What makes a dog become food aggressive?
The male was never taught to share his food. Some dogs will guard their food if never taught to share. My one dog became food aggressive at 4 months old when a new puppy tried to share his food. We worked with him and taught him it is OK for other dogs to share his food. Also taught him it's ok for humans to touch his food. Never take their food bowl away from them while they are eating. This is also another cause of food aggression.
Dog is highly aggressive over food!?
We have a dog who we rescued from a shelter. He is the calmest and nicest dog imagineable and loves other animals. We decided to get him a sister and she is also a dream dog. Thing is, the male dog has always been very mean about his food, and not just his, now he will growl at the other dog over her food too! So we always feed them in separate rooms and then pick the food up when theyre done. However, I do not believe he should just be allowed to get away with this and I say this because when he has a friend come over it can get violent when someone forgets not to leave the food down. Our neighboor's dog was over for the afternoon while they were on a trip and he was eating my dogs food. He was bit on the face :[ The vet checked him and it has cleared up with medicine but How do I break my dog of this habit?! I do not want to just accept that he is aggressive, I want him to learn that it is not ok.
Does spaying a female dog reduce aggression?
Yes, spaying does actually reduce aggression. In addition, if you spay your dog prior to estrous, it decreases the risk of breast and other reproductive cancers. The aggression is due to reproductive hormones such as estrogen (and others) which are produced by the ovaries and cause secondary sexual development of the brain. All dogs are descended from wolves and wolves are social animals. Their mating system entails mating of exclusively the alpha female and alpha male. Though some cheating may occur, it is generally not socially acceptable for lower status wolves to mate. Therefore, when female wolves become sexually mature it is an evolutionary advantage if they are dominant. A female dog who is more aggressive will be more successful at dominating other females and becoming alpha thereby passing on her genes and increasing her genetic fitness. When spaying female pups you are preventing this sexual maturation and retaining more puppy like behavior and personality.
Great Pyrenees with food aggression... how to get him to stop without getting bitten?
I have a great pyrenees, these dogs are huge. His back comes up to my hip, and his head is about twice the size of mine. He's gorgeous, I love him to death, he's wonderful and sweet, well obedient, and is pretty friendly around people. That is... until there is food involved, not his food, and not with the other two dogs.. with us owners. He sometimes is a trouble maker and will take food that isn't his.. like last night, he got into some cookies that were of course, not for his taking. I immediately said 'No!' and pushed him aside so I could grab the cookies, in my attempt, he tried to bite me! Luckily, he missed. I don't know how he can become like this, since he's a sweetheart and it's really not like him. He's not horribly violent.. but I have heard if you don't stop the food aggression early, it can get much worse. He's about 3 years old right now, and he was a rescue dog... he used to be only fed a cup of gravy train dog food a day until he was rescued and then we adopted him. Currently he is being free-fed, and he can access his food whenever he likes. What can I do about this? I know he's just trying to show his dominance, and I know you're supposed to take them down and lay them on their side into submission. But it's a little intimidating when this large dog wants to actually bite you! What can I do to ensure my safety, everyone else around the dog's safety, and the dog's safety as well?
Newfoundland puppy with food aggression?
Newfoundland breeders - the reputable ones, do not let their pups go home until they are 10 weeks old - they must have their hearts checked by a cardiologist at 9 or 10 weeks, so they can't go to their new homes until then. They raise pups in their homes, not in kennels. Your choice would be to take the puppy back to the breeder, or train the pup (but with small children, my choice would be to take the puppy back). You can't even walk by his food in order to throw food in. Can you say this breeder meets these requirements? http://www.squidoo.com/evaluating-a-bree... You can contact me for help via Yahoo (profile) - but first you must allow contacts in your profile or I won't be able to answer you. ADD: So sorry, I had to leave to go to a rally trial with my dog. Though Newfies ARE very good natured dogs, they can be protective over resources, I had one from a conscientious breeder that was a resource guarder. The thing is - I didn't have tiny children in my home and I was able to work with him on resource guarding, so I know that it *CAN* happen, but I also happen to know how to work with dogs - been doing it my whole life. Toddlers that walk around with crackers, and sweets that this dog is capable of grabbing from the child - if the child won't give it up to the dog, it could be a recipe for disaster. It only takes a split second for damage to happen even if you are right there. I just want to touch on two things you mention - never, never take his food away from him while you are training for resource guarding. That only makes the resource more valuable to him and reinforces his need to protect it. Go ahead and drop yummy things in like pieces of chicken, and later, you may be able to pick his bowl up and drop something in. Someone else mentioned hand feeding above, and that's good too, but make sure your children are not around when you feed him by hand. The other thing is this statement: "But being a newfoundland he is going to be a very big powerful dog and today just discouraged and scared me for the future." This is a very telling statement you made. You should never have to be fearful because of a dog in your home. You will come to resent the dog and that is no kind of life for you OR the dog.
Bloodhound with aggression problems?
I have a one year old bloodhound that is constantly growling and snapping at family members and our other dog. We picked up our new bloodhound puppy when he was 3-4 months old. He was introduced to a home with our year old (now 2) Labrador Retriever. I have noticed escalating aggression from the bloodhound over the past few months. He is constantly getting into things he should not be and attempting to eat or destroy what he took afterwards. He will grab food from the table then run into a corner or under our table and if you make a suggestion that you will retrieve the item or even get too close to him he will start growling. If you get to close or try and take something from him he will attack and bite the person trying to take the item from him. We have made every attempt to remove items he might eat but if it’s not food, he will run off with socks, shoes, books, and really any other misc. item we don’t put up. He has plenty of toys to chew on and we feed him twice daily. We have tried different foods but he never eats all of his food at once, so he always has food in his bowl (5 cups of Orijen daily). The weird thing I noticed is it’s not just aggressions towards taking something from him. He was house broken but I have found him defecating on my basement floor recently. The other day my brother went to pick it up afterwards and without any provocation the dog attacked him while he was picking it up biting him on the arm and hands. He has also attacked my lab who is a big baby for no reason at all. Is there anything I can do before I have to get rid of him? I love this dog and would hate to not have him around but my concern towards the safety of my family has reached a breaking point. Please help!
How to stop food aggression in 6 week old pit mix puppy?
we just adopted a 6 week old pit mix (unsure of other breed - were told chihuahua and he was a runt but still unsure of truth) from a girl who rescued him from some not so good people. He is a great puppy and learns very quick. but I have 3 concerns: 1) he is showing early signs of food aggression (or he was underfed and had to fight for his food) *he smashes his face into the dog bowl *when I feed him from my hand he holds it down with his paws and smashes his face into my palm and scoots his butt from side to side (protecting or securing it i guess). 2) He likes to shake his toys- Being a pit mix I heard we should not let him do this. Any thoughts? Because he is so young, and we don't know his background I am unsure of what he will turn out like. What should I do (other than positive training cause I already do that) to make sure he is happy healthy and well adjusted? 3) He already gets Bloated from his food. what should I do to stop this? it is common in large bred dogs.
My dog becomes aggressive when reprimanded?
I have a 5 yo male long haired dachshund. He was adopted through the pound. Well we have had him about 5 yrs and he has always shown aggression with bones or when you try to take food away from him. He also becomes aggressive when you use a strong voice. He'll start to growl and snarl. Well today I was out in the yard and saw he was trying to eat something that he wasn't supposed to be eating. So I went over and tried to pull him away from it. He snarled and tried to grab at my face. So I kicked him and he did something he has never done before. He attacked me. He jumped up and bit my leg! I was horrified and in shock so I didn't do anything afterward. Please help, I don't know how to deal with this dog effectively. I feel like he shouldn't be getting away with these behaviors. What should I do?
Peekapoo is aggressive toward other animals. What to do?
We have a male Peekapoo, 8 years old, who has been food aggressive and generally tries to assert alpha role over the other animals(as far as I can tell). Most of them up until we got a our female pekingese usually would let him do what he wanted or would simply cower or run away. (Another thing I don't understand, why a 4 year old lab would run away from a dog he could kill is beyond me). Now this has turned into a problem because he has attacked Sadie(female pekingese) so many times it infuriates her and she goes into immediate lock down mode on him and then a giant fight ensues. He will guard food that is not his after he has been fed, he will guard random things here and there, guard the front door from her or other rooms. Sadie is a better built dog that Billy(Peekapoo) and this whole thing generally results in Billy bleeding a bit from the back of the neck because Sadie just holds him there until we break it up but he trashes about so much it tears his skin up a bit. Then both dogs get scolded and Billy will run away and usually finds a place to pee in the house. Even if we put him out he will wait till he can get back in and then pee. Which nets him more trouble. It's not only the dogs, he will start guarding the cats food and then cat who is bigger than the dog will generally smack him around some with his claws maybe give him a quick bite and run away. Is there any way to stop this behavior? Without having to go see a professional dog __________.