are more likely to do it again. You don’t want to confront any of the aggressive behaviour this will just cause them to react more and they will probably try to fight you so being confrontational just isn’t fair on them. You may need to start at a distance by throwing bits of their food on the floor building on your distance between you and them and keep building up in very small stages.
I am mainly focusing on prevention rather than fixing in this video as it’s a much safer way and less stressful for both. Like I mentioned in the video you can also do this training on the lead which can give you some extra control if needed.
In the first clip I am hand feeding her getting her used to hands being around her food and to not see it as a threat, you can see she’s quite happy to take food from me, but if your puppy is more reactive to this then it may be a good idea that they can’t see the food bowl, try putting the food in something the pup isn’t familiar to being fed in as the sight of their food bowl could be a trigger for the behaviour. An alternative is you could turn it into a training session using their meal as your training treats, as distraction will help keep their mind of protecting food.
In the second part of this video, you can see I am just adding more food to her bowl while she is eating so she sees my hands coming towards her bowl as a good thing. If your puppy does display food aggression it will take a lot of practise and you may not get results on the first few times of doing this training. This needs to be done regular throughout puppy hood and into their teens. Depending on how they react will depend on how often you need to do this, you don’t need to do this on every meal time maybe one meal every other day it all depends on your puppy. If your puppy doesn’t react you can just do this once a week as it is important to keep doing it as through the different stages of puppy hood their reactions to certain things can change as they age. Once you are confident your dog doesn’t see you as a threat around their food you don’t need to continue but you may want to do it randomly sometimes to keep it reinforced as a good thing.
Having set meal times are important if your puppy displays food aggression its important food shouldn’t be left down so they can eat as and when they want, if your puppy has access to food 24hrs a day this can encourage over eating but can also cause picky eating. If there is food down at all times then your pup will feel the need to protect the food all times, which can cause stress, make your dog feel anxious and prolonged stress can lead to other behaviour problems and even lead to them developing health issues. It is bad practice to have food down at all times, it means their digestive system is always having to work making toilet times irregular which if your house training can make this really hard, it can also result in a upset tummy. You can’t monitor what food intake they are having and in the case, your puppy gets ill may need to Monitor their food intake. It also not very hygienic as fly’s and other insects can get to the food. It’s better for your puppy to be in a routine and only really leave the food down for 20 minutes, you might need to alter this time depending on the breed you have.
Tip for taking food off them which they have picked up that they shouldn’t have and it could cause an issue if digested this could be on a walk or at home. The more a puppy likes a certain treat or food the more valuable it is to them the more valuable it is the more likely they are going to react. The value of what you are trying to get off your puppy’s needs to be swopped with something of as much value to them. Swopping is important so they don’t just see it that you are taking something away but they get an alternative. You need to make what you are swopping it for, sound the most exciting thing getting their attention off what they shouldn’t have and onto what you have instead. It’s one of the most important benefits of not having food aggression puppy is being able to get something of your puppy that they have picked up, which if digested can cause upset being able to do this with ease and not being at risk of being bitten.
There are a lot of people including some dog trainers say that you should just take the food off your puppy, this is an aversive training method which is confronting and unkind to the dog, if you look at it from their point of view you taking their food off them will only increases their fleeing of needing to protect their food from you, taking the food off them only increase their fear. Taking food away is a negative experience giving food is a positive experience, they are more likely to learn from a positive experience.
Deborah Batty at Deborahs Dog Grooming
Deborahsdogs.co.uk
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