Is it OK to pet your dog while eating?Some important things to remember about how and when to pet a dog: Don’t touch a dog who is sleeping or eating, or chewing a toy. Stay away from a dog who is barking or growling, as well as one who is running loose without a guardian, behind a fence, in a vehicle, or tied up.
Encouraging Defensive Aggression
No dog though should ever be forced to or expected to tolerate touch “just because they are dogs and they must tolerate everything we do.”
Some dog owners go as far as touching their dogs under the form of poking or pushing them while eating with the intent of expecting their dogs to tolerate such interactions.
Some dog owners with young children often do this in hopes of obtaining a dog that allows any form of interaction during mealtimes to cover all basis should the children possibly rehearse those actions one day.
Should the dog react to such touch by growling, the dog is often corrected until it gives signs of “tolerating” the interaction.
The term “tolerating” is a misnomer here. The dog actually ends up dreading such interaction, but doesnt exhibit any reaction because of the fear or threat of being corrected.
This response is often just temporary, until one day the dog has had enough and decides to react. These dogs can be ticking time bombs, just waiting to explode that day when their aggression threshold is surpassed. Just like us, they can reach a point they have had enough.
To be precise, we are talking about defensive aggression here, not the bully-type aggression of dogs who want to be “the boss” as some television shows wish to portray.
Defensive aggression is evoked by the dogs simple wish to get out of an unpleasant situation that creates uneasiness or fear. It has been found that the majority of time, when a dog decides to employ aggression, it is a reaction based on fear.
In many cases, the dog may have tried in the past to warn the owner by “using his words” through growling to communicate that he wasnt comfortable, but now, because his growling was corrected with punishment, the growling has been suppressed, which may cause the dog to resort to plan B which is biting without a warning.
The dog now, not only doesnt trust humans around his food, but doesnt even trust being touched if he has been victim of being poked and corrected for some time.
Why does my dog get aggressive when I touch his food?Food aggression is a form of resource guarding in dogs, which is any behavior that a dog displays to convince others to stay away from something they consider valuable. Resource guarding may include behaviors such as growling, tooth displaying, stiffening, frantic eating, glaring, snapping, barking, and biting.
Food Aggression | National Geographic
Weve all seen cute dogs at the park or out for a walk, but how do you know if its safe to pet them? For the benefit of both humans and dogs, understanding a dogs boundaries are essential. To go through the basics of how to pet a dog and when its okay to pet a pooch you dont know, Jennifer White, a behavior rehabilitation specialist from the ASPCA Behavioral Rehabilitation Center, walks us through the details.