Finlay has decided to guard his food bowl. Not when he has food in it or when it is empty but only when he has just finished eating. He freezes when I go near him so at the moment I either have to wait for him to leave his bowl or swap for a biscuit. I know how to sort out actual food guarding (well in theory anyway) but should I treat this the same way? This morning I gave him his food a handful at a time, put in the bowl but he still did a little freeze when he thought I was going to take the bowl. I should probably also add that he gets a little upset if he thinks Reg is going to go anywhere near his empty bowl, raised hackles & growling but no freezing. I don't allow Reg to go near him but Fin gets upset anyway as Reg moves away from his bowl on the other side of the room.

Having just read through what I have written, I'm now thinking maybe this is a job for a behaviourist?

I'd try not to make a big deal of this - and yes, trade.   After mine finish, and one is fed in the kitchen, and the other on her mat in the living room, they get half a biscuit - the one in the kitchen eats his right there, at which point I pick up his bowl, and she grabs her half and takes it to their other pad - ditto I then pick up her bowl.   They only get the biscuit when both has finished their food bowls.

Best I can offer is what works, do.    The more 'fuss' you make over all this, the more he's actually likely to take it out on your other dog, eventually!  This you don't want.   If he was mine, I think the moment I saw 'freezing' I'd just say Oh don't be silly, give a biscuit, pick up the dish - no big deal going on.

I suppose I've been lucky with my pigs - there has never been any food guarding - it gets stuck into and that's it.  Mind you with the numbers we had, if the bowls didn't go down in the same place, and in the same order, it would have been chaos.   And as time went on and we had oldies who were slower in eating up, I did have to make allowances and stand guard until everybody finished.

Perhaps feeding in a different location would help, or, if your feeding kibble, dispence with the bowl all together and feed him off the floor.

>This morning I gave him his food a handful at a time

Great stuff, I would carry on with this, so he accepts that a hand near his food bowl is a great thing. Once he's comfortable with that, and assuming you're feeding kibble I would sprinkle some kibble to the side of the bowl, move the bowl just an inch while he's eating the other bits and then push it back with more kibble in it. After doing this for a few days or once he's comfortable with it you can move to lifting the bowl from under his nose to add more kibble. Any freezing or signs of anxiety and go back to step one.

I make a point of lifting my dogs dishes occasionally while they're eating to put extra treats in there, they all love me going near their food.

I agree if he won't trade after a good go at it...I'd scatter feed.

Thanks everyone for your comments. Glad to know that I am on the right track. My previous springer would seriously guard random things & I don't want Fin to get that bad.

I usually feed raw but have decided that maybe 1 meal of kibble a day & 1 raw would be helpful until I get a more positive response from him. If need be I will change him back completely to kibble for training purposes.

If you feed raw, assuming you feed chunks of meat and not minces, you could do what my husband does. He goes outside and he THROWS the meat to the dogs. Six dogs at a time. He has taught the dogs that he will say a name and the piece he throws next is for that dog. It's a fun game for them to catch and there are no food bowls involved, all food comes from his hands. :) Now I myself couldn't do that as I am too squeamish (vegetarian), but you could consider using a fork and feed the dog that way. That's how I manage to feed chicken wings which REALLY disgust me. Spear one on a fork and hand it out to the dog to take off the fork. :)

>you could consider using a fork

It might be worth qualifying that by saying not with a very greedy dog, you don't want a dog grabbing at fork tines!

I do the same though with chicken wings, spear them and hand them to the dogs, but I know my lot won't snatch, they very gently lift the wing off the fork.

You could always use those barbeque tongs things, keep fingers a good 6-8" away from teeth and no fork needed :-D

I wouldn't change the food but go with the giving him food even if you have to wear gloves . There are lots of other good ideas here too

    This morning I gave him his food a handful at a time

Sorry, but this would, to me, be a fast track to having a faddy dog.    Put the dish down, in the same place, and in the same order, and in a completely other area from the other dog, and leave him to eat in peace.    Being around when a dog is feeding, can actually encourage resource guarding.   'Teasing' him by moving the bowl, putting you hand there ..... NOT something I'd recommend.   Mine could care less whether I'm messing with their food or not actually - many's a time when I've added something I forgot to incude before serving, as mine eat.   They don't react AT ALL and I put that own to then not feeling any need to defend their food, or themselves, while eating.   And hounds do tend to resource guard (spots, food, toys etc.) if they are that insecure that they feel they have to.

Does it matter if the dish isn't picked up straight away, provided the dog moves off, and there's no food left over?

ps    I'd not mix feeding raw, with feeding kibble btw.  One thing, or the other, not both.

I'm just putting the food into the bowl a handful at a time so that he gets used to my hand being there but it seems that he doesn't care about my hand. I dropped some kibble on the floor as I removed his bowl this morning & he decided to guard that bit of floor after he had eaten. I'm thinking this might actually be about Reg & not me so maybe I will feed in separate rooms for a while & see if that makes any difference. Reg is usually coming back in from the garden by the time Fin has finished eating & Fin does growl at Reg as he comes in. Maybe he's worried I'm going to give it to Reg.

I know that you are not supposed to mix raw & kibble but I know many people feed kibble for 1 meal & raw for the next.  When I swapped the 2 dogs over 2 raw about 6 months ago, this was how I started, 1 meal of each.

> xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">Great stuff, I would carry on with this, so he accepts that a hand near his food bowl is a great thing. Once he's comfortable with that, and assuming you're feeding kibble I would sprinkle some kibble to the side of the bowl, move the bowl just an inch while he's eating the other bits and then push it back with more kibble in it. After doing this for a few days or once he's comfortable with it you can move to lifting the bowl from under his nose to add more kibble. Any freezing or signs of anxiety and go back to step one.

This is a great plan, I'd add in swapping bowls prior to lifting his bowl away.
Eg. have 2 identical bowls, put a very small amount of food in both, give one to the dog, when he's finished swap the bowls to give the dog the other with the food in. While he's eating from that bowl, top the other up and keep on swapping.

>I know that you are not supposed to mix raw & kibble but I know many people feed kibble for 1 meal & raw for the next.

That's what I do, I need my dogs to eat kibble too because when we're away for a week showing overseas it's just not possible to feed raw.