We have an 11 month old Golden Retriever that is very aggressive when it comes to her food. We make her sit and wait for her food, which she does easily. If we go near her when she is eating she snorts, snarls and growls at us. She even does this if we give her a wide berth.
I know she isn't a submissive dog because we have to bribe her into everything. She pulls on the lead, I have to literally pull her off the couch, when we open the door to let her out she lays down on the floor, and we can't get her out of the habit of jumping up on us. She is only aggressive when it comes to food.
She does go to obedience nearly every sunday. Through most of obedience she is pretty good, but once she has had enough she will spit the bribe food out and refuse to do what I want her to do.

She is great at playing with my children, they play with her for hours. She lets my 3yo tackle her to the ground and climb all over her.
We had a staffy before this and she never had a problem with obedience.
What do I do? I have ordered a Gentle leader for when I walk her so maybe that will stop that problem. Other than that I'm lost.

Sounds like she thinks she's the leader of the pack, My Staffy Leo, jumps up on the furniture and when we come home after being out he jumps up at us and begins to wee with excitment, I have to ignore him and get him outside in the garden so that he doesn't trickle over the floor, I was told that when you come home, if he starts jumping up, to stand still, fold & cross your arms across your chest and look up to the ceiling, I did this but he was so excited to see me it didn't work, BUT when friends come round I tell them to do this & Leo leaves them alone, doesn't jump up at them, so try that, as for the food, some dogs are like that, I wouldn't worry about it, give him his tea when you and your family are sat down eating yours and just leave him alone, but if he comes to you after he has ate his, shout at him and say go away, give him some of his own medicine. Leo was terrible for pulling on the lead, he took me for a walk, so I bought a halti, he is brilliant on that, walks by my side and it's a pleasure to take him out now, I tried the other day after using the halti for 4 months to see if he has changed by pulling, he was just the same taking me for a walk so get a halti they work. Your dog has to now that you are the leader of the pack and not him, you have to be firm with him.
Julie

Hi, In my opinion you need make rules for the house and everyone sticks to
them and the dog has to follow them and be consistent.At the moment she
is growing up and is trying to show you she is boss,although I went through
a stage with my bitch (Golden)around about the same age for a couple of weeks
when she realised she wasn't going to get away with anything she quickly learn't
her place again.I wouldn't let a 3yr old tackle her to the ground this is where
she may hurt the dog or the dog may accidently catch or hurt your 3 yr old.
I have 2 Goldens and 4 children I personally wouldn't let this happen with any dog.
As for the food I can only suggest you try and hand feed her then gradually
introduce the bowl back,but it is not acceptable for her to be growling at her food bowl.
For now I would supervise her feeds and don't allow your young child near whilst she is feeding.
My older Goldeg growls while eating only to warn the puppy back off this is mine eat
your own,but never at the rest of the family.

I'm sure others will be along with further help and advice,if you can get on top with
of it now the better, she is a young dog will quickly learn.

Good luck,let us now how you get on,

Briony :-)

We do have consistent rules, Hunny just doesn't want to follow them, LOL.
Hunny and my 3yo do everything together. Hunny has not once growled at her and when she's had enough, which is very, very rare, she just walks away. I do reprimand my 3yo when she gets too rough with her and I am trying to teach her that she shouldn't be so rough. When things get out of hand Hunny goes outside for some peace. I do see where you're coming from.

I have had some excellent suggestions for getting her feeing aggression under control. I'll try them and see what works best.

Thanks.

Hunny also gets very excited when we come home. She tries to jump on us and if we are next to anything she'll jump on it to get a bit higher.
When it's dinner time we bring her bowl inside, make her dinner and put it away. Then we eat ours and she eats after us. She does eat outside because of the growling and not being able to trust our 3yo around her while she's eating.
I bought a Gentle Leader this morning, I'm going to take her for a walk in a minute. Fingers crossed that it will work. It's very similar to the Halti.

Thanks for your advice :)

Hi,
This is a potentially dangerous situation if you let it carry on. Food aggression develops when a dog feels a need to protect this resource, and is not necessarily related to hierarchy - subordinates will guard items from superiors. You need to teach her that your going near her bowl means you are going to give food, and not remove it.

There are very sensible exercises to cure this problem in The Perfect Puppy by Gwen Bailey (pp 116-118) and you can also do the "4 bowl trick". This is where you put down 4 empty dog bowls about a yard or so apart - and place one or two pieces of food in each, one at a time, so that the dog is following from bowl to bowl, and there is never enough in the bowl to guard.

Regarding the problem of getting her off the sofa - you can either leave a light house lead on her so you can pull her off without getting close and making eye contact so she has no option but to obey; or stop her getting on there in the first place (extremely difficult once the habit has developed).

And letting your three-year-old rough-and-tumble with her is really asking for trouble, and it isn't teaching the child that the dog is not a toy. It's putting the dog in a difficult position when she's had enough, and she may (hopefully won't, but it's not fair to risk it) be forced to growl, then snap if the growl is ignored.

:)

Thanks very much for you advice on her food aggression. I have a few ideas now.
She has never been allowed on the couch, she just knows it's comfy and continues to try. If somebody is sitting on there she tries to get on too, otherwise she lays on the floor.
Hunny and my 3yo do have time-out if things get too rough and I do tell her she must not be so rough. Having a 3yo and a ginormous puppy isn't an easy situation. My 6yo is great with her and does the right thing.

:)

Hi Beck,

We had a food aggression problem with our latest pup (working beardie), from the age of 8 weeks, but we have sorted it now. This was in a very similar way to the other poster who mentioned Gwen Bailey's perfect puppy book, we only gave her a tiny bit of her food and kept adding to it each time she had finished, it took a few weeks for fer to get the idea that people near her bowl was a good thing, but now she is almost 100% ok. She is still a bit naughty about the other dogs (she is fed in a pen seperate from them), but again is improving.

You need to do something now, but don't use aggression to tackle aggression, this only makes the problem worse!! :( Be patient and work with her on this and you should be fine.

manda
X
:)

Hi Beck

Sit with the bowl between your knees or thighs so she will have to come in very close to you to receive her food. You will almost 'surround' her bowl with your body. Keep the food supply out of her reach so she can't mug you for it.
Put in just a very small handful into the empty bowl so she can scoop it up in one mouthful. Make her wait before each handful you place into the bowl. She will realise that you are controlling the appearance of her food pretty quickly. Don't always take your hand back out of the bowl but sometimes just open your hand so she eats from it in the bowl and gets used to the hand being there with no threat.
Any hint of a growl, snort or snarl then remove the bowl and the food and return later to try again.
If you are happy to use treats to train her with at your Sunday classes make sure you don't feed her before you attend so she is hungry.
Lara x

Make sure you are being taught at class how to use food rewards properly - either as a lure to start, then as a reward, then on to phasing them out once the exercise is understood. If they are really used as a bribe then the trainer is probably teaching it wrong IMHO.

Food is ultimately a primary reinforcer ie. it is essential to survival, and when used well can be a powerful tool :)

Never give food rewards if the dog is manipulating you, ask for advice on how to overcome this in a specific situation :)

I agree, please dont EVER let a small child tackle a dog to the ground, this is dangerous and unfair to the dog as one day, it will be the one who suffers any consequences, also children need to respect dogs. NOt meaning to sound critical but i see this too often, and it can be a recipe for disaster.

I agree with the excellent advice given about bowl training, I have seen these methods or similar work several times on owner's dogs, and they also follow this sort of programme at Battersea etc.

Good luck
lindsay