We have a 5 month old King Charles Cavalier dog who is more and more frequently becoming aggressive to us all seems to centre around food but also has sudden mood swings can be sitting on your lap, quite happy, then turns into a snarling crocodile.  He does food guard so we now just put his food all over the floor and if he doesnt eat it all we distract him and remove food left.  If we enter room when food is down, he goes beserk, barking, growling, snapping at feet.  He has no chews as he is the same with them.  We have an older KC 7 years who is fab.  Cant understand why he is doing this.  As nice as pie 80% of day but getting gradually worse, we have taken to vets to get checked out no problems.  Really considering giving him up as cannot trust him.  Any advice help greatly appreciated.

What are you trying to acheive by scatering his food.

I would ahve thought thsi woudl maek and already resource guarding sog worse as the food isn't nicely contained in one spot so he has to guard the whole area,a dn this could be dangerous if you mss a bite and he guards that from anyone passing.

He is obviously very uptight when food is aroudn, and feels he will have it taken away.

His perception of the danger to his food needs changing.

Your presence aroudn food is somethign he shoudl look forward to not worry about.

This can be achieved by giving him his food by hand, so people around equals food and treats.

Start with an empty bowl into which you put a few pieces of his daily ration (you should be having him sit nicely and wait until he is told he may eat).

When he has finished ask him to sit again (a littel away from his dish), keep him in a stay and put a bit more food in his dish, then give him a cue to eat.

When the penny drops you shoudl see him relax and maybe wag his tail in anticipation of you feedign him, and you shoudl be able to ahve him closer and closert to the bowl when you add the food without him objecting.

Once happy with one person move onto the next family member, always going back a step if he gets uptight.

I agree with Brainless - what are you doing with food all over the floor?  Now the dog just has to guard the entire floor instead of one bowl!

http://www.clickersolutions.com/articles/2002b/objectguarding.htm

http://www.ahimsadogtraining.com/handouts/resource-guarding.html

I would put this dog on a NILIF program, which is basically what Brainless is discussing.  Do some internet research on it or buy a book, but do something ASAP.

Good luck.

Yes that more specifically in other areas.  Non confrontational method of getting them to tow the line.  You need to get the pups trust and respect.

Are people picking him up all the time as you say he will bite when on laps.  Most dogs as they get older don't like being picked up, getting up themselves is different.  Being hoiked into the air all the time is going to undermine their confidence.

When my dogs attended puppy classes they recommended not feeding in the same place at every meal. I put my dogs bowl in different places in different rooms so he didnt become territorial. He has to sit and wait to be told it is ok to take it. I also hand fed him from his bowl and I also sat next to him whilst he was eating to get him used to me just being there.
Good Luck
Jane

I notice you say he can turn into a crocodile when he is on your lap.

This may be linked to the food guarding (ie resource guarding his space/place) but I'd be asking questions like, who has handled him, has anything ever occurred which may make him want to behave in this way; is he happy with hands coming towards him (eg to put on his lead) and are you using positive training methods or other techniques? :)

Sometimes just ONE incident especially in the sensitive periods of early life can really affect a pup so I'd double check mentally that nothing has happened which could lead to or exacerbate this. Have you been attempting any food bowl training at all, and if so what have you done?

What do you do when he gets aggressive on your lap?

Also, are you totally sure it is aggression and not playing? (I know it sounds daft but truly, not everyone can tell the difference all the time). I suspect from what you say, it is aggression, but just want to make sure :)

I know you say you have taken him to the vet, but it may be that, if things don't improve, you need to take him back and get some more indepth tests.
Also if things don't improve, I'd suggest getting a reputable behaviourist on your side to help you as it should be relatively easy to solve this now, rather than later :)

Good luck
Lindsay
x

One tip I picked up recently, which I do regularly, is withdold a few handfulls of food (which she doesn't see) when I put her food down . As she's eating I then add the food to her bowl so she associates my hand near her bowl as a good thing.

I don't know whether this is a food agression preventative measure and if you can use it for dogs already demonstrating the above. Someone on here will be able to advise.

What does he actually do when he is on your lap and "turns into a snarling crocodile"? Go for the person whose lap he is on, or somebody else ? Personally I think a cavalier is much too big to be on a lap and mine have never been, but I don't really like any dogs on laps myself. My Papillon is tiny tiny (6 lbs) and I have noticed clealry that if he ever is on anybody's lap, he changes immediately and will growl and snap at other dogs etc, the moment he is back on the floor he is absolutely fine, so I never let him be on my lap.

This must be really hard for you to control.  When we first got our pup we used to approach her when fed and stick out fingers in her biscuits.  Someimes we would add something tasty.just so she knew that us approaching wansnt a threat.  I did this as we have children and wanted her to get used to it from day one.  The kids dont bother her when shes eating anyway but I think it was a good thing to do from a very young age.  I dont think scattering the food is helpful.  Keep it in a bowl and remove it after half an hour or so if its not eaten.  We try all sorts dont we.  When he has a chew stick maybe try swapping it for a peice of cheese or chicken etc  and praise him if he takes it without been agressive. 

Hi, we've been having similar problems with our American Cocker, Belle, shes nearly 8 months old, and until recently she was always fine with us being around her when she was eating, but the last month or so, shes gradually gotten worse.
When I'm in the kitchen preparing meals, either dog cat or human, she started growling if any one else in the family entered the room, I stopped this by picking her up, putting her in the living room and closing the door on her, where she stayed until her meal was ready, she didnt make a fuss about being removed from the room, I only had to do this once with her and she got the message, shes been so easy to train. However, she has now started to have a real go at us if we go near her when shes eating, and like I said, she didnt do this before We changed her to BARF 2 months ago, and I dont know if this is why her attitude has changed. We had her on James Wellbeloved and Nature diet before, and it was easier to drop bits of food in her bowl then, now shes on BARF, I've gotten out of the habit of dropping food in her bowl. At first she would only have a go if she was having bones, but now its seems most meals she has bring out the worst in her. I cant shut her in the kitchen to confine her to the one room while she eats, as the kitchen doesnt have a door, and she has started to take her bones upstairs, lie at the top of the stairs and growl at anyone that tries to go upstairs or get past her to go downstairs. I cant understand this behaviour as the rest of the time shes a well behaved dog, shes been a joy to train, and has picked up most things straight away, with out any fuss. We have another dog, Thunder, hes a 4 year old weimaraner, hes very food orientated, but we are able to take his bowl away from him, put our hands in his bowl and he doesnt flicker, one of my cats will sometimes pinch bits of his food and he will let him, hes so well behaved. Sorry if this is so long winded, I wanted to try and give as much info as I could so that maybe other forum members could see what it is I'm doing wrong with Belle Belle has a crate and I was thinking of feeding her in this for a few days so she felt a bit safer around her food, but tbh I cant under stand why she should feel threatened in the first place, as none of us want to steal it, I try to keep the cats away from her as much as possible when shes eating, and Thunder is too interested in his own food to bother her, and I cant recall any one incident when she should ever have felt the need to guard her bones, its so out of character for her, an other wise lovely dog Does anyone have any suggestions on how I can stop this before she bites one of us?
Sue

It's not always wise to credit dogs with human thought-processes. ;) You say that 'none of you want to steal her food' - yet to a dog food is top-level resource, far more important than that bundle of £100 notes on the floor. That's of no use (to a dog) whatsoever - food, though - of course it's precious! ;)

It could be she's about to start her first season and is feeling a bit hormonal.

I was thinking this myself Jeangenie, as I posted the message I thought maybe I should have asked this. Thunder is castrated, so hopefully his behaviour will stay the same around Belle, but maybe I should be watching how other dogs behave around her when I walk her, see how much attention shes recieving I've never had a bitch before, always dogs, so this is relatively new to me.
Thanks for the reply.
Sue

Have a read of this:

http://www.ahimsadogtraining.com/handouts/resource-guarding.html

http://www.clickersolutions.com/articles/2002b/objectguarding.htm

You might also want to order a book called "Mine!" by Jean Donaldson, available from Crosskeys books: http://www.crosskeysbooks.com/product_info.php?products_id=451

Thanks for those links onetwothree, I've had a look at the first one, and its really interesting, I'm gonna get the rest of the family to have a read of it as well. Its strange as the other day Belle had a lamb bone, and she was growling at my husband when he came into the kitchen, yet she gave up the bone for a piece of banana that I offered her, I thought it unusual that she should regard a piece of banana as higher value than a bone, but whatever it takes to prevent this is fine by me :-)
Sue

Just curious, does anyone in the house test the puppy. When we got our puppy my husband thought that being able to take his bone off him was a good way to train him not to guard. I stopped that one right away - the only thing he would have learned was that my OH was out to steal from him. We only take things he shouldn't have, say not for dogs and replace it with something that's his to chew. You could chew on the other end of his bones because as far as he's concerned we are The Candy Man!

Is this puppy getting enough food at the correct sort of intervals?

Is this puppy getting enough food at the correct sort of intervals?
She is yes, in fact she's decided she only needs 2 meals a day, and leaves her third, no matter what time of day I try to feed her, she only seems to want the breakfast and tea time feed, sometimes she will eat supper but not very often. This morning she was guarding a chicken wing, and I think maybe I had given her too many, and she felt she needed to keep the one she had left over 'safe' she had it in the bathroom and growled at me when I went to the toilet :rolleyes:
Sue