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Food-Guarding Issues, “Teaching Your Dog To Play Nice”
February 5th, 2010
If you’ve never seen a dog with serious food-guarding problems, it’s tough to appreciate the potential severity of the problem. Food-guarding issues are not necessarily a mirrored image on the personality or training level of the dog: it’s an instinctive factor, and although dogs with a general aggression problem are naturally a lot of at risk of demonstrating the condition, it’s also exhibited by otherwise-sweet, well-behaved, well-adjusted family dogs.
Like an evil djinn, the problem can rear its ugly head solely when food (or the food bowl) is present: a true case of Jekyll and Hyde. A dog with serious food-guarding problems can be a true danger to anyone who ought to approach her during a meal: it’s not a state of affairs in that you can expect to coach your dog to “play nice”. Instinct is what’s compelling her to act during this undesirable, and even dangerous, way – you would like to take steps to flip the behavior around before your relationship with your dog suffers or someone gets hurt.
There are totally different degrees of food guarding. In the mildest case, a dog will simply tense up a very little or freeze if somebody approaches her whereas she’s attempting to eat. She could even continue eating, however her posture can be rigid and stiff: she’ll clearly be uncomfortable. Signs that the matter is additional severe would include a marked increase in eating speed, an instantaneous, hard stare right at you (typically accompanied by a still, tense, “watching” posture), a lifted lip, a snarl, a snap, and at last a real bite.
NOTE: A dog exhibiting any of these last 3 symptoms contains a pretty severe case of food-guarding aggression, and could be ready to inflict actual harm.
If this can be the case along with your dog, hiring a hands-on trainer may be the best answer for you: it’ll guarantee your safety, and they’ll be in a position to examine your overall relationship together with your dog and see if there are other areas contributing to the problem.
A food-guarding dog could be a pretty confused one. In her mind, she’s got your role mixed up. She fails to acknowledge that you are the dispenser of food (which ought to accord you automatic alpha-dog status, ensuring your immunity from any reasonably aggression or dominance), and instead is viewing you as a threat: a blackguard who might be going to take away her precious food. Hence, the possessiveness. The degree of aggression that a food-guarding dog is capable of may be arduous to perceive, till you concentrate on the actual fact that food is one amongst the greatest pleasures of your dog’s life.
Dogs are scavengers by nature: they’re programmed to eat simply about something they will get their jaws around. Moreover because the instinctiveness of this gluttony, most dogs additionally merely fancy the tactile and gustatory sensations that come with a good meal (or an indifferent one .. and generally even a bad one). They solely … prefer to eat. And it’s this overwhelming importance that’s placed on food that gets some dogs a small amount involved: their grasp of the situation gets a bit thrown off, and they start to surprise, miser-like, who might happen upon them and take away their cherished food.
The obvious conclusion: you. Or anyone else who comes along at meal-time. To cure her of this frustrating and antisocial habit, you would like to remind her that you just’re truly the purveyor of that which she holds thus pricey: to create it clear to her that you just’re the one accountable for the kitchen, and of all the delightful morsels contained therein.
Dogs can develop food-guarding instincts at any point in their lives: some will have had the problem since puppyhood, but for others the tendency lies dormant until it’s woke up by an item of particular juiciness.
For many dogs, the deciding factor is meat, in some form or type – whether it’s a marrowbone, a mutton hock, or cast-off scraps from the dinner table. Meat to dogs is like cash to humans: it can modification them, create them do things they otherwise wouldn’t do. So it’s not entirely shocking that the intrinsic price of meat-connected foodstuffs can offer our dogs a new, unpleasantly skewed perspective on the sanctity of the food-bowl. As a result of of the possibility of food-guarding changing into a difficulty in your dog’s behavior at any point in her life, prevention is obviously the best path to require: whether you get your dog from puppyhood or adopt her as an adult from a shelter, you must make a point of approaching her throughout mealtime.
Have you ever heard a lover with dogs ask you to “leave her alone when she’s eating”? This is often a short-term answer at most: it’ll prevent anything untoward from happening, provided that every one the humans play by the principles and ensure that they don’t disturb the dog – however the dog remains the one calling all the shots. And what will happen if the unexpected happens? What if a toddler charges full-tilt towards the dog and makes a playful grab for her bowl?
In a wolf-pack, the alpha dog is rarely disturbed when she or he is eating. Not solely will she get to eat 1st, and eat the lion’s share of everything; but he or she also eats undisturbed. This is why a dog that’s permitted to eat in solitary splendor will actually become a lot of food-aggressive, not less; while not anyone to take her down a notch, she begins to assume more authority than she really has. To prevent your dog from getting an overinflated sense of her own importance, make positive you disturb her masses whereas she’s eating. Don’t build a purpose of tiptoeing around whenever the food bowl’s out; it’ll simply accustom her to solitude and silence when she eats (that are things that only the alpha wolf or dog is entitled to).
At the opposite finish of the spectrum, don’t build these disturbances a negative expertise for her either, or else you may truly produce a drawback where none previously existed. All you’ve got to do is approach her from time to time whereas she eats – beginning from the terribly day you bring her into your home – and add something tasty (and small!) to her dish whereas she’s eating, to create the association in her head that ‘humans approaching food bowl = sensible news‘. A spoonful of scrambled egg, a piece of liver treat, some chunks of cheese – something that she’ll relish, and that has a greater “food value” than the kibble she’s eating, can work perfectly.
After all, if it’s too late for preventatives and your dog already includes a downside, you’ll need to adopt a very totally different approach. Here’s what to try and do: – The dog bowl is going to be put away for the following seven to ten days. Over now, you’re going to be feeding your dog by hand – one small handful at a time. Yes, I apprehend this is visiting be time-consuming, but the alternative is even worse: a dangerous dog that can’t be trusted around food. Thus feed her by hand for the following week or so. Be positive not to encourage any greedy snapping or grabbing for the food: only enable her to require the food from your hand when she does so gently. Remind her that bite inhibition is important to induce what she wants!
Once a minimum of every week has passed and she or he’s eating politely from your hand, you can reintroduce the food bowl, with one slight modification: it has to be empty. And it stays empty till you pass by and drop a small few kibble into it for her to eat. When that’s been polished off, wait a minimum of a full minute before adding another, little, few kibble.
Keep doing this until the whole meal’s been consumed – this can be a very effective method of teaching your dog to actively long for your presence near her food bowl!
When she’s graduated to a higher stage, you can start setting down a half-empty food bowl for her. Don’t let her lunge at the bowl and begin gobbling: holding the bowl out of reach (or putting it on a handy counter), create her sit and wait before you permit her to eat. Don’t put the bowl down till she complies. Sit or crouch beside the bowl and continue to feature tiny handfuls of kibble, simply as you did in step two, till a full meal’s been eaten.
The fourth, and final, step is to allow her access to a full food bowl. Again, it’s very vital that you are doing not allow her to call the shots: she should sit and wait until you unharness her with an “OK!” before she’s permitted to eat. To stay the message clear in your head that you are answerable for the food in this house, apply calling her aloof from her food some times per week and rewarding her with an excellent-tasty treat for her exemplary obedience whereas she’s making an attempt to eat.
If at any time your dog’s behavior gets shaky on any of these four steps, backslide until you’ve reached the stage at which she is one hundred% reliable. Wait at this stage for a minimum of two or three a lot of days before making an attempt to progress once more. As with any training, it’s essential that a solid foundation is constructed before moving on to a higher level – she should be completely snug with each step before attempting a replacement one.
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