How do you stop dog aggresion while they are eating?

Question

i have a 5month old yellow lab pup and he is well behaved except that he growls if you pet him while he is eating, what can i do?

Answer 1

Dogs are very territorial animals. You can not try and pet him while he is eating. The dog will think you are trying to still his food.

Answer 2

This is something that should have been done at much younger but it's not too late to start. A good way of getting him to stop being aggressive is to continue to test him. Pet him and even go down his muzzle with your hand during feeding time. Even pulling the food from him for a second or two and putting it back is good. Let him know that it's not okay to be aggressive. According to the trainer I talked to, she even removed the food during growling and put it back once it stopped and continued this until he stopped growling all together.

Answer 3

I saw on the Animal Planet when a kennel was trying to rehabilitate a dog with this type of aggression, the personel first for a couple of days every time the dog would eat they would talk in a very claming voice to him. Then after he stoped tracking where they were in the room while he was eating, they started putting something like maybe a broom handle on the dogs back end. After he became ok with that then they slowly worked it up to his head and the eventually in the bowl. After the dog wouldn't attack the broom handle then they would use their hand. It's a long process. I hope this answer helps. Good luck.

Answer 4

dont listen to the other people saying "just stop petting him!" this is a serious issue. make sure u show him dominance. u need to teach him that u are in charge of his food. just give him a little bit@ a time, take the bowl away and feed him again. pet him also, but not when he is eating. later on when he gets used to this process, pet him just a little bit and if he growls say NO then take away the food, say NO again, then give him back the food and just keep repeating this process till he gets it.
GOOD LUCK!

Answer 5

All the advice saying to work with your dog to get him to stop is great! Don't listen to the people who say it's natural. I just have one thing to add. The Dog Whisperer (and I don't always buy into his training methods, but this one I think is accurate), suggests that you never get aggressive back with the dog and that you never get loud or confrontational because if you watch dogs in the wild, they don't try to start a confrontation to get the food, the slowly work their way in to establish their dominance. Since that is precisely what you need to do (establish your dominance over your dog), you need to calmly begin to stand near the dog's food bowl and then step in closer and closer until you can begin to block the dog from the food. The bottom line is, it's your house and your food and you decide when the dog eats, not your dog. It sounds harsh, but it isn't. It's all in your approach. Good luck.

Answer 6

I agree with Shadow's Melon. You never know what situation may arise when a dog's food (or toys) could be taken away. For example, children may not understand that you shouldn't do this and you may not be quick enough to stop them from trying. You need to feel comfortable that if this happens, your dog will not become aggressive towards the person. When I give my dog a treat, she goes off to enjoy it but if I ask her to bring it back, she does it with no hesitation. She gives it back to me and sits waiting patiently. I started doing this with her when she was very young and now she doesn't bother at all if someone (anyone) takes her food away.

Answer 7

Hold the food in your hand and let him know that you are the hand that feeds, sounds like your puppy is young enough that with some patience you should be able to get him to stop this. Also, make sure you are feeding him well nutrition and he does not have worms.. This could be a sign that he is not getting enough to eat and is greedy still. Puppies come from litters remember he prolly had to compete with other puppies for his milk.. so stay patient and spend time working on it with him.

Answer 8

Get a fake hand(at a halloween store or around that time of year) and put it close to the food dish and their mouth. That is what they do to dogs in animal shelters when they are training them or wanting to know if they are aggressive. Eventually they will get use to it-keep telling them "no" when they growl or bark.

Answer 9

You need to stop that behavior now. Pup needs to understand you are the dominant one and you are in charge of food. You could try hand feeding him for awhile. My dog tried that when she was a puppy, she nipped me when I tried to get some trash away from her. We did the same thing LoveMyLab sugegsted and it worked very well. Good luck!

Answer 10

Shadow's Melon is absolutely right. You have to get the dog to trust you. Feed the puppy from your hand instead of the bowl. Get him to realize that you can be trusted with his food.

PLEASE don't let this go on! When animals are brought into shelters, this is one of the tests performed to see how the temperament of the dog is. They won't adopt out a dog that has food aggression. They will put it to sleep.

Good luck!

Answer 11

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