Food Guarding

This is based on Kaye’s booklet “Guarding of Food and Possessions.

Most people agree that a dog should not be over-possessive about its food, and should not normally growl when its owner approaches the food bowl. The following information will help you to teach your puppy to accept being approached when eating.  It is aimed at preventing food guarding in puppies.

Owners of a new puppy or rescue dog are often given advice to handle to the dog’s food or pat the dog while she is eating, in order to get her used to it, to prevent food guarding. My concern is that this advice is creating more problems that it solves.

My One Big Hot Tip for preventing food guarding is:

Approach your dog’s food bowl to give not to take.

The One Big Pitfall to avoid is:

Avoid taking food away from your dog “to teach her to accept having food taken away”.

This is only common sense. Why on earth would a dog become more relaxed it you hover around touching the food and taking it away? The method described here is one of gradually teaching your dog to feel relaxed about you approaching its food because you are not a threat.

Do not try to take food away from your dog in order to teach it to accept your right to handle its food - this is more likely to teach the dog to regard you as a threat. If dogs feel threatened, it is normal for them to give warnings such as tense, motionless body posture, followed by a growl, a snap then a bite if the warnings are not heeded.

If your dog or puppy has already started to look tense, give warning growls or show aggression around food, avoid confrontation, as this will make your dog worse and could put you at risk. Avoid punishment, whether verbal or physical, as this will also teach the dog to regard you as a threat and will make the dog worse.

Try to give the pup the idea that you are approaching to give, not to take. If the pup has picked up a bone or something else that you do not want it to have, do not chase the pup, grab it and take the bone by force. This teaches the pup to run away, and become possessive.  Instead, squat down with a piece of meat in your hand and offer it to the pup. Wait until the pup approaches. Keep your hands close to your body and do not try to grab suddenly. As the pup opens its mouth to take the food, the bone will drop out. Pick it up and offer it to the pup again. Repeat until the pup is relaxed about the exchange, and you can then take the bone, reward the pup and walk away.

Preventing food guarding in puppies and new rescue dogs

Don’t wait until a guarding problem crops up. You should take the initiative and positively condition your pup to accept being approached when she is eating and having people handle her food.

You can specifically condition your pup to think that being approached while eating is good news by these means:

•    put some pieces of bland food (such as dried food) in the bowl;
•    approach the bowl, squat a metre or so away, and offer the pup a really tasty treat (e.g. raw meat, a piece of sardine or liver) from your hand;
•    have another piece ready to throw into the bowl;
•    then put the next piece right into the bowl;
•    if the pup accepts this, pick up the bowl and add another tasty piece, and replace the bowl;

If the pup does not accept you picking up the bowl, continue to offer pieces from a little further away for a week.

If you have children, they can participate under your supervision in giving the pup pieces of food. The child should be old enough to understand the idea of giving the pup food, not taking it away or teasing. If your child is not old enough to understand this, it is best that he or she does not join in or watch, especially if the pup has shown signs of possessiveness. If your children are in the toddler age group, they may tend to imitate you without understanding what you are really doing. A pup may regard the child as being of lower rank and therefore fair game.

One way to convince a dog that kids are good news is to let it lie down under the high chair, and “vacuum” whatever is dropped or spilt.

Where serious food guarding aggression has developed, you should be extremely careful, and avoid confronting the dog - it is both dangerous and counterproductive.

© Kaye Hargreaves 2008, may be reproduced with acknowledgement; www.kayehargeaves.com