dog aggression?

Question

I have a 8 month old corgi who is food/toy aggressive at times! what can i do to stop him from this? i've tried holding the food in my hand, but once we put the food back to the bowl he growls when we come near him or pet him! if we has a favorite toy of his, and we try to pet him he growls, how can we stop this?

Answer 1

Its all in your body language. You have let him get away with it. You teach a dog when you get him, not months later when he's grown. When he growls, take it away firmly, you have to establish the pecking order. Either he is the alpha or you are, make up your mind. good luck.

Answer 2

There are pobably a dozen things that you are doing that have contributed to this behavior but....first things first. I suspect that you are free feeding, (that's putting the full food bowl on the floor and leaving it there all day), you want to stop this. Set up a feeding schedule and because this is retraining you want to break it into as many meals per day as is feasible for your lifestyle. Take the full ration of food that your dog is to be allowed in one day and divide it into the portions. At meal time, call your dog to you and put him in a sit. Let him watch as you pour the food into his bowl. Then you can either, lick a couple of pieces of the kibble or use a cracker that you will take a bite of and then drop in his bowl. The idea is to get your scent into his food. It lets him know that you have eaten first and only top-dog eats first. Now place the bowl on the floor but don't let him approach it yet. You should be able to walk around the kitchen chatting with him and he won't approach the bowl until you give him permission. Use his leash, if necessary, to control him the first few times. Once you have control at this level, you now want to make him sit in the middle of eating and remove his bowl and then (after a couple or minutes) give it back.
If, he refuses to eat, (not an unusual event), leave the bowl down for fifteen minutes and if he has not touched it, pick it up and wait until, either he asks for it (you'll know) or the next scheduled meal time comes around.
The toys. You're holding a toy and you go to pat him, he growls, show him the toy and put it in a toy box (with a lid) or a bag that he can't reach. You may have to go through all of the toys until he stops, but be patient. Never, if he happens to get hold of one while your holding it allow him to win a tug-of-war. You must always win.
Find a local, reputable trainer and sign up for a Basic Obedience course. It will help in controlling the other problems that you don't even realize may be developing.
Good Luck

Answer 3

You need to take back the power. All food is your food, and all toys are your toys as the alpha. You're allowing the dog to play with your toys, he doesn't have any say in the matter. He's challenging your status as alpha.

First I'd say do not leave toys laying loose around the house. Keep the toys picked up, and when you want to play with him, you give him the toy - but keep hold of it. Let him pull a little, but then take it back. If he starts growling at you, put it away. It's a bit like teaching a child to share. If he plays nice, he gets to keep playing with the toy. But if at any time you try to take the toy away and he's bossy - the toy goes away until the next time. He'll learn.

Same with the food - make sure YOU eat your dinner first. Let him watch YOU eat - that's the sign of dominance. Highest ranked eats first. Then give him his food - and take it away. If he complains, it doesn't go back down until he is quiet... over and over until he learns that you can and WILL take the food away whenever you choose and his fussing and challenging you will not win him any rewards.

Good luck!

If you're afraid that the dog might nip you, use one of those long handled handicap grabbers for the toys... OR use your foot or a broom to step on the object and slowly back the dog off of it until it is safely yours for removal.

Answer 4

yeah, he's territorial about the food bowl, my dog is similar, but he's learnt not to growl, since he knows we won't interfere with him eating. We can get close to him and he won't growl (but if you poke him while he's eating, he will of course, i think that's fair and natural). But I can still give him the order to back away from it, and he will. Because he does know the pecking order.

My dog doesn't growl with any of his toys though, if he did, I would raise my voice and tower above him to make him realize who was the boss. I think it's quite important to make sure you've set up the hierarchy how you want it to be.
But if he has the toy and you pet him and he growls it shows that he's suspicious of you taking it away from him, and are only being nice to him in order to take it. I think dogs are naturally suspicious/paranoid when it comes to that.
But once he realizes that he doesn't have a greater ownership over it than you do, he won't growl anymore. I would work on a treat-punishment system with him giving the toy to you, and you rewarding him, and to also give him a telling off when he growls.

Answer 5

Your dog is showing typical signs of agression. The only thing you can do to stop this is to train your dog to realise that you are top dog, ang that he must be submissive to you.

If you can, you should try to roll your dog onto his side and place your arms firmly across his neck. This is something dogs do to each other to communicate that they are the superior dog. Your dog may put up a fight at first, but if you persevere, it will pay off.

There are other things you should try doing as well, such as making sure you go through a door before your dog, as you are the top dog and he should follow you, not the other way around. You should also remember not to feed the dog until after you have eaten yourselves, as in the wild the top dog would eat first.

If the dog is acting out, the most effective punishment is to ignore him for a few minutes, as long as you let him know that you are not angry with him anymore when he has served his sentence.

Don't yell at your dog as this does nothing, and don't call your dog over to you so you can punish him, as this teaches him not to come when you call him.

If your dog ever shows signs of relapsing to his old agressive ways, just turn him on his side and put your arms across his neck again, just to remind him that you are top dog.

Remember to reward good behaviour with praise and bad behaviour with punishment immediately, as the dog will quickly forget what it has done to deserve the praise or punishment.

I hope this has helped.

Answer 6

When he growls yell "NO!" and take the food or toy away from him until he becomes submisive. If he growls again do it again.
My dog tries to test her dominance on us every once in a while by becoming possessive with her food. We never let her get away with it and it has never become an issue unless there is another dog around.

Answer 7

Your corgi is a teenage boy and is trying to see whether he can be leader of the pack. It's a normal developmental stage, but you have to get it under control. I had a similar experience with my corgi mix at that age. He used to frighten our visitors!
A little obedience training helps a lot. When he does this, put his leash on him and teach him to "sit" or "heel" or anything you like. Make him do what you say, but do it in a friendly way. Reward him with praise and sometimes with food or a toy when he obeys. This activity is enjoyable but teaches him that he is supposed to defer to you.
Mine soon learned that he didn't need to be territorial toward our visitors. In fact he is very friendly. But he has an obvious protective instinct, and I'm pretty sure he wouldn't let anybody harm his people.

Answer 8

Actually it is almost impossible to change this behavior. It is a show of dominance. The owner has to let the dog know he is the l"pack leader" as soon as the dog is brought to the home no matter whether it is a young pup or an older dog. Age does not matter. Dogs see us as part of their pack.

Dogs learn from doing something and when the owner does not correct the dog at the exact time he does the behavior the first time he thinks it is ok. Another way of saying this is if the dog does not see that the owner is being the leader of his pack he will initiate it himself. People usually think that these behaviors are cute when the dog is a puppy, but they don't realize that these behaviors get worse as the dog becomes an adult, then it isn't cute anymore.

I would just leave the dog alone when he is eating or when you know whenever he will exhibit this behavior. It will be very difficult to turn it around and almost impossible if you are not trained in "being the leader of his pack." You need some help from someone that is trained in this to be able to help the "humans" that live in the home with him to become the "pack leaders."

Answer 9

When he growls, step toward him, not back. Show him you're not afraid of him. It's all about presence. Like the first answer, you're either Alpha or he is.

Often food aggresstion is a result of near starvation or heavy competetion for food: he doesn't know when his next meal is coming so he's not giving up what he's got without a fight.

Repetition is key, and don't give up! Good luck and I hope this helps . . . even a little bit!

Answer 10

dogs, especially males, are aggressive with food and favorite items at times, because they establish who is boss. Or so they think. a lot of dogs just dislike being petted while they eat, but with toys and such, take it away when he growls, and possible LIGHTLY smack him on the nose (as an alpha or leader dog would bite the nose in a pack). after a few times of teaching your dog you are the boss not him, he will come to respect you more and stop the growling and aggression