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.
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!
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
7. Supervise our dog and prevent food aggressive behavior
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.
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.
We got a st. bernard, We just found out he was from a puppy mill. He reasently is showing signs of agresstion over food and water to other dogs. My family and I can put our hands in his bowl nothing. We have a dog park in our area and just reasently he has ben showing this agresstion. He is only 9mths old. Can you help? He is also showing agresstion with our pug over bones. Even if we give both of them one he will go take it away from him.
Hello Chris,
Yeah, my Shiba Inu Sephy also learned a lot of bad habits from going to the dog park. He loves to play with other dogs, and he was very hyper when he was young, so we took him to the enclosed dog park quite often. However, he actually started becoming more aggressive, and ultimately he redirected his aggression onto us.
Puppies are like sponges and often, they will mimic behavior from other adult dogs. In addition, if another dog uses aggression to strong-arm puppy away from the water bowl, he may feel that he has to protect himself.
With my own dogs, I make sure that nobody protects the water bowl. When puppy tries to claim the water bowl or prevent other dogs from getting near the water bowl, I no-mark her(ack-ack), and remove her from the area temporarily. After a bit, she gets to go back to drink. If she is calm and shares, then I praise her and reward everyone with treats and attention. This teaches all that dogs that if they are calm and share, then they all get rewarded very well.
When I used to take Sephy to the dog park, I supervised him very closely. However, even then, it was still difficult to stop him from getting over-excited, and learning bad behaviors. Unlike the home environment, I only know and have control over my own dog, so it is much more difficult to teach good manners there.
For these reasons and more, I no longer take my dogs to enclosed dog parks. Here is a bit more on our experiences-
http://shibashake.com/dog/enclosed-dog-parks-good-or-bad
Sephy does a lot better with smaller, supervised, and structured play groups. Before I got my other dogs, I invited friendly dogs to come over and play with Sephy. I also took him to our local SPCA to play and train with the friendly dogs there.
Here is more on what I do to keep the peace at home-
http://shibashake.com/dog/second-dog-introducing-a-second-dog
I read through your entirewebsite, as it has struck a cord with me. I don’t have a Shiba, but an Akita. We adopted her ~ 5 months ago, and she’s almost two.
I have been doing massive research on this, and my problem is absolutely no ones gives a straight answer on how to deal with her problems. Everyone just says: hire a professional. But that hasn’t worked either.
Her two problems are resource guarding and what I call ‘bedtime grumpies’. So her first problem is her protectiveness of food and toys. We’ve had (albeit slow) moderate success dealing with the toy protectiveness (offer a bit of food in trade, and she will ‘Drop It’). But I’ve had relatively no success with the food guarding. If you feed her by hand in increments, she’s a dream. If you let her eat from a vessel of some kind, she gets completely rilled up. She tenses up like a board the moment her face is in the bowl, eats like its a race until whatever you gave her is gone, and sometimes lets out gowls or a curled lip if anything interferes until its gone. I can’t prsonally hand feed her for the rest of her life (I do some travel for work and she will ahve to be watched by someone). My problem with this behaviour, is that some trainers say if they growl, or show teeth then don’t give them what they want (the food). But then others say, if the dog is already eating, taking the food away will make the protective behavior worse. So if the ultimate goal is that she eats at a normal pace from a bowl, relatively unsupervised, how do you get from hand feeding/metering the meal out, to eating from a bowl without the bad behaviour?
My akita’s second problem completely confounds me (aka the “Bedtime Growlies”). This doesn’t just happen at bedtime, but that’s when the behavior happens most consistently. So it goes like this: my dog is laying down or curled up somewhere, just lazing around. If one walks too close, you can see she gets tensed up. If you bend down to pet her and say hi and the few times she wasn’t tense, she firms up like a board. And most times the tensing is acompanied by teeth baring. There has been an incident where someone was bit because this entire sequence happened too fast, and she snapped (as the culmination to the teeth baring). So can you give me your take on this? I have tried to desensitize her to this behavior – walk by her stop and touch and leave. If she curls her lip at me, I’d give her a “no” and wait (and she never relents by the way, she remains tense, but will put the teeth away). A few months of that did not work, so I have recently started bringing a bit of food over when I see her curled up to show her that if I approach, I bring good things. Brining food works for me, but not my fiance. She hisses at him even when he brings her food. So, how do you deal with a bad habit like this? And please, the answer isn’t “Just don’t approach her when she’s curled up or laying about!” I was told that by a trainer, and there are just too many times that that isn’t possible (like when she lays in front of the front door to the house.
Your feedback would be appreciated.
Hello Jessica,
Kudos to you for rescuing her. Sounds like she may have had a difficult time before.
Dogs usually guard their food because they have learned two things-
1. People coming near them is a negative thing because it means that they lose their food.
2. Using aggression will keep people away, which means that they get to keep their food.
Dogs may also guard their space because of similar reasons. For example, they may have learned that –
1. People coming near them means that they lose their space, get startled, get stepped on, or something else negative.
2. Using aggression will keep people away so that they can rest and sleep.
Some things that I do with my own dogs-
1. I make them work for all of their food. This teaches them that food comes from me (people), and that they get what they want by first doing what I want. This also gets them focused on doing something positive. I use food for touch exercises, bite inhibition training, grooming, walking, playing, etc. In this way, they learn that when they want food, they go to people and work for what they want.
2. I protect them, hand out resources, and solve resource conflicts. When one of my dogs wants to rest, I make sure that she does not get disturbed by my other dogs. They each also have their own safe space where they can go to sleep and rest. This is usually somewhere out of the way. I teach them that all resources come from me, I protect them, and prevent stealing.
3. I help them associate having people around as a positive thing. One way to do this, is through desensitization. With desensitization, we start with a weak stimulus of something the dog is fearful of or threatened by (e.g. people coming near her during meal time). The stimulus has to be weak enough that the dog is able to stay calm, and not become overly stressed. The key to desensitization is that we want to make it positive and very rewarding for the dog. At the same time, we want to go slowly so that the stimulus is never strong enough to trigger an aggressive response.
There are two ways where a dog can be desensitized to people. Usually I start with moving my dog toward the person. It is less threatening when the dog approaches. The target person should be relaxed and should ignore the dog (no eye contact). Here is more on people desensitization. Once my dog is comfortable with that, then I can try approaching him, and tossing a really good treat from a distance. The key is to go slowly and at a pace that the dog is comfortable with.
I had a difficult time with my Shiba Inu in the beginning. Shibas are aloof and do not trust easily, so it took a while before Shiba Sephy started to trust me. Here are some things that helped with Sephy –
http://shibashake.com/dog/shiba-inu-training-secrets
Walking and doing fun activities with Sephy also helped with bonding and trust. Sephy is pretty high-strung so I put in a lot of work to lower his stress, help him stay calm, and enjoy his lifestyle.
You have probably read these, but here are a couple of articles on my experiences with Sephy and food aggression-
http://shibashake.com/dog/resource-guarding-shiba-inu
http://shibashake.com/dog/stop-food-aggression-stop-resource-guarding
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.com/dog/why-dogs-get-aggressive-over-food-toys
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.