. . . in the distant, early morning . . .

Milton is food aggressive

Milton is food aggressive

(He also suffers from Soggy Dog Syndrome, as seen in this picture)

I should have noticed the signs when he first arrived:

• Tail wagging way too fast when approached while eating
• Going from normal speed eating to high speed eating when approached
• Becoming very still when touched while eating

In any case, I thought he was just starving; it was a new place, he was underweight.

Well the other day he attempted to bark, snarl, growl, and then snap at me to get me away from his food.  Yesterday as Mali walked past him while eating, he snapped at her.

So, we have a problem.  With that said, I’m somewhat excited to have this problem.  I’ve never had a food-aggressive dog before, and learning how to handle this is important to me.

So what’s the battle plan?

• Hand-feeding since meals are the best training time in the world.  5-10 minutes of training over a meal can turn your dog into a superstar, and I’m not kidding.  That’s when most of Elka’s training took place.  We already do this, but now we’re doing more.
• Wait for food, even in the bowl on the ground.  We already do this.
• Empty Bowl Syndrome.  Put the empty bowl on the ground and wait for Milton to look at me.  When he does, I tell him to wait and put a small amount of food in his bowl.  He has to wait for the release to get it.  I used body-blocking to teach that and he got it fast.  Sitting + eye contact = release for food.
• Drop yummies into his food bowl while he eats.  He’s getting pretty delicious food (boiled hamburger) that’s hard to one-up.  But I slowly rained more food into his bowl while he ate
• Nothing In Life Is Free (NILIF).  This means if he wants attention, if he wants food, if he wants anything he has to perform to get it.  This also means I go through doors first, up/down stairs first.  It also means invite-only to the furniture though I am not doing that yet but will if necessary.
• Learning “Leave It” and doing a lot of trade-ups

This training will teach him impulse control, as well as trust. 

This morning I was practicing Empty Bowl Syndrome and was eventually able to put my hand into the bowl to add the food to it, while his face was in the bowl.  All of that while he stayed relaxed and calm.  A calm, slow tail wag, relaxed body posture, normal-speed eating, no growling or snarling, no stiffness.

Ultimately, food aggression in dogs is a trust issue.  Milton was an underweight stray; and we don’t know his history, but it didn’t include consistent access to food.  That is likely part of where this comes from.  It is clear that he doesn’t trust me to not remove his food, and so he and I are going to work on a lot of trust-building exercises, with food and without.

He’s already much better in one session, but we’ll be doing this for weeks/months to really make it a very set behavior.  Eventually my goal is to be able to remove his food from him while he stays relaxed.  And, of course, for Mali to be able to safely walk past him while he’s eating.

Interestingly, while he does snap at other dogs going near his food (this happened during class) - he defers to Elka with his food, and does not dare do any sort of posturing to her.  Of course, I don’t allow her to take his food, but she can walk around him no problem while he’s eating - other dogs can’t.

I should have caught this earlier; but I still have caught it early.  I was never in danger being in the same room with him, or just casually walking past him. It was any direct attempt to get to his bowl.  Food aggression can be much, much advanced and far scarier than what Milton is currently displaying.

He’s a smart boy, and he’s a baby.  We’ll get this under control; I’m extremely confident that he and I can work through this together.

 

-Lisa, on April 29, 2010 at 10:41 am

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