Dog aggression is a tricky subject for many to wrap their heads around. “I feed my dog, then why does my dog show aggression to me while eating?” is one of the most common responses pet parents have to a food aggressive dog. Food aggression in dogs can range from relatively mild behavior, like taking running away with food and eating in isolation or growling at an approaching entity, to full-blown aggression, such as biting an approaching person. It’s important to recognize the dog’s level of aggression and potential to hurt before getting started.
Signs of food aggression in dogs –
A lot of people believe food aggression is a sign of dominance in dogs. This is NOT TRUE. Food aggression can be displayed by any dog, right from an alpha dog to the runt of the litter. It is not a dominance issue. It is an issue that stems from fear and insecurity of losing one’s resources, in this case, food. If your dog is exhibiting any of these behaviors around his food, you’re dealing with a food aggressive dog-
- Raised hackles when someone or another dog walks by while he is eating
- Dog growling and/or air snapping while someone approaches while he’s eating
- Growls and/or when another pet attempts to go near or eat from his food bowl
- Overprotective about treats, chew sticks, bones etc
- Guarding food bowls and feeding location
- Acts out when you attempt to take away any kind of food from him
- Freezing, whales of eyes exposed, crouching, cowering, when anyone walks by or attempts to encroach his place of eating
- Bites if petted while eating
Getting to the root cause: What causes food aggression in dogs?
1. Improper feeding technique during puppyhood
‘Sharing’ is not an inherent quality that a puppy is born with. ‘Guarding’ is. Guarding does not always imply aggression. Every dog has a natural tendency to guard his resources.
During puppyhood, several breeders and puppy owners feed the litter from a single source like one big plate or bowl. This causes the puppies to compete against each other in the race of getting as much food as possible from the container.
Any kind of behaviour learned by a puppy at tender age, sometimes becomes an inherent part of his personality. Hence, food aggression sometimes continues even after the puppy is adopted and living in a single-dog household where he has unlimited supply and access to his food.
2. Raised on the streets
You can take a dog off the streets, but you can’t take the street out of the dog. Stray dogs have generations of street smartness and survival instincts embedded in them.
Stray dogs have to hunt their own food and unlike that of a domesticated, pet dog, they always have uncertainty as to where will their next meal come from. As a result, they may defend and guard their food as if their life depends on it, because it probably does. This guarding behavior then becomes a habit for the dog whether the dog is hungry or not, regardless of whether he’s on the streets or in a safe and secure home.
FURTHER READS: THE BEST WAY TO RAISE A RESCUE DOG
3. Trauma or a certain major event
Traumatic events like natural calamities, accidents leaving physical and mental bruises, losing a caretaker, being abandoned and/or rehomed etc can have very stressful impacts on dogs. It can make them want to guard their food and other resources with a lot of vigour as they are probably the only things that make them feel secure.
4. Underlying medical issues
Sometimes a dog might be acting out due to an underlying health condition like pain during eating, or poor eyesight due to which he cannot see his surroundings while eating or reduced hearing which might catch your dog unaware of someone being in close proximity to his food bowl.
Joint pain is another reason a dog might be more aggressive while he is eating. Check his physical position while he’s eating to make sure he’s comfortable.
Before doing any kind of behavioral intervention related to food aggression, make sure you get your dog checked thoroughly by the vet to rule out any kind of physical ailment that might be causing your dog to act out.
Sudden food aggression in dogs.
In several dog aggression cases that I’ve dealt with, I’ve had the pet parents say at least once, “My dog just bit me out of nowhere! I didn’t see it coming” Well, I’m here to say that there are ALWAYS signs. No dog gets up one fine day and decides to be aggressive out of nowhere.
Your dog has most probably given you prior signs like raised hackles, crouching, cowering, growling, air snapping, whales of the eyes exposed, etc. It’s common for pet parents to overlook these signs. This is when the dog decides to step up the ladder of aggression and proceed to bite because in his mind, giving you physical signs did not work out very well for him.
Ideally, behavioral intervention must be done at the onset of the first sign of any behavioral issue, regardless of how minor it is. Aggression doesn’t take a lot of time to escalate. While this article and several other articles and videos on the internet might help you understand food aggression in dogs better, it’s best to consult a professional when dealing with an aggressive dog. The way you tackle this issue can make or break your dog.
10 tips to get your dog to trust you more around his food and stop him from guarding it
There is no quick fix to tackling food aggression in dogs. The first thing to remember about training your dog is that it has to go at a pace that your dog is comfortable with, hence, no point rushing into things. Secondly, if you’re too cool for patience and consistency, don’t even begin!
Follow these steps and at the cost of repeating myself, remember to take it slow –
Step 1 – Get the dog used to your presence while he’s eating
Every dog has a threshold when it comes to dealing with a trigger. In this case, your proximity to him while he’s eating can be a major trigger for your dog. So know how much distance you need to keep from your dog so he can eat peacefully without worrying.
Don’t linger and stare at your dog. This behavior can really intimidate your dog and make him feel cornered. It causes tension and will just provoke your dog. Don’t disturb the dog while he’s eating and certainly do not tease your dog.
Recognizing the distance threshold and making your dog comfortable in your presence while he’s eating is the first step towards working on this issue.
Step 2 – Simple, basic training before meals.
Your dog is food aggressive around you because he is looking at you as a threat. Your dog MUST look at you as the resource provider, not a resource snatcher.
Involve some basic obedience training while feeding your dog. Simple commands like Sit, Stay, Leave it etc can go a long way in inculcating respect for the food and food provider.
It’s also important to remember that while training your dog is a necessity, don’t overdo it. Making your dog wait for his food for way too long can cause frustration for your dog and can hamper your training progress, making the dog want to guard his food even more.
Step 3 – ADD value whenever you approach the dog while he’s eating
Food aggression stems from insecurity around food and the fact that the dog starts perceiving humans and/ or other animals approaching his food as a potential threat. The first step towards fixing this problem is changing this association. The human hand approaching must be a good thing, not bad. It should add value, not take away.
Once the dog is comfortable with your presence in the same room while eating, it’s time to up the training game. Walk towards your dog’s food bowl when he’s eating out of it, toss a treat towards him and walk away. Repeat this exercise multiple times a day for the next few days till your dog starts to relax as he sees you approaching.
Start this exercise by giving your dog his regular kibbles in his bowl and adding high-value treats as you approach him. By doing so, your dog quickly starts equating your proximity to his food bowl with high value and tasty treats. This helps a great deal in getting your dog to trust you around his food bowl.
With repeated number of attempts, drop treats away from the food bowl too so that your drop has to leave what he’s eating to go and get the treat. The goal here is to get your dog to believe that even if he shifts his attention from his food bowl for a while, it will still be there when he goes back. No one will steal it away from him.
Step 4 – Hand feed one meal of the day
Hand-feeding your dog, if done right, has amazing benefits to it. It establishes you as a resource provider, you can make the dog work for his food, thereby taking him closer to his natural instincts, further bond with your dog; all this while working towards eliminating food aggression.
However, note that hand-feeding should not be resorted to, to get a fussy dog to eat his food. Sometimes, that ends up encouraging the concept of ‘free-feeding’ and can make your dog lose respect for his meals. It may also get your dog used to a routine that you might not be able to stick to for the years to come.
Hand-feeding is highly encouraged through training games and exercises like long lead recall practice, scatter feeding, trick training, etc. Consider adding food top-ups and high-value treats every now and then when you feed. These techniques are helpful in getting your dog to trust you around his meals.
While hand-feeding, you can also drop a few kibbles by your feet and let your dog pick them up. This will take your dog a step closer to being comfortable around you while eating.
Step 5 – Work on building trust around other resources as well
Food aggression is an aspect of possessive aggression. You cannot build trust around food bowls and keep snatching every other thing that your dog picks up in his mouth. You have to take a holistic approach, not a targeted approach while dealing with behavioral issues in dogs.
So if you’re habituated to chasing your dog down and forcefully opening your dog’s mouth to take out the trash that he picks up from the streets, PLEASE STOP! You’re just pushing him down the aggression road a lot faster.
Further reads: HERE’S HOW YOU CAN STOP RESOURCE GUARDING IN DOGS.
Step 6 – Change feeding times
Dogs can tell time impeccably well. I’m sure you’ve noticed that! Over time, a dog that is possessive over food automatically starts showing signs of stress and anxiety around his meal times.
Consider changing his feeding schedule and surprise him with food when he’s least expecting it. Don’t make too many drastic changes. Start by feeding him an hour early or late to begin with and notice if there is any difference in his behavior.
Step 7 – Change feeding spot
It’s common for dogs to be territorial about certain locations of the house as a defence mechanism to protect their resources. For several dogs, these resources are generally food and other edible things.
At times, the spot where your dog is being fed his meals may not be the best from your dog’s perspective. He could be feeling insecure eating at that spot for several reasons – constant humdrum and people walking by, too noisy, too many things happening around him causing way too many distractions while eating, being disturbed by kids/ other animals while eating, etc.
There was a food aggressive dog that I once trained who was fed in an isolated corner near the window. To everyone’s surprise, his aggression was getting worse by the day. We then realized that the dog was also a window-barker, something that the family was struggling with way before the food aggression started to show. He was habituated to barking at everyone who would pass by, outside the window. The dog was already territorial around the window. Adding food to that scenario was a bad idea! Changing his feeding spot made a whole lot of difference.
If you have a territorial dog at home, DO NOT feed him near the main door, backyard or the window, however isolated and secure the spot might be.
Step 8 – Work towards slowly increasing proximity to the food bowl while your dog is eating
Once you’ve worked with your dog from Step 1 through 7, it’s time to test how comfortable your dog is with you approaching him while eating. Take a few more steps closer than before while acutely observing body language – if stiff, back off. If not, bend down – and drop another treat directly into the bowl. If your dog seems comfortable, drop a few more treats and back off.
This step is to test how far you and your dog have come in terms of building his trust around food.
Step 9 – Picking up the bowl and keeping it back
Once you and your dog are absolutely comfortable with Step 8, try picking up the food bowl about 4-5 inches off the ground, add something valuable and put it back.
At any point in time, don’t take the food bowl away and not give it back to your dog. Remember, this is exactly what your dog was afraid of, which led him to act aggressively in the first place.
Tip: Perform Step 9 when the dog is already full and with the dog’s least preferred choice of food, so the stakes are low.
If you have a food aggressive dog that is confident biter, Step no 9 is several months away. It’s best to do it in the presence of a professional.
THINGS YOU SHOULD NOT DO TO A FOOD AGGRESSIVE DOG
Ensuring safety of yourself and your family comes first when dealing with an aggressive dog at home. Remember this before trying to “teach your dog a lesson for acting aggressive.” DO NOT –
- Pet the dog while eating
- Linger and stare
- Stick your hand in his bowl and take food away
- Punish him for showing aggression
- Provoke him in any way
- Wrestle food bowl away from him
How to prevent food aggression from happening in growing puppies?
Just because your puppy does not have a certain behavioural issue when you got him home, does not mean he is not susceptible to it in future. Puppyhood is a very tender phase that you can’t afford to go wrong with. Do not overlook undesirable behaviors in the hopes that he will stop doing it when he grows up. This is especially important in case of behavioural issues like food aggression, resource guarding, leash reactivity etc. Puppy obedience training is not done when you see bad behaviours happen. It is done so that bad behaviors don’t happen.
- Don’t test the puppy’s patience by constantly sticking fingers into his bowl without adding any value to it, especially when he’s hungry. It’s annoying!
- In a multi pet household, have designated feeding spots and discourage encroachment
- Feed a few meals through training exercises to build trust and leadership. Consider feeding atleast one meal of the day in the crate to develop positive association.
- When raising a litter, make sure all puppies have open and secure access to their individual food bowls
- Establish yourself as a reliable leader and a resource provider right from day 1
FURTHER READS: HOW TO DEAL WITH AGGRESSION IN PUPPIES?
My dog attacked my cat / other dog over food
Food aggression in dogs is quite common in a multi-pet household. This mainly happens when the animals have free access to each other’s resources and food bowls. This creates a competing scenario where the animals grow up believing that they have to fight for their own resources. Not only does this call out poor leadership on the part of the humans, but also forces the dog to take matters in his own hands and react in a way that he deems fit.
Here are some tips to keep food aggression in dogs at bay in a multi-pet household –
- Have designated spots of feeding individual animals
- “No sharing” and encroaching one another’s food spaces
- Establish clear and visible boundaries till all the pets start respecting it to the T. Have strict supervision till then and make instant corrections in case of rule-breaking.
- If you do not have the time and expertise to deal with your dog’s behavioural issues, rehabilitate or rehome the dog in a family with lot more experience to deal with it. By continuing to live with a food aggressive dog, not only are you risking the safety of the other pet and family members, but also messing with the household balance. Don’t wait till it’s too late.
- Have enough resources for all the animals so that scarcity does not become a reason for aggression
- Make sure your pets have a closer bond with you than with each of them. This is important to establish hierarchy in the household and helps in nipping several behavioural issues in the bud.
- Don’t let the animals fight it out and figure things out for themselves. This might end up with a major fight and will lead to your pets getting severely injured. Be the leader they’re looking for.
Do puppies/ dogs grow out of food aggression?
The short answer to this is No.
Puppies don’t grow out of behaviors without training. They grow into them, regardless of whether it’s good behaviour or bad. What you raise is what you get. Food aggression in dogs is a result of deep-seeded insecurities with respect to their food and/or other resources. The more a dog practices displaying aggression, the better he gets at it.