HOW TO PREVENT FOOD AGGRESSION WITH YOUR NEW PUP

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HOW TO PREVENT FOOD AGGRESSION WITH YOUR NEW PUP
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• When pups or adult dogs guard their possessions
  against humans, we can generally consider that to
  be normal behavior. Dogs in the wild need to
  protect things such as food, mates and
  territories, and those that do so successfully,
  are more likely to survive. However, when talking
  about domesticated pets, those sorts of traits
  are not welcomed and can give pet owners many
  problems.
• How does resource guarding usually manifest
  itself in dogs?
• There are several ways in which dogs can display
  guarding behavior, and they range from running
  away with a prize item such as a treat or toy,
  growling at humans when they have a resource that
  they want to protect, or even biting when
  approached or when the item is about to be
  removed from their possession.

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• In many cases, dogs will display such behavior
  only to individuals that they have never met
  before, or do not know well, but some dogs will
  act in such a defensive way to everyone.
• How much of a problem can food aggression be?
• Guarding food is a common behavioral trait among
  pet dogs, and in a lot of instances, this is
  relatively harmless and owners simply need to
  take a number of precautions when feeding, such
  as leaving the pet alone to eat, giving plenty of
  food so they dont feel the need to guard it
  quite so much, and not attempting to remove
  stolen or scavenged food. However, if there are
  small children or vulnerable adults in a home
  with a dog who has food aggression, it can become

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• more important to tackle the behavior and try to
  prevent it from happening.
• Teaching your new puppy not to guard their food
• Puppies are generally born in litters, sometimes
  with large numbers of siblings, and so competing
  for their food is naturally instinctive to them.
  Those who breed dogs often tend to feed all
  puppies from the same bowl, so its easy to
  understand how the puppy who manages to eat the
  most will become the strongest, and how the
  weaker pups may suffer as a result. In some
  cases, pups are even rewarded for aggressive
  behavior and this can quickly take hold and
  remain with the pup until they are adults,
  especially if the behavior is never challenged
  and no attempt is made to correct it.

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• There are some very simple techniques that you
  can use with your new puppy, to try and prevent
  them from aggressively guarding their food or
  even their toys and other items
• Hand feeding as soon as your new pup comes into
  your home, make sure that you feed them some of
  their meals from your hand. Take the time to sit
  with your pup and gradually feed him/her, all the
  while talking in a calm manner to them. Try
  stroking with one hand and feeding them with the
  other.

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• After hand feeding, hold the bowl in your lap
  once your little pup has managed to eat the food
  from your hand in a way that youre satisfied
  with, switch to putting food in a bowl and
  keeping it in your lap while they eat from it.
  Continue talking to your pup and stroking them
  while they eat.
• Drop a tasty treat into their bowl move on to
  placing the bowl on the floor, and as they eat,
  every now and then you can bend down and drop
  something tasty into the bowl.

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• If your pup continues to show food aggression or
  even develops it since being under your care,
  then you may want to seek further help from a
  professional dog behaviorist, who will help you
  to safely train your pet.
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