food aggression?

[glycerinberry]

my dog's a lab mix and she growls everytime i touch her bowl while she's eating. how do i cure it? she growls when i take her toys too.

[Lizmo]

First you need to show her that you are the "alpha dog". You can put her on a NILIF(nothing in life is free) that is just where she does not get anything enless she does something like sit for her food bowl, toy, treats, ect. You can also type in an google Alpha dog boot camp and click on the first one. Good Luck!!!

[juliefurry]

yes NILIF is great.

[Herschel]

The suggestion of making her sit, down, etc. for her food is a good one.

You could also try feeding her piece by piece from your hand so that she knows that you provide the food.

I'm not sure if your dog is big/unpredictable, but a great way to make the point that you control the food is to pull the bowl away while she is eating, have her sit, and then give her the bowl again after you're sure you have her attention.

Good luck!

[DanL]

Originally Posted by Herschel

I'm not sure if your dog is big/unpredictable, but a great way to make the point that you control the food is to pull the bowl away while she is eating, have her sit, and then give her the bowl again after you're sure you have her attention.

Thats actually not a good thing to do. All it does is frustrate the dog and can cause it to act out if it thinks you are going to take it's food away after you gave it to it. Imagine if someone gave you your dinner, and while you were eating, took it away. Then gave it back, and took it away again. After a bit of this, you are going to act out right? So will the dog. The hand feeding is a great idea.

NILIF is definitely the best way- make your dog work for everything it does, it will soon understand it's place. No getting on the bed with you. No getting on the furniture. Waiting until you go thru doorways 1st. Not allowed to initiate play- of the dog brings a toy over and drops it in your lap, don't play. Make the dog do something 1st. Then play as a reward. No forcing it's head under your hand or jumping up for attention/petting. All of those kinds of things will help. You have to be firm and consistent.

[dr2little]

Originally Posted by DanL

Thats actually not a good thing to do. All it does is frustrate the dog and can cause it to act out if it thinks you are going to take it's food away after you gave it to it. Imagine if someone gave you your dinner, and while you were eating, took it away. Then gave it back, and took it away again. After a bit of this, you are going to act out right? So will the dog. The hand feeding is a great idea.

NILIF is definitely the best way- make your dog work for everything it does, it will soon understand it's place. No getting on the bed with you. No getting on the furniture. Waiting until you go thru doorways 1st. Not allowed to initiate play- of the dog brings a toy over and drops it in your lap, don't play. Make the dog do something 1st. Then play as a reward. No forcing it's head under your hand or jumping up for attention/petting. All of those kinds of things will help. You have to be firm and consistent.

Yes, hand feeding is the best way to go. Take all trigger items away and only give FOR a behavior AND by hand once you've re established leadership (NILF).
For the food bowl growlies, take the food bowl and put it away for a while. Feed kibble by hand, a few at a time for behaviors performed. When that starts to flow really well (I'd recommend at least a week)...and your NILF is working, then you can re-introduce the food bowl by asking for a behavior and while still holding the bowl, drop a few kibble in and offer them to your dog..do not set the bowl down, repeat this for the whole meal. The bowl should only be brought back into the "set down" feeding routine once the dog starts to enjoy your hands on the bowl in anticipation of food being dropped in. Then you can start to remove and return the bowl during feeding the actual meals. Gold rewards (chew sticks) should remain out of the picture until you've gained control of lesser items.

[glycerinberry]

thanks

she's pretty mellow when i'm not feeding her. she doesn't exude any alpha behavior when it comes to other things, it's just the playthings and food she's possessive of. she has no problem doing what i want her to do she only growls when i touch her foodbowl or playthings. (she play bites though, and that's gone down ALOT because i hold her mouth down and saw no)

anyway i'm feeding her by hand now, and i read up on the alpha male behavior (thanks lizmo). how do you tell if she;s alpha or not

oh, and ii adopted her from a humane society, and she was sharing her cage with another dog, could that be it?