Food Aggression Prevention. - Page 1

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Reliya

by Reliya on 07 May 2016 - 14:05

I've been reading/watching different things on this subject, but I also wanted to ask everyone else's opinion on how to prevent food aggression.

I got Bosco older than I got my other dogs, so I feel like that's a factor, but every since I got him, whenever I feed him, he eats faster when I move (at all) or if I go to touch him.

I was able to prevent aggression in my other dogs easily with daily routine of touching them while they ate and fiddling my fingers in their bowl, but there's not much improvement with this situation with Bosco. He nipped at me yesterday when I tried to touch him as he ate.

What I've gotten (and have been doing) so far is to feed the dog straight from your hand, add food to the bowl while they're eating, approach the dog while they're eating and add food in the bowl, and touch the dog while they're eating. This way, the dog associates you with bringing food/good things rather than taking it away/bad things.

Does anybody have any other suggestions?

by hntrjmpr434 on 07 May 2016 - 14:05

I never challenge a dog over his food. Just let him be and eat. IMO by you touching him and his food you have inadvertently worsened the problem. Good way to get bit and create conflict in your relationship with him.
Just leave him alone or associate you coming up to him as a positive experience if you *must* correct this problem.
Good luck!

Hundmutter

by Hundmutter on 07 May 2016 - 15:05

Not a different suggestion but a variation on the theme:
Do as hntrjmpr suggests and leave him to eat in peace
for a couple of weeks. Only then repeat the 'just dropping
by' thing of putting food pieces (preferably 'high value' ones
like fresh meat if you feed kibble, or cheese cubes, or hotdog)
into his bowl while he is eating. Not too many, just one or two
each time. Try not to put your hand anywhere near the bowl
when you drop in the treat. What you seem to have done
previously is confuse two methods, and at the same time as
giving him extra goodies - making his food bowl 'open' to
receiving more - you have also 'closed down' on his space
by testing your access to his food, by touching him / his dish.
[A dog that does not guard his food to ANY degree would
probably be regarded as too much of a push-over for a working dog owner ! lol !]

After about 3 weeks of NOT touching him or his bowl

but adding goodies to it,  try calling him away from it,

rather than going up to the bowl.  That may let you

know what his attitude has become.  What you risk

by continuing the way you were, includes getting

bitten if you pick up the empty bowl to wash it - you

don't want to reach that situation.


Fervious

by Fervious on 07 May 2016 - 16:05

Impulse control and leave it. These two are taught almost immediately in my house. I also do trading games early on to teach my dog that letting go of an item is not always bad. It pretty much works like this:

Dog has item ---> Offer the dog higher value item, say, "drop" ---> Dog drops org item ---> Reward dog with higher value item

Results in a dog that willingly drops and sees it as a positive thing as long as you reward it once and awhile


Prager

by Prager on 07 May 2016 - 19:05

Behavioral problems do not stand on it's own. They have underlaying reasons. The reason here is that you are not in leadership position.  You should be able to stick fingers in his ears, look into his mouths , clip his nails , mess with his food while he eats and hacksaw off his leg off ( for the ones from Loma Linda this is joke) and if it is your dog he should not bite you. If the dog is doing what he is doing, then the problem may be solved by band aid usually+ only reconditioning solutions narrowly targeted on the issue but IMO, and I am quite certain, that the problem is elsewhere and target one issue is just money making opportunity for the  trainer since soon you may have other problems. The problem is that the dog is not respecting you as a leader. It does not matter if you'r dealing with puppy or older rescue dog the solution is always the same.  However older the dog is harder it gets.

 I would start , as other correctly suggested, and stop any overture around the dog when he eats. The reason is that the dog is overly protective of his food and you are losing your leadership position every time you come to his food he growls and you retreat....thus you are making it worse by reinforcing his bossing you around  by alowing him to succeed at it, and him establishing leadership position over you while you are doing that you are   setting wrong permanent default.  Yes I call it default ( not imprint as other ineptly suggested elsewhere. ) I would suggest that you find a trainer who believes in it and start proper +/- training which is using all 4 pillars of training reinforcement. 
 Positive reinforcement, negative reinforcement,  positive punishment , negative punishment. Please keep in mind that in my experience   if you use positive methods only, then you may win the battle but you will not win the war. War being the fight ( yes fight - so to speak ) over leadership position which if you do not have it you will ALWAYS have problems. . I know that the clicker + reinforcement  only people are rolling their eyes now but let see if I care.  I know  that some may get   conniptions fit  but I would suggest that you start training obedience with help of Koehler method and do it under guidance of the experienced trainer.  Remember that  when you train a dog obedience you are not just teaching obedience but you are also and MOST IMPORTANTLY  establishing unquestionable leadership position. I know that what I am saying is an iconoclastic sacrilegious  approach in this PC world, but as most know -  I am not PC. In my opinion the dog needs to understand the command and then he must respond to it and then get rewarded or if not responding on first command get corrected as hard as necessary for him to respond and not any lesser or  harder - thus humanely-  with word NO and correction on the leash. You know that you are doing it right when the dog   responds immediately and then he get's rewarded with praise and pat and in this case food.  That way the dog learns to respond to you on first command in any situation and iny state of mind and he does it not because he gets treat from you but because you said so - you are the leader who corrects punish but also rewards.   

 Then 10 + weeks later , when such obedience is done you put the dog on leash  in front of the food  when he is hungry and do all the obedience in front of the ball w food. Sit, down, stay come heel. When he stays you go and pick the food and carry it around. Any brake in performance of the command - say sharp:"NO!!!" and correct the dog on the leash if you have to as hard "as necessary" 

 Then put the food down and tell him command to eat and he can eat while you stand right next to him . If he growls ( you are breaking old default and that is difficult) then  you pick up the leash and go again through commands  sit, down, stay come heel process again and again and again and again ....  Remember corrections must be hard enough for the dog to look at you and respond to the command on first correction.  if the  correction does not work - escalate it  until the dog responds to to him known command. 

 Warning. 

 I do  not know your dog and this is just general concept and not a detailed manual how to do this. Far from it! You need good trainer to guide you!!! If your dog is really aggressive bad ass dominant dog you may need to use muzzle. I would like to see the dog and the pedigree of this dog  in order to see what are the dog's genetics.

  Beware of quick fix solutions  and cute positive only approaches, especially if this is a GSD from tough working European lines. They invariably backfire, AND  often are even cause of the problems....   especially with the dog of such type. 

 Also remember that  the narrowly targeted "positive"  approach which are all over the YouTube, will solve only that one problem - if it does. But the broad   foundation  default building approach which I am advocating has ability if done correctly to  fix almost all problems at the same time ,  since the dog is then working for you and you are the leader and if the dog does something wrong  all you have to say is "N0!" and if the training is done correctly the dog will know not to do  what prompted you to say "NO!"

I am sure I have given amazing amount of material here for haters to exploit.  

 Well so be it :)

  Hans 


Q Man

by Q Man on 07 May 2016 - 20:05

Bonding is SOOOOOOOooooooo Important...If you get a new puppy or dog you need to give them time to adjust to everything new around them...As this is going on you work at the Bonding Process...As this happens you will also begin the process of becoming the Dominant Leader...If you do it too quickly the dog will Defend himself...
After you've bonded somewhat with your dog you can begin to give him his food and just lightly touch him...then more and more...I Can but I DON'T usually mess with a dog's food or his bowl...and I NEVER feed two dogs together...They all eat separately...
If you want you can at a later time have another dog out with this dog and get them to do something for you such as Sit or Come to you...then give them a Treat (like a piece of Hot Dog)...You have much more control over two dogs then doing it with more at one time...
The key in dog training and learning is to break everything down into small increments...Start at the very basic beginning and move forward slowly...

~Bob~

Reliya

by Reliya on 07 May 2016 - 22:05

Thank you for all of your suggestions.

by gsd39mr on 07 May 2016 - 22:05

I don't have a lot of experience in the issue at your dog's age but I think it's another reason to know how the pups are raised. I always had a lot of interaction with my litters as I introduced food. I feed raw so I introduced bones; chicken necks/marrow bones at about 4 weeks. There were always a few in the litter that growled and were more possessive. Much easier to deal with at this age.

Prager

by Prager on 08 May 2016 - 04:05

Possessiveness of the GSD and other working dogs is valuable characteristic for protection training. It just needs to be directed the right way. As Harry Callahan said. There is nothing wrong with shooting people as long as you shoot the right people.
Prager Hans

Hundmutter

by Hundmutter on 08 May 2016 - 06:05


While I agree with Hans that the dog which shows aggression
to the person who feeds it has failed to accept that person as
its leader, and that is almost certainly the human's fault, I do
think it is worth pointing out a couple of general things here:

Like many other posters, I do try not to advise on PDB on training techniques for specific dogs
& situations; if we cannot be there, and meet the dog and person
in reality, it is riddled with dangers & possible misunderstandings.
But this one looked a bit urgent !

My response ^^^ was couched within the terms of the question
being posed. Reliya told us the methods s/he had been using;
s/he also said they'd been investigating all sorts of training. So
I thought it safe to assume more interest on his/her part in the
modern, non-confrontational methods. Plus what s/he was already

doing was back-firing, but was not, in itself, a 'bad' tool - and I felt
s/he was seeking an explanation for why it hadn't worked.

I don't know about Reliya, but I find it less than helpful if people
say, in answer to such an enquiry, the equivalent of "Oh well you should have been doing it my way from the beginning" and "I don't
use these new-fangled ways of training".

Prager condemns such training methods, I strongly suspect,
because he does not properly understand them and has never
taken time to be shown how well they can work. But think on:
skilled specialist trainers at dog-supply charities, for a wide range
of human disabilities, certainly here in the UK, use them, so they
must get results ...

Just as there is 'more than one way to skin a cat', there is more
than one way to establish 'dominance' over a dog. Also, it does
not do to assume things that are happening between dog and
owner when the OP has not in fact listed them ...


 






 


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