Now we knew that barley had this problem before we got puzzle, and we have been managing it quite well apart from a few hiccups. He is as good as gold with people around his food and treats, apart from bones, but we just leave him to it when he is eating them. You can take his food away from him, put your hand in the bowl and he would not care. But this is a different story with other dogs, if another dog sniffs my treat bag he can get very defensive of it and growl at the other and lunge at it if it does not get the message of a growl, but he has never bitten or even attempted to bite a dog. If i am preparing their food and he is waiting and puzzle walks past him he will growl at her for being ahead of him therefore closer to the food. he has growled at her when i was getting the bowls out and puzzle was outside and came hurtling in and spooked him, he just reacted without thinking. he has growled at her when he got fed some table scraps (by my brother who so far has completely ignored the no giving scraps to dogs rule) and she came in the kitchen and spooked him, then when puzzle left the kitchen he went into panic mode as there was still a plate full of uneaten food on the table and he made a grab for that and almost bit dad, partly dads fault, and partly mine as i did see it coming but i did not react quick enough, as when i tried to evacuate barley outside puzzle started heading towards the kitchen and that was his final straw, and he saw it his duty to protect all food in the kitchen. We know where this behavior came from, as on the farm that we rescued him from, they got fed raw bones out of the back of the persons car and had to fend for themselves so it was fight for food or go hungry, so he still has this instinct as he grew up with it, and was like this for the first 8 months of his life. We have managed it very well, but several rules have been broken that were put in place for the safety of dogs and people. Puzzle is supposed to be fed in her cage, which mum does not comply with when she feeds them in the morning, but the problem is that she eats so much quicker than barley, that one day she will try to steal his food and it will not end well. My questions are. 1. Has anyone had this issue before, if so how did you manage it/solve it? 2. Has anyone got any good book recommendations about resource guarding? 3. Are we even going to get to a point where i can relax the rules a bit and feel relaxed at feeding times because at the moment it is a bit like a military operation? 4. Is clicker training applicable in this situation as he may be thinking something completely different to what his body is doing? 5. Would it be better to get puzzle to leave food food alone and leave him alone whilst he is eating or is it better to work with barley and desensitize him to being having other dogs around when he is eating? 6. Or do we just keep doing what we are doing? 7. Or do we completely change our strategy on how we are going about this? Sorry about the essay, it is a problem that does need addressing and we can't just keep ignoring it, but the last thing we want to do is get a behaviorist in, as we prefer to use our own methods and do things our own, that is how barley has been trained since we got him, and it has worked well for him, and is also working well for puzzle.
Re: Food aggression That must be all very worrying - you do seem to be approaching it with a lot of thought. I wish I could help, but I have no experience, I'm afraid. Hopefully someone will be able to help. Best of luck sorting it.
Re: Food aggression I'm afraid I've never had to deal with this so my thoughts are very general. We do every now and then have to feed Riley with other dogs....none of whom have shown resourcing guarding behaviour. However we've taken a better safe than sorry approach and we feed separately. It's easy for us though as we have a utility room so we put one in there and one in the kitchen. We also prevent Lizzie going near Riley when he's eating as I feel he should be allowed to eat without being hugged by a toddler(even if it is cute!). If I put myself in your place I think your rules are sensible and everyone should try to stick to them...encourage them by asking who's paying the vets bill if it all goes wrong And I would also try and do both parts of question 5 to help both dogs as much as possible and if it goes well you may be able to relax your rules Good luck !
Re: Food aggression Hi Annabelle, this is so normal I would not define it as resource guarding, which we usually reserve for describing dogs that protect resources from people. Many dogs will not be at all happy eating near other dogs or having other dogs approach their food. I have kept multiple dogs for many years and some I can feed together, others I cannot. Many perfectly nice dogs that would never dream of picking a fight with another dog, will be defensive over food. I recommend you feed your dogs separately and let them eat in peace. Pippa
Re: Food aggression [quote author=editor link=topic=3055.msg32368#msg32368 date=1382900615] Many dogs will not be at all happy eating near other dogs or having other dogs approach their food. [/quote] But he has several time growled at other dogs for picking food up off of the floor, that he caught his eye on but another dog got to it before him. And one episode he growled at puzzle for just going in the kitchen when there was food around, and there was no provoking from her like taking an interest in the food or spooking him. He has also before growled at puzzle when we have given her a treat even though he has had one at the same time, so it is not just the fact of him not liking other dogs going near him when he is eating, as he will approach other dogs when they are eating and growl at them, but luckily so far, the dogs he has growled at have backed of and not fought back.
