Food aggression occurs, because some dogs associate people or other dogs coming near their food, as being a bad thing.
- Maybe we have a rescue dog, that had to fight for his food in an earlier life.
- Maybe we have been inadvertently taking food, or other objects away from our dog by force.
Now, he thinks he needs to guard his belongings.
Certain dog breeds, for example protection dogs, may also have a higher tendency to guard.
To reduce food aggression, we want to make sure our dog associates people approaching him, with something positive.
Never try to take food, or other items away from an unknown dog. Even seemingly easy-going dogs, may sometimes try to guard their food and toys.
Note – The exercises below, help to prevent food aggression. Do not perform these exercises on dogs that are already food aggressive, and/or causing bite wounds. Instead, contact a professional trainer.
Food Aggression Tip 1
Add something really good to our dog’s food bowl.
A good way to solve food aggression issues, is to show our dog that people and other dogs coming near him, during dog feeding time, is a positive thing.
When my dog is eating, I throw some good treats into his food bowl, for example little pieces of cheese or bacon. I keep repeating this, until he is looking forward to my visits.
Note – Do not reach down to pet or stroke, food aggressive dogs.
Once my dog is comfortable with my presence, I sometimes take the food bowl away, show him that I am adding yummy treats into it, then give it back to him. I also take other objects (e.g. paper, sticks) away from my Shiba Inu, add food to it, and return the enhanced object. Sometimes, I add food into his food toys, or help him get the food out.
This teaches our dog that having people around during feeding time, means more food. It also shows him that when we take something away, it usually comes back with an added bonus. If we do all this often enough, our dog will be looking forward to us coming over, during his meals.
My Shiba Inu sometimes brings a toy over to me, in the hopes that I will add some food to it!
Food Aggression Tip 2
Hand-feed our dog.
Only do this if our dog is not aggressive, and does not have a bite history.
Hand-feeding occurs naturally when we use reward obedience training. I also hand-feed my dog during dog grooming and handling exercises.
Hand-feeding teaches our dog that the human hand is a really good thing, and yummy food comes from it. It can also strengthen our bond with him, because he sees that food comes directly from us.
Feeding with our hands, helps us establish pack leadership because -
- We can set the speed of feeding.
- We can demand good eating manners. For example no grabbing, and only take food from us gently.
- We can ask our dog to work for us. For example doing a Sit or Down, before getting any food.
It is generally a good idea to keep up with some hand-feeding, throughout our dog’s lifetime. This helps him maintain good bite inhibition.
Food Aggression Tip 3
Teach our dog the Drop command.
- First, give our dog a fairly low priority and safe toy.
- When he takes it in his mouth, bring a high priority treat to his nose, and say Drop. Chances are, he will drop the toy, and try to get at the treat.
- As soon as he drops the toy, mark the behavior (i.e. say Yes), give him the treat, and give him back the toy.
- Let him play with the toy for a bit, before repeating the exercise.
Once he understands the command, we can use higher priority toys, and ultimately, food toys.
If my dog is refusing to drop objects, then I try using a higher priority treat. If he bites on me, then I usually do a time-out. I try not to overtax my dog, and keep sessions short and positive. In this way, he will be motivated to play this game again.
I also practice Drop sessions during walks, with sticks and other safe objects. This helps a dog to generalize the Drop command for outside the house, and for outside objects.
When we are out on walks, I try my best to keep my dog away from questionable objects. If he manages to pick up an undesirable item, I no-mark him (say Ack-ack), then hold a good treat by his nose. As soon as he drops the item, I praise him, and treat him.
If I really want an item back, I will hold firmly onto it (close to my dog’s muzzle), and give the Drop command. It is important that we do not pull back, and make it into a tug game. I just hold it still, and try to be as uninteresting as possible. My dog will usually lose interest, and drop the item. If he does this, I praise him, and treat him.
Do not try this technique if our dog is aggressive, and is likely to bite.
If an object is dangerous and is too small to hold, we may have to forcibly go into our dog’s mouth. He will probably hate it, but if we must do it, then we must do it. Make sure to do some simple commands afterward, so that we can treat him for his positive actions.
If we frequently remove items by force, our dog will likely get aggressive, and start guarding food and belongings from us.
This is why we want to set our dogs up for success, and prevent him from picking up dangerous objects in the first place. In this case, prevention is much better than cure.
Food Aggression Tip 4
Play the “object exchange” game.
An alternative to simply teaching the Drop command, is to play the object exchange game.
- First, bring out several toys of about equal priority.
- Give one of the toys to our dog, and let him play with it for a short duration.
- Issue the Drop command, and exchange the old toy with a new one.
- Initially, it may be necessary to sweeten the pot with some additional treats. Sometimes, I stuff the new toy with some food. Therefore, not only does my dog get back a new toy, he also gets one with food in it. He is usually very happy to make that exchange.
Once we notice that things are going well, we may slowly phase out the treats, and just do the object exchange. If our dog is unwilling to give up his current toy, then we can try to lengthen the time that he gets to play with it, or add food into the equation again.
If our dog misbehaves in any way, for example bites on our hand, then the game stops, and all toys and food are removed.
Food Aggression Tip 5
Get strangers to toss food to our dog.
When we have guests, give them some good treats to toss to our dog. This will help him associate new people with his favorite food, and lessen his food aggression when strangers are around.
If our dog has a bite history, make sure we have him on a leash, so that our guests are always safe. We may also place him behind a secure dog gate. Then, our guests may feed him by extending a chopstick or wooden spoon with food, through the gate.
Food Aggression Tip 6
Ensure there are no high priority food items lying around.
To reduce food aggression, it is important that we do not let our dog practice that behavior, especially with people. Remove all food items, as well as food toys and high-priority toys, when we have friends and family over.
It is important to remove all food and all toys, when our dog is meeting with new dogs, or dogs that he does not know well.
Food Aggression Tip 7
Supervise our dog and intervene when he starts to show food aggression.
Make sure we are always there to supervise and intervene, when our dog starts to show any food aggression. When I am not around to supervise, I remove all high priority items, so that my dogs do not guard food or resources, from each other.
I have a simple house-rule –
“All resources are mine, and I decide which of my dogs get what.”
Whenever I give them food toys, I keep them away from each other, to prevent stealing. In this way, they do not practice any resource guarding or food aggressive behavior.
If they start any guarding behavior, I remove the resource, and nobody gets it. If they show any aggressive behavior with me, they get a time-out, and the play and food session stops.
Food Aggression Tip 8
Do not give our dog constant access to food.
If we leave food or food toys around, our dog may feel that he has to guard it, and become food aggressive. This can be very stressful for him, and may also lead to obesity issues.
Leaving food around may also weaken our leadership position, because our dog can get food by himself. He may decide not to follow our commands or house rules, because he does not need us for anything.
To be a good pack leader to our dog, we want to follow the Nothing in Life is Free (NILIF) program. Only give him something, if he does something for us first. Stuff left-over food into his food toys, and make him work for all of the things that he wants. Remove the food toy once it is empty, or after a fixed period of time.
A busy dog is a good dog.
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Hi There! Loving your site. I know you deal mostly with Shiba’s, but I thought I would ask anyhow.
I just (3 days ago) adopted a 5 month old yorkie havanese x from a young girl who had her as a “boob broach.” Never been on leash, not dog socialized (other dog in the house was an agressive poodle) or socialized with children.
In the three days she has been around my three year old non stop and my four year old medium sized rescue special dog (who is pretty dis interested in her.) On day one while wiping her eyes (runny) she growled and snapped. I held her mouth closed and said “no” as she growled. Within the day I was able to wipe whenever I wanted. So real progress.
She has spent hours at the farm, dog parks, and at home in three days. My problem is possible kennal agression. She is curious, out going, submissive, and affectionate all day, but when she is cranky and tired at the end, she will growl or bite if you touch her where she is trying to nap. My son reached in her kennal today when I wasn’t looking (three days of lots of new things) and, without warning, she snapped at him hard enough to give him a small puncture wound. I read that a dog awoken by touch may snap out of instinct, so I let it slide. When he cried she was beside herself trying to lick him better.
However, same evening, she was playing under a blanket on the couch when I heard her munching on something edible. I reached my hand in to grab it and again, without a growl or any warning she bite me hard enough to draw blood. I grabbed her muzzle and said no.
So in one day two bites. She is tired and having full days of new things, but she growled from the very beginning when it came to her bed. Wondering if you have any advice on dealing with kennal agression. I know I may have surprised her, but I can’t have her biting. Period.
Any advice?
So two hard bites not in play in one day.
Hello Julia,
Congratulations on your new adopted puppy!
Yeah, some dogs do that, especially when they are touched during a deep sleep. I have experienced that with my Shiba Inu. He was sleeping by my feet, and I accidentally woke him up. He air snapped because he thought he was under threat. I imagine that is where the saying “Let sleeping dogs lie” comes from.
Now, I usually get him to go to sleep in his own bed. He also has his own crate where he can go to when he does not want to be disturbed. In addition, I make sure he is aware of me before handling him, so that he is not startled awake. Handling desensitization exercises are also helpful with him.
http://shibashake.com/dog/hug-dog-teach-your-dog-to-enjoy-hugging
That sounds like resource guarding. As described above, most dogs guard resources from people because they have learned to associate people coming or grabbing with the loss of their stuff. When they use aggression, people tend to back away, which reinforces the aggressive behavior.
http://shibashake.com/dog/resource-guarding-shiba-inu
For a dog that is causing puncture wounds, it is best to contact a professional trainer. A good trainer can observe the dog in real time and read his body language accurately. In this way, he/she can identify what are the triggers that are causing the aggression, and how to best retrain the behavior.
With my own dogs, I try to teach them the following-
People coming near them and taking their stuff away = They get more stuff in return
- I teach them the Drop and Leave-It commands which helps me to communicate with them, and teaches them to give me objects willingly.
http://shibashake.com/dog/stop-food-aggression-stop-resource-guarding#drop
http://thedoginc.com/dog-eating-poop#leave-it
- I play the object-exchange game with them so they learn that giving up an object, does not mean it is gone forever. In fact, they usually get it back with more stuff. I describe the object exchange game in the article above.
- I try to show them that they get the most resources by working and cooperating with me (Nothing in Life is Free program). I have rules, but I make sure I am consistent and fair with those rules.
- Most of all, I try to set them up for success and try not to place them in situations where they feel compelled to use aggression, to protect themselves or to protect their resources.
hi i have a 14 week old alaskan malamute his name is thor, when feeding time comes he jumps at the back of my legs whilest i am putting his food in his bowl and also howls .Is there any tips you can give me i always tell him sit then lie down and treat him for good behaviour but as soon as i turn my back he jumps again. My concern is that when he gets bigger which will be soon is that he will knock be over during feeding.He is not aggressive towards me i can take his food away and put my hands in his bowl i have also been hand feeding him bits aswel everyday any tips would be very grateful thanx lisa
Hello Lisa,
Congratulations on your new puppy!
Both my Sibes are very food focused as well, so they always get excited during meal times. I always make sure that all my dogs are calm and in a down position before I do any food preparation. If they get up, then I no-mark (Ack-ack) and stop preparing the food. Once puppy is calm, I ask for a Down. If puppy does a Down, then I go back to preparing her food.
In this way puppy learns that -
calm and Down position = food preparation continues and food comes soon
jumping = food preparation stops and no food
I also make all my dogs work for their food either through handling exercises, bite inhibition exercises, or obedience training during the day. Whatever is left over, I put in interactive food toys so they must work for that as well. Interactive food toys also help control the speed of eating.
Hugs to Thor! Would love to see pictures if you have some up.
Hi. Thanks a million for this great website . This is my quick reference for anything that seems like an issue with my 5.5 Month old Golden. He was getting food aggressive by the day and I couldn never understand y . But your experience has helped me identify my faults . Firstly , when he came to us about 2 months back , he was unwell – Kennel cough and then acute bronchitis . So we did let him get away with a lot of stuff .I could start walking him outside only after a couple of weeks and then he would always eat mud, pebbles, plastic etc . I used to constantly pull things out of his mouth. I didnt teach him the “drop it ” command formally , but he learnt on the job – if u know what i mean
.Used to always give him a bigger treat when he dropped stuff . But then I realised he was ok dropping stuff when there are no other dogs around . He snapped at me recently when i asked him to drop something and there were two dogs around. It really upset me . Two problems here 1. I am not his Alpha 2. Resource guarding streak . While he is ok if i stroke him while having food or a Kong , he has a problem when he picks up something on his own outside . According to him , I control his resources at home and not outside . The worst is that he snaps at other dogs carrying food in their mouth . This is the bit I am more worried about . We have been religiously applying all your suggestions on Resource Guarding and becoming an Alpha for 2 days now and there is a noticeable progress . Funnily , he is happier that he is not the Alpha – helped taking stress off him 
. Btw , just a small tip for teaching a dog to go to stay at his place without giving him treats . Hide and seek works wonders . It keeps him stimulated , the treat is finding either of us and he loves it .May be you have covered it somewhere , but just felt like sharing . Thanks again . Pl give me suggestions for ensuring my dog doesn’t snap at other dogs if they have an edible/toy.
Hello Ruby,
From working with my own dogs it seems that they guard resources not so much because of dominance/alpha, but because they have learned two things-
1. People coming near them means that their stuff gets taken away.
2. Using aggression gets people to back away, which means that they get to keep their stuff.
Shiba Inu Sephy’s Early Resource Guarding Issues.
Dogs may also guard resources from other dogs for the same reasons. Therefore, to teach my dogs not to guard resources with each other at home, I do the following -
1. “No stealing” policy. I do not allow them to steal from each other. When one tries to steal, I no-mark the behavior (Ack-ack) and body block them away. Very rarely, one of them will manage to sneak something off, in which case, the thief goes to timeout (i.e., loses his freedom), and loses what he stole. The victim (if he remains calm) gets the resource returned with an added bonus. This also teaches them that I enforce the “No stealing” rule, and they do not have to do it themselves.
2. I hand out all resources. I teach them that I hand out all resources and if there are any conflicts over resources, I will deal with it. When they have disagreements, they will usually let me know by vocalizing, and I will resolve the matter for them in a fair and consistent way.
3. Set them up for success. I try to always set them up for success. There are certain things that are very high priority, such as bully sticks. When I give those out, they each work on their own stick in a separate area. In this way, they won’t be tempted to steal, and they can work on their bully stick in peace. Similarly, when I am not around to supervise, I do not leave any high priority objects or food items lying around.
Finally I make sure to reward my dogs well for working together and staying calm together. In this way, they learn that by cooperating, they get the most stuff.
Here is more on what I do to keep the peace at home with my dogs-
http://shibashake.com/dog/second-dog-introducing-a-second-dog
For dog-to-dog aggression during walks, I did a fair amount of desensitization exercises with my Shiba Inu. I also make sure to always create enough space, and to make dog-to-dog encounters neutral and calm.
I start desensitization exercises slowly, with a calm dog that is not doing anything. Once Sephy is comfortable with that, I very slowly increase the challenge, for example, by putting a very low priority item close to the other dog, etc. Here is more on dog-to-dog desensitization-
http://shibashake.com/dog/dog-to-dog-aggression#desensitize
In the past, we have had food aggressive dogs who were that way with other animals, but never to us people.
You have some very useful information that I will be putting to good use! Our Am. Bulldog/Boxer/Mastiff mix just celebrated her first birthday and has not EVER in the past year shown food or toy aggression towards us or other animals (we also have a Jack Russel & black cat). She is fed twice a day, is given treats regularly (when being a good girl; letting us know she has to ‘go’ by ringing the bells hung on the back door, sharing toys, coming when called, walking well on the leash-still in training for that one, etc.) She takes the treats ever so gently!
However just the other night she showed food aggression towards me when eating and all I did was stroke her back once in passing(something I have been doing all along)! And all it was, was a growl, but one of those deep down ‘don’t mess with me’ ones – no teeth showing or snarled lip that I could see. You could have knocked me over with a feather upon hearing it.
Hoping my response was in the right direction; With authority told her ‘NO’ and used my legs and body weight to shift her away from her food, which she allowed me to do with no problem. At the same time I picked up her bowl and removed it. I puttered around the kitchen for about 5 min. then proceeded to make her sit and wait while I put down her bowl again. Once she had permission, she started eating, I repeated the back stroke – getting a half hearted growl – so I repeated again. Third time was the charm; I even sat next to her petting her the entire time – on her back, back legs, neck, head and belly.
I would love to say this one time ‘fixed’ it – but am continuing to show her there is no need for her food aggression.
Any other time she is a loving, kissing, snuggling, 75 pounds of solid muscle mass just waiting to love and be loved – so I am sure you can see why I want to nip this in the bud.
Hello Stacy,
Thanks for sharing your experiences with us.
As you say, it is surprising that she would suddenly vocalize. Has anything changed in her routine or in the routine of her family? Sometimes, it could also be triggered by physical discomfort.
Big hugs to your furry pack and let us know how it goes.
I have two dogs that have been together for over 9 years , every once and a while the one dog guards the food bowl and lies next to the bowl blocking the other dog from eating. I really don’t understand because most of the time they share and eat out of each others bowls. Why is the aggression only sometimes. Oh, and whole guarding she doesn’t eat any? Any guesses?
With my dogs, I have observed that they are a lot more serious about food when they are hungry.
There are also other factors that can affect a dog’s mood, his level of tolerance, and how he reacts to others. When my Shiba is in a bad mood, he is a lot less tolerant, and is more forceful at warning puppy Lara away. Other times, he is happy to play and lie down next to her.
In many ways, this reminds me of when I was young. Sometimes, I was willing to share my coloring book with my brother. But when I was in a bad mood, I didn’t want him coming near any of my stuff.
I always step in and stop any guarding behavior, before it escalates. This teaches the dogs that guarding is not acceptable, no matter the circumstance. By the same token, when I see that Shiba is in a bad mood, I make sure the Lara does not go over and bother him.
We have a 3 year cockapoo. He has had minor resource guarding issues in his past, usually only when he gets a hold of something new to him or something he really likes. We recently have had our first child who is beginning to crawl and occasionally spits up on the carpet and the dog loves to lick it up. However, when I go to stop him now he gets angry and has come very close to biting me. I do not want him to do this to our son if he gets too close to our dog while he eating, playing or licking up spit up and thinks our son is going to try to take it away. How can we stop this behavior in a dog that is 3 years old and may have made this a habit.
Hello Pete,
When my Shiba Inu was young, he was also very mouthy. Every time I tried to stop him from something, he would redirect and try to mouth over my hands and arms. Therefore, I put a drag-lead on him (only with a flat collar).
When he tries to get books out of the shelf, I would first no-mark him (say Ack-ack or No), then I body-block him away from the area (no hands, just a body block). Then, I get him to do some commands, and to go to his bed. If he continues with trying to chew books, then I say timeout, and use his drag-lead to put him in his timeout area.
In this way he learns that if he doesn’t follow house rules, then he loses his freedom in the house. In addition, by using the drag-lead, I get better control and Shiba cannot redirect his mouth on me.
If a behavior is already a habit, it may take more repetitions and consistency to see a change in behavior.
Hello,
I have a Yorkie that will be 2 years old in March. Beginning sometime last year, he started getting really angry and aggressive and snarling and biting whenever he would get ahold of an object that he was not supposed to have and I would try to take it from him. The first time he did it he bit me pretty hard and broke skin. It started out of nowhere and now he does it all of the time. He doesn’t do it with his regular food or toys but with pretty much anything else that he may somehow get ahold of such as a sock or a piece of paper. Once he gets it he runs and hides underneath my kitchen table where I can’t get to him and the only way that I can get it from him is to bribe him with an extremely high priority treat but he has now figured out ways to get the treat and still keep the object in his mouth or close enough to him that I still can’t get to it. He has most recently started guarding other objects such as my shoes and articles of clothing and when I go to reach for them he gets aggressive and snaps at me. These instances are the only times he shows aggression and he is very sweet and loving otherwise. Is there anything that you can suggest that might be the cause of this and what possible solutions there may be to this growing problem??
Hello Charylle,
When my Shiba Inu was young, he would pick lots of stuff up when we went out on walks. I would forcibly remove those things from his mouth, and after some time, he started to protect his stuff with aggression. This is because he has started to associate me coming near him with losing his stuff.
http://shibashake.com/dog/resource-guarding-shiba-inu
What has worked with him is to teach him that people coming near him is a positive thing. Also, if he freely gives something up, it does not mean that he has lost it forever. I did a lot of food and object exercises with him and things got better for us. I taught him the drop command, played the object exchange game with him, and carefully managed him so that he does not get dangerous things into his mouth. Initially, I also removed objects that he is likely to protect so that he does not keep practicing the guarding behavior. The more he practices it, the more he is likely to repeat it.
One thing that helped with my Shiba is to put a drag-lead on him (only on a flat collar). In this way, he can’t run away, start a chasing game, and hide from us. When he is successful at running and hiding, it is a form of reward for my Shiba, and will only encourage him to keep repeating those behaviors.
http://shibashake.com/dog/puppy-obedience-training#draglead
Also, I *do not* reward Shiba until *after* he freely performs a good behavior, e.g. he free gives up an item. If I reward him before that, then I am rewarding him for guarding his objects, which will only make him guard them more.
If there are serious aggression issues, it is probably best to consult with a professional trainer.
http://shibashake.com/dog/finding-a-dog-trainer
Hi, My pyppy is now 6 months old. He is food aggressive but this happens only with some really yummy stuff (pig ears, some bones…). He doesn’t get those “special treats” so often, and I believe that is the reason he is so posessive of them. Also, he is very posessive of the stuff outside (chewing gum etc.) and will try to swallow everything if he sees I am trying to take them away (only dangerous things). He still lets me come near to his food bowl and add more food to it. He is not posessive of the stuff he steals (socks etc.) or the toys or bones he gets to chew every day. He lets me take those away without snarling.
When he is food aggressive, he snarls really badly and I think he would be ready to bite. Sometimes I have tried exchancing yummy stuff with treats, but he won’t give up on his special treat. I haven’t had the courage to take the treat away from his mouth using force.
He is a spitz, very independent and also very greedy for food.
Do you have any ideas how to solve our problem? Thanks
Hello Liz,
My Shiba showed similar behavior when he was young. He would eat everything when we went out and I would go into his mouth to forcibly remove it. The more I did this, the more aggressive he got over his stuff. With Shiba, I found that the best way to stop his roadside eating is to stop him before he gets the stuff into his mouth. I keep him on a shorter lead and watch him like a hawk.
http://shibashake.com/dog/resource-guarding-shiba-inu
In terms of special treats, I don’t give my Shiba anything that encourages food guarding. The more he practices food guarding, the more he is likely to repeat that behavior. I did a lot of food training exercises and hand feeding with my Shiba when he was young, first starting with lower priority items. Then, I would very very slowly move on to higher priority items. Bite inhibition training was also very helpful.
I always make sure to stay safe and not to provoke an aggressive reaction. It is better to set our dogs up for success.
http://shibashake.hubpages.com/_srec/hub/How-to-Stop-Your-Dog-from-Guarding-Resources-guarding-food-resource-guarding-dog-aggression
What a great website. I have a 6year old shiba female, who likes to pee and poo on the throw rug in my bathroom at night. We make sure she goes out before we all go to bed but we always find her mess in the morning. I’m afraid to remove the rug at night, in case she decides to pee and poo on another part of my house. Do you have any suggestions? I don’t want to crate her at night, she has not really been crate trained and doing it now would seem unkind.
Please help….
Hello Suki,
I am currently potty training my new puppy and am getting reacquainted with the joys of cleaning up poop and pee.
The key thing that I am relearning with potty training is that constant supervision is absolutely necessary. I must be there to stop puppy or else I would have missed a valuable learning opportunity. In addition, the more mistakes puppy makes, the more likely he will repeat that behavior.
At night though it is not possible for us to supervise therefore the only way I know of to prevent potty mistakes is to keep our dog in a limited area. Some possibilities include -
1. Crate.
Here is what the Humane Society of the United States and the American Dog Trainer’s Network have to say about crate training.
2. Tie-down.
3. Pen/Enclosure.
4. Baby gates/ Room door.
You can also try posting your question on the Shiba Inu forum. There are many knowledgeable Shiba owners there.
http://www.shibainuforum.org/forum/
i have a problem i have 2 dogs and 4 cats
1st dog is an spitz
and the 2nd is a mix breed
we feed them apart and the cats are feed in another place
we the mix guards the spitz food dish and we cannot stop it
what can we do
Hello Harry,
One of my dogs, my Shiba Inu, is very much a rogue. During meal times he would wait until my other dog has gotten most of the food out of their food toys, then, he will move in and mooch off her.
The thing that has helped most with this is supervision. I make sure my Shiba does not steal from my Sibe. In this way, my Sibe does not feel the need to guard her stuff. Instead, I teach her that I do the guarding for her.
When they have really high priority items like bully sticks, I separate them. Then I only let them be together again after I remove those items. Since the dogs do not have anything to guard, they are less likely to practice guarding behavior.
I also remove any unfinished food after their meals so that there isn’t food lying around for anybody to steal.
Reward group training can also help to reduce food guarding. I usually do obedience commands with both dogs together so that they learn to work together, and they get rewarded together. The one that does the commands faster gets rewarded more frequently, so the competition also helps to improve their obedience training.
SHIBASHAKE,well she show aggression when someone of my family approach to her to take something that not suppose to be there in her mouth of curse.That’s have started when i found her with pencil in her mouth and i wanted to take it away i come close to her and said Bella give me that,she ignored me,then i come close to her she just look me in the eyes and continue her work,then i just said Bella drop it and i touch her on the head gently she snarl on me and start barking.With quests she really happy waving her tail,laing down,and not show any kind of aggression.Only show when she find something that is interesting to her and (dangerous.When she eats i pass close to her bowl but she just look at me and continue with eating.
Hello Bojan,
I had some similar problems with my Shiba Inu when he was young. He would pick up pretty much everything and sometimes I would have to forcibly remove the bad stuff from his mouth. However, the more I did this, the more he started to protect his items because he has learned that when I approach him, I just want to take things away from him.
Some things that helped me most include –
1. Stopping my dog from getting the object before he gets it in his mouth. I walked him on a shorter leash and was always on the look-out for bad stuff.
2. Reduce number of force removals. I limited force removals to only dangerous items. Tissues and such I will try to stop him from getting them with the leash but if it is in his mouth I don’t forcibly remove it.
3. Playing the object exchange game, adding food to his objects, and teaching him the drop command.
4. Bite inhibition training.
Here is another article on resource guarding that focuses on why dogs develop this behavior -
http://shibashake.com/dog/resource-guarding-shiba-inu
A professional trainer can be very helpful in these circumstances.
I really need some advice. I have golden retriever 3.5 months old female.She start to snarl on me when i want to take something from her that not suppose to be in her mouth.It’t only for when she sees that i have food or treat in my hand,but when i am not she just start snarling on me and i have a few marks from her teeth.She is very angry
Hmmm, then it may not be food aggression.
Does she just snarl at you or at everyone in the family? Does she show aggression towards young people, old people, men, women, dogs?
Since she is so young and already showing aggression, it will really help to get a professional trainer to come over and observe her. A professional will be able to identify what triggers are causing the aggressive reaction (whether it is people, food, toys, dogs, or something else). Once you identify the aggression triggers, there are a variety of methods that you can use to lessen aggressive behavior. The method you use will depend on the aggression triggers so it is necessary to first identify the triggers.
Sometimes dogs can also show aggression because of health related issues.
Here is an article on general dog aggression and the various methods of training-
http://shibashake.hubpages.com/_srec/hub/Bad-Dog-Dealing-With-Bad-Dog-Behavior
i love this site, very informative! i am really curious about “time-out” but the link won’t open because my computer doesn’t recognize the link because of the double ‘h’ in the http so it must have copied ‘hhtp, if you could please adjust this i’d appreciate it. it’s on the stop-food-agression-stop-resource-guarding page under tip 3
Hi Erin,
Thanks so much for letting me know about the broken link. I have fixed it.
Please let me know if you run into more issues. These things are really difficult to catch so it is great when people report these bugs. Thanks!
Hi Beth,
What has worked well for my dogs is to supervise them while they are eating and prevent any kind of stealing.
Dogs tend to be opportunistic and will steal food from each other when they can. This may make them start guarding their food.
When my dogs are working on their interactive food toys, I make sure that they don’t steal from each other. I also make sure to give each of them their own toy to work on.
My Shiba is lazy though so he will usually just dally and not work on his own toy. Once my Siberian is done working on hers, i.e., she gets up and moves on to another toy, then I let my Shiba pick off whatever she has left behind if he wants to. But no stealing while she is still working on it.
I also do joint training sessions with them together where they both get food rewards for doing commands, synchronized commands, and grooming. This helps them not to see each other as competitors for food, but rather as team-mates.
There was once where my Shiba tried to bully my Siberian into giving up her food toy (my fault since I didn’t stop them before they escalated), and for his troubles he got a time-out and I removed all the food toys so that he got nothing when he came out. And I didn’t put the toy back into circulation for a few days.
This way he learns that aggression to pack = does not get to be with pack and does not get the stuff either. Non aggression = everybody gets their own toys, gets to pick off what is left behind, and gets rewarded for playing nice.
If I take charge of deciding who gets what, when – there is no contention between them, and they learn the very good lesson that I enforce the rules so that they don’t need to enforce the rules themselves.
I’m so glad I found your site!! My oldest dog does not have any agression toward us, but she has food agression toward our new puppy, what can we do to help?
Hi Sarah,
How is your bf? Hope he is ok.
In terms of the bite, it sounds like it is more in response to being picked up rather than an issue with the food bowl.
Shibas are a primitive lot and can get stressed about handling. My Shiba was very sensitive about people handling him and also with people picking him up. Even now, he doesn’t particularly like being picked up.
From the dog’s point of view, being picked up is being put in a very vulnerable position. They are off the ground, their motion is limited, and if anything happens, they cannot get away because they are restrained and off the ground.
From what you describe, it also sounds like your Shiba may not be totally comfortable with your boyfriend yet.
I think it would be really helpful to get a good reward based trainer to come over and observe your Shiba and come up with a safe and more comprehensive program to desensitize your Shiba towards these triggers so that he doesn’t automatically resort to mouthing and aggression whenever he gets stressed.
I think it would also be helpful to do bite inhibition training and to keep up with it continuously so that he learns to control the force of his bite. Shibas tend to be a very mouthy breed so I find bite inhibition to be a must with them. But only do it if it is safe.
Since I cannot observe your situation it is difficult to exactly pinpoint what the issues are. That is why a professional trainer will be helpful -from a safety perspective as well.
What I did with my Shiba was to slowly desensitize him to handling. I would briefly touch one paw, and treat. Briefly touch his ear and treat, and so on. But again, you would only do this if he is ok and not aggressive to these brief touches. I did this several times, every day, and he got better wrt. handling. This is something that I still keep up with today.
Here is an article on handling -
http://shibashake.com/dog/hug-dog-teach-your-dog-to-enjoy-hugging
Still though, the best thing I think is to find a good trainer with Shiba experience. When I was looking for trainers, this trainer search site from apdt was helpful.
http://www.apdt.com/petowners/ts/default.aspx
Let us know what happens.
Please allow me to correct my first statement .. We have curbed his aggression towards people approaching his bowl WHILE he eating. We now have this other issue.
Hello again ShibaShake! Please help!!! :[ Well, I curbed my puppy's aggression towards people approaching his bowl drastically, its almost non existent now. :] And I no longer allow my boyfriend to try to pet him while he eats either, haha. That has helped enormously.
But we’ve run into another problem and I’m wondering if you’ve ever heard of puppies doing this or if you have any tips to fix it, SAFELY. We’ve had our puppy for 3 months now. For the first month and a half, our puppy’s water AND food dishes stayed on the floor at all times. He eats his meals twice a day, so most of the day his food bowl would be empty on the floor. But whenever he was near that empty bowl, he would be aggressive to the point that he would bite to break skin with no warning. No growl, no lip curl, nothing. He would just bite. He’s done it twice now to my boyfriend. At that point, I had underestimated how smart my little Shiba is and instead of teaching him that possessiveness over his empty bowl was not okay, I completely eliminated the bowl and now after every meal, his bowl goes up. Its been that way for the past month and a half and we’ve had zero problems and no biting.
I have officially learned today that underestimating him was a big mistake and I never should have taken that empty bowl off the floor, but then again I didnt know what I could do. After his meal today, I forgot to put up his bowl. Of course my puppy knew I forgot too. He walked out of the kitchen into the room where I was, a room where his bowl is COMPLETELY out of sight. My boyfriend picked him up and without warning or hesitating, our puppy took a nice little chunk out of his lip.
I know our little Shiba cant read minds and so I know he doesnt understand that I forgot it, for all he knew I may have purposefully left it to put more food in, which is what I’m sure he was hoping for. He’s gotten used to knowing that the bowl on the floor means food and when its not on the floor, food is done. NOW I would like to correct what I’ve done and be able to leave his bowl on the floor at all times without him being aggressive. I need to teach him that his bowl on the floor does NOT always mean food.
Hi Enelle, Good to see you again.
Begging is a tough one to implement because it is difficult to resist the dog begging look – lol.
As with any behavior though, just don’t reward it and your dog will stop doing it and try something else. Dogs are very clever and will only repeat behaviors that get them good results.
You must be perfectly consistent though, which means no food of any kind for any type of begging. And everyone in the family has to follow that rule.
If you give in and give them food sometimes, then you are intermittently rewarding them, which will make them even more motivated to repeat the behavior – similar to a jackpot machine. Sometimes it gives you lots of money but most of the time it gives you nothing – which makes us even more motivated to pull that lever!
If it is begging at the dinner table that you don’t like, then you can give them an alternate command during meal times – e.g. go to your mat. Then only reward them intermittently for staying on their mat. I.e. walk over to their mat to treat them. Never treat them when they are close to the table because that is the behavior you want to discourage.
Hope this helps
Excellent tips – will def be trying a few of these! Do you have any tips about begging? Am trying to retrain and replace bad habits – one of which is begging whenever there is a thought of food – kitchen, table, snack, anything…have seen major improvements but still has issues…