Guarding possessions from humans or other animals is normal behavior for dogs. Wild animals who successfully protect their valuable resources—such as food, mates and living areas—are more likely to survive in the wild than those who don’t. However, we find the tendency to guard valued items undesirable in our domestic pets, especially when the behavior is directed toward people.
If your dog guards food from visitors to your home, it might be easier to manage his behavior than resolve it. If your dog and guests are in the same room, just remove all food items from the area. Alternatively, you can keep your dog confined in a separate area of your home while guests visit. Be aware that dogs sometimes guard food intended for people, even if the food is situated on a table or countertop. If food is going to be present when guests visit, you’ll want to confine your dog to ensure everyone’s safety.
Some Precautions If you think your dog is likely to bite you, please do not attempt to resolve his resource guarding on your own. Doing so could place you in serious harm, especially if your dog has a history of biting or has attempted to bite in the past. Consult with a Certified Applied Animal Behaviorist (CAAB or ACAAB) or a board-certified veterinary behaviorist (Dip ACVB). If you can’t find a behaviorist, you can seek help from a Certified Professional Dog Trainer (CPDT), but be sure that the trainer is qualified to help you. Determine whether she or he has education and experience in treating aggression, since this expertise is not required for CPDT certification. Please see our article, Finding Professional Behavior Help, to locate one of these experts in your area.
Young puppies are prone to guarding behavior because they often have to compete with their littermates for limited amounts of food. Breeders often feed puppies from one large communal pan, and the puppy who manages to eat the most will grow the quickest and become the strongest. If a breeder is not observant, this situation can deteriorate into one or two puppies monopolizing most of the food. A history of being rewarded for aggressive behavior can become firmly established in these puppies.
The exercises described below are done in stages. After doing the exercises in one stage, you can progress to the next stage if your dog is relaxed and shows no signs of aggression. Dog body language can be complex, so it’s sometimes difficult to tell how a dog feels at any given moment. To determine what your dog looks like when he’s relaxed, take note of what his body, ears, eyes and tail do when you know he’s in a situation he finds pleasant. For example, notice what your dog looks like when you and he are relaxing together on the couch or taking a leisurely walk. Signs that a dog feels calm and content include a relaxed posture (muscles relaxed, not tensed), normal breathing or slight panting, eating at a normal pace, wagging and wiggling. Signs of aggression to watch for while you’re doing exercises include standing stiffly over the bowl, gulping the food, tensing or freezing, growling, staring, snapping, snarling, biting or chasing people away. If you see any of these signs, stop immediately and contact a Certified Applied Animal Behaviorist, a board-certified veterinary behaviorist, or a qualified Certified Professional Dog Trainer. Please see our article, Finding Professional Behavior Help, to locate one of these experts in your area.
How to Recognize Food Aggression
When a dog is eating, his body will stiffen and he may keep his head down. He is using his body language to “hover” over the meal and protect it.
Other signs are that the whites of your dog’s eyes may be visible, their ears are held back, their tail is lowered, or their hackles may rise. A dog may show any or all of these signs. Finally, there are the above mentioned signs of the severity of the problem: growling, lunging, or biting.
Instead, Silverman suggests that pet parents use a combination of redirection and prevention to stop resource guarding behaviors. When dogs eat faster, stare down another dog, or complete any aggressive or reactive behavior, it only incentivizes them to do the same thing in the future. Redirection and prevention are useful training techniques that allow you to retrain your dog by stopping bad behaviors in their tracks and reinforcing something new.
If you think your dog is guarding his food, it’s important to understand just how serious the situation is. There are different levels of food guarding, some of which are bigger issues than others. The best way to determine your dog’s food aggression level is to watch how your dog reacts when you approach him as he eats.
Mealtime should be a happy occasion, but sometimes dogs can get a bit defensive about their dinner. Food aggression can be a serious issue that leads to uncomfortable moments for both you and your dog. Let’s break down how to spot if your dog is dealing with food aggression and what you can do to stop this behavior.
The key to this process is to use a reward that your dog finds more exciting than his food. Typically, this reward will be a high value treat such as a Bil-Jac Dog Treat. As long as the reward is intriguing enough to attract your dog’s attention away from his food, you’re good to go.
Of course, this process isn’t quite as simple for other animals. Dogs will react or exhibit signs of food aggression to other dogs, as well as any other animal you may have at home. This can not only occur when another dog gets to close, but also if one dog eats faster and tries to take some of the other’s kibble. Either way, this type of situation is an issue.
Stop Food Aggression-Dog Training with America’s Canine Educator
It’s upsetting when an otherwise peaceful dog begins to snarl and even snap if someone approaches their food bowl. At best, food aggression in dogs, a type of resource guarding, is upsetting. After all, it’s disconcerting when your beloved and cuddly pooch suddenly sounds like a hound from hell if someone or something gets close while they’re eating.
At worst, it can end in somebody being nipped or even bitten. This can end in tragedy for an otherwise wonderful pet.
But food guarding or resource guarding is a widespread and natural behavior. It’s also probably one of the most misunderstood, but don’t worry, your dog isnt a menace to society or a dangerous dog just because they guard their food.
Although safety precautions are necessary to deal with this issue, the good news is that food guarding is relatively easy to fix. First however, we need to understand what food guarding really is before we can treat the issue.