Fri 26 Dec 2008
Hi everyone,
I have noticed that my dachshund puppy shows signs of food aggression, especially when he has a nice meaty treat. He is now 7 months old, not neutered yet, and there have been a few instances now where he has gotten hold of a large piece of meat or we’ve given him a nice treat and when we get close to him he growls, shows his teeth, and snaps at us. When we give him a nice treat we command him to sit or lay down, so he should feel like he needs to earn his treat, however his behavior continues.
The time he got hold of the large piece of meat that he was not supposed to have and we had to take away from him, he growled and actually bit my boyfriend (who had oven mitts on).
I am VERY concerned because this puppy is very sweet, and becomes something completely different and scary in these instances! he is fine when we feed him is regular pup food and does not show signs of aggression any other time, but I am afraid he will become a dog that becomes very food aggressive at all times. what can i do to minimize this and eliminate this behavior? how do you respond to a dog acting aggressive in times like this? he never becomes aggressive when i feed him his pup food even if i feed him by hand, so why does he act like this when its a meaty treat? please help!
thank you!!!
So this is a very tricky situation, I’m not a trainer, but what I thought was the right thing turns out to be the right thing.
You want to be very careful not to scold or “correct” (yell, hit or in any way punish) your dog when he’s doing this. This will actually make the problem worse. He will learn that he has to fight you hard to keep the thing. The harder you fight the harder he will have to fight and that’s bad. What you want your dog to learn is that giving things up is good for him. That this situation leads to a fun game.
Now first, stop letting your dog get to large pieces of meat or anything else he’s not supposed to have. That’s your responsibility in this situation. It’s especially important during the training you need to do.
Next, as in the article below, find a high value treat for your dog. Something he can’t eat, like a bone or chew toy. Something he doesn’t have often. Let your dog have it and then trade your dog for a small yummy edible treat. Give him time, but if the edible treat is good enough (go all out for this training, bits of cheese or hot dog might be good), he will give up the bone. Take bone and as soon as you have it give him the edible treat as a reward. Then praise praise praise. Then actually give him the bone back. He will learn that giving things up is good, and he even gets the thing back after! Awesome! After a while of this, he won’t be so afraid about giving them up.
Now when he occasionally gets something he’s not supposed to have and he doesn’t get it back after you give him the other treat, it’s not going to be the end of the world. But when practicing always give the bone back to him.
Practice this a lot. Your dog needs to be very familiar with the routine. Even after he knows it, practice it like once a day as part of your regular fun just to keep it fresh.
Here’s the article, this person is the expert, so please read this in case I missed something:
http://www.dogstardaily.com/blogs/why-growl-good
Good luck,
Matt
doxienews.com