Food Aggression!! Need help!!

[Lou23]

Hi,

I have a 6 month old weimarner and she is starting to show food aggression. She is a very greedy dog.

My daughter stroked her earlier when she was chewing a chew and she snapped at her.

She also has fights with other dogs over food or possesion of a stick.

What can I do to stop this before it becomes a problem.

 

[soloabe]

I would truly recommend getting a professional behaviorist in.

 

[CAYLA]

To be honest I would remove all chews when your children are around....same with other dogs....I never leave my dogs unsupervised together when I go out with treats(it's natural for them to challenge an aproaching dog for food)
Crates are fab as safety aids where children are concerned as she can safely be seperated and u can remove the treat when you release the dog so said child does not crawl in crate to attempt to get the treat, however if you wish to work with her a professional may be the way forward.....how is she with you when u approach her when she has a chew?
My own dogs will give up a chew when told, or indeed they will stop growling at another dog if they have treats and they get a warning from me(hence why they only get them when im there)

If she is food aggressive with you you can fed her by raising her bowl in your hand whilst u feed her and she what reaction u get, i.e hold her bowl in your hand why she feeds just about the level she can reach let her take some then simply lift the bowl from her reach and ask her to sit, when she waits patiently lower the bowl and let her take more, this way she assosiates u and her food as a positive.

My dogs don't randomly sit and eat chews in the house and nor is my house strewn with toys, infact I have none, I see treats and toys as nothing more than a stimulating treat i.e if they are crated for long periods when no one is around, or toy wise a ball thrower to tire them out or a kong frizbee all outdoors I do no do indoor toys except maybe for tiny puppies to play and stimulate them when little.

Other advice would be to swap her for another postive but to be honest if your child was likely to attempt this whilst u where not here, things could turn bad, hence I would just not go there with kids, but if u feel she has an issue and u want to tackle it yourself, a positive swap or the food bowl exercise is a good one.
Just remember the behaviour she displays is a natural one, a bit like a child snatching it's toys away from another to prevent it being taken away, only it would hurt less than teeth

 

[CAYLA]

Read the stick bit jsut there....I would steer clear of playing with sticks I have seen some bad injurys with stick going through the tongue or roof of the mouth or through the throat, as they often stick in the ground and dog runs full force onto them.

A ball is a good choice to play when a pack is involved as the ball can be held in the mouth.....therefor there is nothing sticking out for another dog to grab onto for a fight to begin(hope that makes sense) with a ball the first dog to get there gets the ball

If you are confident reprimand her behaviour don't let it esculate to a fight, simply walk up to her and remove the object yourself.

Also jsut to add may be worth u working with a toy outdoors recalling her and swapping for a treat, this way if u forsee trouble outdoors when she has a toy use your recall session to call her back and remove the toy......but I would def use a ball, that can be concealed in the mouth, I only use the frizby with our own dogs and not the dog walking ones to prevent fighting if ones grabs the frisby and attempts to tug a war with the dog that has it.

 

[CorvusCorax]

Chews and toys do not belong to dogs, they belong to us, and we allow dogs to play with them.
They are for playtime and downtime and not all times.
Try to introduce this mindset at home.

Children + dogs with food/toys is often a tricky one - I never let these three things come together, personally.

I echo Cayla's advice and do lots of one to one - you want this awesome thing? Then you have to give me what you have already.

I would not tolerate this behaviour. Re the fighting over an object - see above - the item is never theirs, it is ours, and we remove it when we decide.

What did you do when she snapped at your child?

 

[burge]

Make sure she is fed last in the house ie after all the humans have eaten. This will help towards her knowing her place.

 

[CorvusCorax]

I'm not sure that will help, depending on where and when the dog in question gets fed?

FI my dogs are fed at 8am and 6pm, they never see us eating or are in the same place as us when we eat and I have my mealtimes at different times to them, if that makes sense?

 

[CAYLA]

I get ya.....same here.

 

[Lou23]

Thanks for replying.

First of all we don't play with sticks, she just has the habit of picking them up and running with them, I've never encouraged sticks and was hoping she would stop if i didn't make a thing of it. I haven't played with any toys outside the house.

I'm afraid I wasn't quick enough to react to her snapping at my daughter, as my daughter was upset and didn't say anything for a few seconds and it was too late to reprimand her. There was no growling or noise just a qucik gentle snap!

Currently she is fed 3 meals a day and these are at 7am, 12pm and 6pm. We eat at different times to her and we do not feed her from our hands or table.

I'm going to try feeding her tomorrow with control and also get my kids to feed her and not let her approach food until they give the command for her to eat.

We are starting improver classes next week so will talk to the trainers just wanted to know what to do now

 

[CorvusCorax]

Three meals seems a lot for a dog that age? Just my opinion.

If kids are feeding, someone - a strong adult - might need to stand with her on the lead to physically prevent her from sticking her head down for the first few times, it might be a bit tricky at first and she won't understand why the sudden change in routine and you will have to be firm and consistent with her.
She bolts for it? Command alongise a pop on the neck for whoever is holding her.
I would actually just have yourself doing it for the first wee while then introduce the children a few days later.

If it had happened to me, if the timeframe was still shortish, she would have been out of the room and isolated before her bum could hit the floor. And sans treat!

 

[Kelpie]

first of all, I'd ensure the kids are not around at feed time and feeding is done by adults only, for now at least.

Second of all, I absolutely agree with what CaveCanem said about food/ toys being ours, not the dogs. I always make a point of ensuring that all food (even nice bones!) and toys can be taken away and given back to my dogs at will, and this is something I feel all owners should make a point of too.

With a 6 month old, you should be able to crack this easily, but if it's showing signs of getting better not worse you must get help in before it's too late.

Be very strict as between your family that until this problem is sorted, only adults give (and then take back) toys + food. I'd spend whole evenigs at a time with this dog giving and taking back food/ toys until the dog accepts that he has to put up with his food/ toys being taken away. If you get growling or any other threatening behaviour, that is absolutely the wrong time to stop as you'll only reinforce that the dog is right, they are his food/ toys, not yours. If you're not up to the job of taking the food/ toys even though you get growled at (and be very honest with yourself about that) then don't even try, get someone else in to help you first. If you try and fail, it will only make it harder the next time.