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.
Hello, I really need some help with my newly adopted shelter puppy, she has food aggression, she snaps and growls at me sometimes if I touch her, I don’t know how she developed it but heres the story, I will make it short: the place I got her from is horrible, the strongest will survive, the animals are being neglected and beaten, she is about 11 inches long, she’s a very small puppy of 1 month of age, she would not survive if I was a day late, so that is why she has that kind of behavior I think, I tried to teach her “NO!” today, when she snapped me I got ‘angry’ at her and with a loud tone I said ‘bad girl! very bad bad bad girl!’ and put her away in another room, waited until she cried for about a minute and took her back, she still did it, then I tried the “NO!” thing, I would say it time to time and make her stop chewing her bone, after some time she obeyed and did not bite me at all, but I don’t know if it will work and if that is right, plus I think she’s breeded with a jack russell which means when she grows up she has a perspective to be aggressive, please help me and please give me as many tips as possible, thank you!
Is this a city shelter or a private shelter? If the dogs are being mistreated, they should be reported so that things will improve for all the dogs there.
http://www.humanesociety.org/issues/abuse_neglect/tips/cruelty_action.html
Here is an article on how I trained my dog, and taught him the yes-mark and no-mark.
Dogs often get aggressive over food because they associate people coming near their stuff with something stressful or negative, e.g. people getting angry, losing their stuff, etc. Some things that help with my dogs –
1. I try to always stay calm. If I get angry or frustrated, my dog will pick up on my energy, get stressed himself, and become even more crazy.
2. I use the Nothing in Life is Free (NILIF) program to teach him that he gets what he wants most, by doing work for me. In this way, he learns that positive behaviors lead to food, toys, and other resources.
3. I set my dog up for success and help him to associate people with *positive* events. The more successful encounters we have, the more confident he will be, and the more trust he will build towards people. Similarly, the more he performs an undesirable behavior, the more likely he will repeat it in the future.
Here is more on why dogs get aggressive over food and toys and how I deal with bad dog behaviors.
However, dog behavior and retraining is very context dependent, and depends a lot on the temperament of the dog, his background, his routine and environment, our own temperament, and more. To rehabilitate dog aggression issues, especially for a dog with a difficult past, it is often best to get help from a professional trainer.
http://www.apdt.com/pet-owners/choosing-a-trainer/
Hi. My husband and I have a 3 yr old welsh corgi named oilva. She is typically very sweet and loving but over the last year she has started growling when she has a rawhide bone she doesn’t do this with any other toys or food. It is just with treats. I have looked online may times to get ideas of how to correct this but nothing seems to work. Right now even if I have the bone in my hand and go to place it near her she will growl. So when that happens I move it behind me again and I keep doing this until she stay quiet when I place it next to her than I give her a piece of cheese. That only works for a short amount of time. She also tends to hid under our bed with her bone and will growl if we even walk by. She is not fixed right now but will be soon. This just started about a year ago out of he blue. Like I said she isn’t this way with her regular food or any toys she has. I don’t know what to do anymore I need some advice. Thank you.
Yeah, my dogs also have different priorities for different toys and food. Kibble is more low priority compared to chicken, and bully sticks are very high priority because they do not get it as often. I used to give Sephy rawhides, but then a trainer told me that they can cause choking if a dog chews off, and swallows too big a piece. I talked to a vet about it after, and she told me the same thing and that it may sometimes also cause digestive issues.
My dogs also view smaller pieces of food differently than things like bully sticks and Greenies which are very high priority and which they get to chew on for a longer period of time. A small piece of food they will just eat it in one bite and there is nothing to guard. When I give my Shiba Inu a bully stick, he will run around trying to hide it under couches, or behind curtains. 😀
What helps with my dogs is that I start training with very low priority food and toys. I get them used to giving up these things, and making positive associations with people. Then I very slowly increase the priority of the food or toy.
In the meantime, I don’t give them anything high priority that will trigger the aggressive behavior. The more they practice the behavior, the more likely they are to repeat it, and vice versa. The key with my dogs, is to keep them below their aggression threshold, so that the training sessions are successful, positive, and rewarding.
Each situation is different though, and dog training is very dependent on the temperament of the dog and surrounding context. In cases of aggression, it may be helpful to get help from a professional dog trainer.
Hello, my family has a 6 year old Mini Dachshund named Little Bit and over the past six months he has become very food aggressive to the point that I am afraid someone is going to get hurt. Little Bit doesn’t just guard his bowl when he’s eating- he goes after us if we’re eating. I can’t cook with him around because he will literally be under my feet, growling and barking, bumping me to make me drop food. We can’t open our fridge around him because he will jump inside to snatch food off of the shelves. We can’t even use our kitchen table anymore because he constantly whines, growls, and jumps on us. I can’t even use my counters for food storage because he will jump and try to grab things. Yesterday, he ate an entire brand new loaf of bread because my son left the end of the wrapper too close to the edge. When he gets food, he drags to the far corner under our table and we have stopped trying to get food from him because he growls, snaps, and bares his teeth. We have had to move our trash out of the kitchen because he will knock it over to get old food. Little Bit will trip my youngest if she is carrying her dinner plate, he has even jumped on her and snatched food right out of her hand as she was taking a bite. We should be able to eat in our kitchen- that’s what its for- without fear. Out of desperation we have bought a dog crate and two gates to keep Little Bit contained in one place while we eat and to be honest all he does he whine and growl until we let him out and immediately he starts hunting for food like he’s in the wild. We adopted him as a puppy at 8 weeks old and we’ve never had a problem until now. I thought maybe we weren’t feeding him enough so I have started adding dry food with his wet and we feed him twice a day. But even that hasn’t helped. Yesterday, my son was getting something out of the fridge and Little Bit jumped inside, grabbed a leftover egg and cheese crossiant from breakfast and ate it, wrapper and all. We love him but its getting to where I don’t even want him anymore- HELP!!!
Did anything change 6 months ago when this started? Did his routine change? Any change in exercise, health, etc.? Any change in type of training?
Dogs are very opportunistic animals, especially when it comes to food. If a dog jumps on people, and he gets rewarded with food (whether freely given or not) he will keep repeating the behavior because it “works”. If a dog growls and bumps us, and we drop food for him, he will also see this as a reward, and keep repeating the behavior.
Dogs repeat behaviors that get them good results, for example, food, and stop behaviors that get them undesirable results.
I follow the Nothing in Life is Free program with my dogs. This means that before they get something that they want (e.g. food), they have to do something for me first. I also set up a consistent routine and a consistent set of rules. Dogs need structure, routine, and rules.
Given what you describe, it sounds like getting help from a professional trainer would be best. Dog training is very situational, and depends a lot on the dog’s temperament, environment, past experiences, past training, current routine, and more. The energy of the people around him and accurate timing, are also very important.
Here is a bit more background on how I trained my Siberian Husky and on how dogs learn.
hi there! my boyfriend and I just got a welsh terrier. he is about 3 months old and for the past couple weeks he has been very aggressive with objects when we try to take him away. like any dog he loves to get into paper products, the trash, etc. like with all of our previous dogs, we would say “No” “Drop it” and try to hold his mouth and get it ourselves when bribing him with a treat or different toy didn’t work. If we pick him up at all he tries to bite us, as if we were attacking him. So we have been trying to hold him in place by the collar (like many websites suggested) and we gently try to take it from him, providing better toys and treats. He still won’t stop though. Tonight he had some sort of ribbon and it took us about 10 minutes to work it out of his mouth. In the process he latched on to my hand, with the ribbon still in his mouth, and wouldn’t let go. my hand is okay but he broke through the skin quite a bit. I feel like we have tried everything with him, and he is normally so friendly until you try and take something he wants away! we have never had an issue like this. it was so bad tonight that after we took the ribbon away he still tried attacking us, so we had no option but to put him in the crate, for our own safety (normally i absolutely do not use the crate for punishment, but we couldn’t calm him). We never hit him or physically harm him, so we have no idea where he is getting this aggression from! He plays nicely with his toys and gives those to us, but never something he knows he shouldn’t have. If you have any advice, I would be so grateful, because this is adding a lot of stress on us and we just want to be able to stop this aggression now, before it’s too late.
thanks so much,
Nicole
Hello Nicole,
I went through a similar thing with Sephy (Shiba Inu). He would always be picking up trash, off the street during our walks, so I would take the stuff away from him. After a while, he started to protect whatever items he picked up with growling, and air snaps. He would also twist his head away or push my hands away with his paws. If I had continued to take things away from him by force, he would likely have moved on to biting.
Here is a bit more on our experiences.
Here is a bit more on why dogs may get aggressive over food or objects.
In Sephy’s case, he started to get aggressive because he associated me coming near him with losing his stuff. The things that he got from the street smelled really good to him and they were things that he never got at home, so to him, they are very valued, high priority resources.
Some things that help with Sephy –
1. Prevention is better than cure.
I try to set Sephy up for success by preventing him from getting to the bad stuff in the first place. If he never gets to it, then he doesn’t try to protect it. The less he practices guarding, the less likely he will repeat the behavior. I also teach him the “Leave-It” command, so that I can tell him what to do, and reward him well for it. In this way, he knows what is ok to take, and what is not. Most importantly, by carefully managing him, I no longer have to take objects away from him by force, which was the main trigger that started his guarding behavior.
2. I follow the Nothing in Life is Free program.
This teaches Sephy that I am the source of good stuff and that he has to work for what he wants. This motivates him to come to me for resources, rather than try to keep me away using aggression.
3. Start small and set Sephy up for success.
In the beginning, Sephy did not know what “Drop-It” means, so I start training with a very low priority item, e.g. a toy that he is not very interested in. Therefore, he is very willing to give that up for pretty much anything else. This sets him up for success, and motivates him to willingly give objects over to me. Through repetition, he learns to associate the command “Drop-It” with giving objects over to me, and getting rewarded well for it, by me.
Once he gets better with very low priority items, then I can *very slowly* increase the challenge and use slightly higher priority objects. However, if I had started with a very high priority object in the first place, he would never want to give it up, he would continue to practice his guarding behavior, and he would not learn what I mean by “Drop-It”.
Note though, that Sephy never broke skin even when he made contact with my hand.
For more serious cases, it is best to get help from a professional trainer.
As for holding a dog down (also called an alpha roll), I also tried this with Sephy when he was young. In our case, it made things worse. Here is a bit more on alpha rolls and why it is risky.
Here is a bit more on how dogs learn.
Hi,
I have littermates that we got from the humane society at 7wks old. My husband and I trained them and they are really wonderful dogs, but with very different personalities. Our one dog, Caly shows signs of food guarding (I wouldn’t call it aggression). We first noticed this behavior with other dogs that would come over to play or stay at our house– she did not like them going toward the room she was fed in and would cry, try to corral them away, and if they didn’t get the hint she would growl/give a warning snap. She has never been the least bit aggressive with me or my husband (or any person) and it is not an issue with her brother or my parents dog– she seems to ‘trust’ those dogs, even though my parents dog will regularly try to steal her food. We recently noticed that she was displaying this behavior when a friend’s toddler was walking near an unopened bag of dog food in our kitchen. This really caught our attention and made us realize that we need to do something about this behavior (we are expecting a baby in July). We have stopped leaving food out for Caly and made the garage her feeding area since we recently moved into a new house. We are at a loss for what else to do to prevent this behavior since she only does it with other dogs/children and we would never want to ask anyone to lend their animal or human child for our training practice! Any advice would be greatly appreciated!
With my dogs, what has helped is to help them make positive associations with people and other dogs.
As you say, dogs treat new people differently from people that they already trust. I do people desensitization exercises to help my dogs be more comfortable and relaxed around new people. I always keep my dog on-leash and make sure to keep everyone safe.
Some other things that I do with my dogs-
1. No stealing. I make sure to always supervise them during eating and I prevent stealing from all dogs and also from people.
2. I set-up consistent interaction rules for my dogs – with other dogs and with people. In this way, they understand exactly what is expected of them with people and with other dogs, and vice versa. I also make sure guests understand how to best greet and interact with my dogs. They have rules too. 😀
3. When Sephy was young, we got help from several trainers with well-trained dogs, that could work together with us. A professional trainer can observe the dog, read his body language, identify triggers that cause reactive behaviors, and come up with a good plan for retraining the behavior. A good trainer can also help with techniques on how to introduce a dog to a new child.
Here are a couple of articles from the ASPCA about preparing a dog for a new child-
http://www.aspca.org/Pet-care/virtual-pet-behaviorist/dog-articles/preparing-your-dog-for-a-new-baby
http://www.aspca.org/Pet-care/virtual-pet-behaviorist/dog-articles/introducing-your-dog-to-your-new-baby
Even though my dogs do not show any food aggression towards me or with other people, I do many food exercises with them so that they continue to make positive associations between food and people throughout their life. I follow the Nothing in Life is Free program and make my dogs work for all of their food. I use their daily food rations for obedience, grooming, walking, playing, etc. Whatever is left over, I put in interactive food toys so that they work for that as well. In this way, my dogs understand that food comes from me/people and they know exactly how they can “work for it”. This gives them consistency and stability.
Here is another article I recently wrote on food aggression.
Hope this helps. Congratulations on your upcoming baby and big hugs to Caly!
I have a 1yrd pitbull, we recently adopted him a few months ago. He had food aggression when we got him. we’ve manged to work through that. The one thing we haven’t been able to fix is his excessive shaking, drooling, and pacing when it’s feeding time. We don’t and have never made feeding time a big deal, usually we prepare the food while they are distracted and call them over to eat. We’ve been doing alot of hand feeding. We try to make sure his calms down before we allow him to eat, but he could be waiting for hours. He does get excercise along with the other dog daily. I’ve just hit a wall and need some helpfull advise.
It sounds like it could be anxiety. Perhaps, he had some difficult experiences in the past, and did not know whether he would get a next meal.
Some things that I sometimes do with my dogs-
1. Feed smaller meals but more frequently.
2. Very consistent feeding routine and schedule.
3. Give the dog “some” control over his food by making him work for it. Often, food just magically appears in a dog’s bowl, and he does not know how or why.
What works well with my dogs is to make them work for their food. I reward them throughout the day for following house rules, doing simple commands, grooming, coming over to be close to me, etc. They know that they can get food by working for me during the day, so meal time is not the only time that food is available. In this way, they also know what they can do to earn their food. In general, I follow the NILIF program with all of their resources (e.g. food, toys, freedom in the backyard, affection).
When dealing with anxiety issues with my dogs, I find that consistency, structure, and rules help a lot to reduce stress. That way, my dogs know exactly what to what to expect from me and what I expect of them in return. This reduces uncertainty, which in turn reduces stress.
Great article! My Australian Cattle Dog puppy (9mo) always guards his food. Now that he is growing and getting stronger, his aggression has increased much more around food. Today he snuck into the kitchen trash and as I went over to close the door, he growled at me. I made a loud noise to distract him and he immediately jumped at me 2x. His jumps were high enough that if I hadn’t backed up, he would have bit my face. He’s done this before and I can’t seem to find a method that will work for him. I’ve used puzzle toys for feeding and to slow him down, but the guarding didn’t go away. I’ve tried hand feeding and it worked for a while, but then one day he snapped at me because I didn’t let him have the entire meal at once. I’m willing to try hand feeding again, but do you have any suggestions on the best strategies for stubborn dogs? We’re also working on his training as it seems that he recently has become “aloof” lol. My boyfriend thinks it’s more of a ranking issue. He will still growl at my bf during feeding, but as soon as he speaks loudly in a stern voice, my pup backs down and freezes. With me on the other hand, he will lunge and try to bite.
Hello Maria,
Does he show aggressive behavior only around food or is it in other contexts as well? What sort of training did you use when you first got him? How much exercise does he get every day?
Given that his aggression is escalating, it may be best to get help from a professional trainer. In cases of aggression, we want to keep everyone safe, including the dog. A good trainer can quickly identify the aggression triggers, so that we can properly manage the dog and make sure that nobody gets hurt. A trainer can also help us come up with a retraining plan that is safe, and addresses the source of the aggression.
Some things that helped with Sephy –
1. Controlling my own energy.
Sephy is very sensitive to my emotions. If I am stressed, afraid, frustrated, or angry, he will pick up on that and become even more stressed himself. This will usually amp him up, and cause him to act even more crazy. If I am calm, then he is also more calm and more able to listen to me.
http://shibashake.com/dog/pack-leader-to-an-aggressive-dog
http://shibashake.com/dog/afraid-of-your-dog
2. Have a plan.
What worked well for me is to have a detailed plan for each of Sephy’s difficult behaviors. Then, when he misbehaves, I don’t get stressed or fearful. Instead, I am able to take decisive action and just focus on my plan. Timeouts worked well with Sephy.
3. Following the Nothing in Life is Free program.
I follow NILIF with all of my dogs. I only give them what they want after they do something for me first. I make sure never to reward them for bad behavior. I also set up a fixed routine and consistent house rules. In this way, they have clear boundaries and know exactly what to expect from me, and what I expect of them.
Some other articles on my experiences with training my dogs-
How Dogs Learn.
How I trained my puppy.
How to stop bad dog behaviors.
When we were going through Sephy’s difficult puppyhood, we visited with several different trainers. It can be difficult to find a good trainer, but aggression is serious business. Getting help from someone who is able to observe the dog and read his body language can make a big difference in terms of safety and training effectiveness. Timing and technique are very important in dog training, and a good professional trainer can really help with those two things.
Hi – I have a 4 yr old female Shiba Inu. She appears to be getting more and more ‘skitzy’ as she gets older. She will be laying in one room and kids in another (with me) and will shoot up and run to bite one of them. She has also bitten 2 children visiting our home out of nowhere as well. How do I work with her to fix this? The kids love her and do not want to get rid of her, but I can not have her randomly out of no-where decide to bite someone. This is not something she does on a regular basis, therefore it’s difficult to know why when she is laying down (even in a separate room) she just jumps up and runs to bite someone. There has been 2 times when I was walking up the stairs and she ran after me as well. Any help would be greatly appreciated!
Hmmm, what kind of a bite? Is she trying to play bite? Where is she biting? Is she nipping at the heels to try and herd? What are people usually doing when she does this? Is it triggered by activity and motion?
Some things that I do with my Shiba Inu Sephy-
1. Bite inhibition exercises.
2. Structured daily exercise. I set up a fixed routine for Sephy with structured daily walks and play sessions. In this way he has many sanctioned activities that he can do throughout the day. This leaves less possibility that he will come up with his own Shiba-activities.
3. I also teach him that biting on people is not acceptable behavior.
Some techniques I have tried to stop biting.
Some management techniques I use around the house to discourage biting behavior.
Great tips!
My problem with my 9 week old sibe is that he won’t stop barking and keep jumping around when it’s feeding time, he really gets pumped up. It starts when he sees me grab the plastic container where his food is, and when he hears the bits pouring on his bowl.
When I got annoyed, I put in a choke and leash and just pull him when he barks but it doesn’t work, I felt bad when one time I really got annoyed I pulled him up from ground with the choker. I taught him to sit when I hold his bowl or have food in my hands and he obeys, but sometime while at my command he just keeps barking.
Any advice on this behavior? Also be commenting on Woof, Woof – Stop Barking for another issue.
Hi i have a 4 year old chihuahua male. me and my mom got him when he was a puppy and tried to train him to be good, and not bite other people. he did good when he was little, but every since he turned 2 he’s been acting very badly. any time guests come over he would bark non-stop ad then growl when they came into the door. when they would walk in out house, or even try to talk to them he would lunge at them and bark really loudly. he’s always been food aggressive, and when you get just a tad bit near his food bowl he’ll growl at you. One day i was going to pick his bowl up to refill it with food, when he lunged at me and bit my hand. I said no very loudly, and grabbed him and put him in his crate. i didn’t know what else to do. i was afraid he was going to chase me or something. He loves my mom and me sometimes, but every now and then, when there’s food around he’ll growl and bite. Today he had smelled food on the couch, that was just a stain from the broccoli and sauce i had earlier, and he was licking and eating that spot on the couch. I said in a positive tone “Harry! come here,” and i told him to go over to the other side of the couch so i could sit down and instead of stop licking it, look at me while licking his lips, then turn and go to the other side of the couch to sniff my hand or something like he has been doing lately (with my “positive tone” training”) he growled at me. I am not going to be a dog owner who just backs away and lets there dog just pig out on YOUR couch where YOU want to sit down. I am dominant over HIM not him over me, but i didn’t know what to do, so i told him again to come over and patted my hand on the part of the couch i wanted him to come over to and he growled even worse. then i had had it so i made my voice harsh and said “Harry! now!” and he growled so bad i was afraid he was going to ripped the couch. so i grabbed him, but halfway through grabbing him and putting him in his crate he bit my finger and ripped my nail. its now red, hot, swolen, and bleeding. I washed it and put ice of it, and piut harry in his crate wright away and said stuff like “No” and “bad dog” he was growling till i held him up then he just look sad. and he was quiet. I put him in his crate and he just looked at me with sad eyes but i felt so angry and my finger hurt so bad i slammed the door and went to go clean the couch I don’t know what to do anymore! My mom was thinking about getting rid of him, but he;s been my dog for so long now it seems horrible I mean there are good moments to, when he acts like were above him and he’s nice, and we play, and cuddle, and go on walks and he does tricks and what we say happily. and then there are times where he gets aggressive (mostly around food) and lashes out. More good times but we’re getting sick of his attitude. We cant feed him anything! Even when we have food in our hand as soon as we sit down to eat it he’ll jump up and watch you. every time you lift your fork to put food in your mouth he’ll sneer and make a growls face while watching you put food in your mouth. it’s unbelievable.
Hello Alice,
Hope your finger is feeling better.
1. Jumping up on tables and couches –
Dogs repeat behaviors that get them good results and stop behaviors that get them bad results. If a dog jumps and sometimes finds yummy stuff on the table, he will likely keep jumping because the next jump may be the reward jump.
What has worked well with my dogs is to make sure there is no food on the table or couch unless I am there to supervise. Then, I simply body block them away from the couch. Since they never get anything from jumping on tables, it is not rewarding, so they don’t do that much anymore.
Another thing that helped with my dogs is to teach them the “Off” command. Initially, I say “Off” and then lure them off the couch. If they get down on their own, then I make a big deal out of it and reward them well with food and a fun game. In this way, they associate getting off the couch and listening to commands with great rewards, and will likely repeat the behavior.
2. Food aggression –
Dogs can get aggressive over food if they associate people coming close to them, while they are eating, to be a negative event. What has worked well for my dogs is to condition them to associate people+eating, with more food and positive experiences (more is described in the article above).
I find that it is helpful to make my dogs work for all of their food through obedience exercises, bite inhibition exercises, grooming, etc. I also use part of their food during play and our daily walks. Whatever is left over, I put it in interactive food toys so they have to work for that too.
When I am eating, I get Shiba Sephy to “Go to Your Mat”. Then I reward him well for staying on his mat. In this way, he learns that going to his mat is very rewarding but staring at me is not.
3. Leadership –
A great way to maintain leadership is through the control of resources and the NILIF program.
Here is a bit more on my experiences with dog dominance-
http://shibashake.com/dog/the-dominant-dog-dealing-with-dominance-in-dogs
I had a lot of troubles with Sephy when he was young. He is a very stubborn and headstrong dog. We visited with several professional trainers, and the good ones can be very helpful in identifying the source of the aggression and then coming up with plans to redirect and recondition the behavior.