tips for stopping growling at feed time

midogrey

midogrey

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Hi,
I have a collie cross who growls at any one who goes near him when he is eating.
He is OK otherwise and in all other aspects fully obedient. Any ideas please to stop the growing at feed times? I can tell to leave the food, sit etc and he will. I have also tried taking it off him if he growls (did this for a week) but still no real change.

Any ideas please?
 
He is resource guarding. You need to be seen as the one who gives the food, not the one who might take it away, trying to take the bowl away has just reinforced his feeling that he needs to guard his bowl.

Start with an empty bowl and add a little of the food, let him eat it, then when he looks for more, put a little bit more in, and so on. Never try to take the bowl away when the dog is eating. You need to take the pressure off, so he relaxes more around food.
 
Do you stand close by and watch him eat? does he eat quickly?
It personally would not worry me its as suggested a guarding technique to keep his food being taken away, I would leave him in peace to eat, but if you want to work with it as suggested adding food into the bowl or personally which I like better holding the bowl in your hands and lowering it to allow him to take some then raising it for a few seconds and then lower it again, so you are included in feed times and you control the bowl (and the food comes from you (a positive).

I personally would let him be to eat it, esp if his behaviour otherwise was fine and he was not literally lunging if you where in the vicinity of the bowl.
 
Thanks for those ideas, I hadn't quite though of it hat way in terms of resource guarding. personalty I was happy to just leave him but a couple of people had said i should sort it out as I was allowing him to be dominant- which he wasn't as as I said in OP he will sit or leave the food on command
 
i have a rescue that arrived very very food protective and you could hardly be in the same room as him or there would be growling:rolleyes:

one thing that has helped enormously is giving a small meal (half of dinner) and holding bowl up making eye contact before giving it. Not just plonking it down as i do with my other dog who would let you plait her hair while she's eating, honestly couldn't give a fig. So i hold the bowl and make sure he makes eye contact, steady proper eye contact and is not just fixating on the bowl. Then i put the dinner down. He gobbles and then i refill with the rest of dinner and again with eye contact. This short exercise has helped so much with him. Now food comes from 'me' and he has his boundaries. I only get the odd growl now and it's not even proper growl, it's just habit.
 
Resource guarding has nothing to do with dominance. A lot of dog behaviour is blamed on dominance, it is a very outdated way of thinking about dog behaviour.

I personally would not insist on direct eye contact when feeding any dog, staring is very confrontational for dogs and could result in much worse than growling.
 
midogrey said:
Thanks for those ideas, I hadn't quite though of it hat way in terms of resource guarding. personalty I was happy to just leave him but a couple of people had said i should sort it out as I was allowing him to be dominant- which he wasn't as as I said in OP he will sit or leave the food on command
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I agree with TM this is not dominance its a natural behaviour, a survival tactic, you would hear a few choice word from me too if I thought you tried to take my dinner:p
If you are not worried then dont let other put thoughts in your head and worry you, let him eat alone and in peace, otherwise try the lowering of the bowl and heightening or adding food as suggested, I also would not advise getting direct eye contact, its not neccessary, its just an exercise to share the food positively with him by hand (nothing more nothing less)
I personally would not worry and leave him in peace to eat.
 
My patterdale is the same. We let him get on with it. It's his dinner and why would I want to give it to him and then keep taking it off him. He's the only dog we have who does it and it doesn't cause any issues. If I give him human food on a normal plate he won't do it. It's only when it's his food on his bowl.
 
Copperpot said:
My patterdale is the same. We let him get on with it. It's his dinner and why would I want to give it to him and then keep taking it off him. He's the only dog we have who does it and it doesn't cause any issues. If I give him human food on a normal plate he won't do it. It's only when it's his food on his bowl.
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This.
 
Start with an empty bowl and put handfuls of food in it when he is sitting and being quiet. While I do not agree with standing over a dog watching it eat or swiping food away (which teaches most dogs that they are right to be guarding their food - because someone might take it away!) if I want to be able to take ANYTHING off the dog, I want to be able to, if he gets arsey over food then he may get arsey over other things, so I try to stop if before it starts by being the person who PROVIDES the food. Most dogs get a bowl handed to them, so they think the food comes from a bowl. My dog knows the food comes from me, when he is behaving in a certain way.
 
I dont belive in mucking about with my dogs when they are eating, I dont make a thing out of it and on the rare occasion when Ive give the wrong bowl to the wrong dog they havnt objected when Ive swopped them around. If they were growling when I walked by then I would have to address it but as things stand now I let them eat in peace.
 
Hello

Our GSD done this from the first day we brought him back as a puppy he is 5yrs now. Occasionally he still does it if there is something seriously yummy in his bowl.

We taught him the the word "wait" so he learnt to associate it with once he has waited and listened to us he would get whatever it was he wanted (fuss, food, toy)he soon learnt when we was told "wait" it was a good thing and he had no need to guard his grub.

I would occasionally stop him halfway through and tell him to wait and pop something really yummy in his bowl. Now he only looks up to see if there is something yummy heading his way.

Depending on the dog it can be a fairly simply thing to keep dormant, just keep calm and relaxed if you are around him when he is eating and don't over think it. Some dogs just have this instincts more than others....whilst others aren't so dormant.:)
 
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