My little Bishon was growling at my norweigan elkhound to keep him away from his bowl.  When I nudged him he bit me hard for the first time.  He is almost two years and is fixed.  He's intelligent but too intelligent at times.  any suggestions

How about separating the dogs when you feed them?

Feed them in separate rooms.

Then start retraining your bichon to become less food-possessive. The best way of doing this is:

1) Put down 4 empty bowls in a circle several feet across, and go from bowl to bowl putting a little bit of food (from his normal meal) into each bowl until he's had the lot. This way he'll learn that you're the good guy, the bringer of food, not someone who has to be kept away from his bowl. When he's happy with this, and looking forward to you going to a bowl, move on to:

2) Hold just one empty bowl at his chest level, and put a little bit of food into it, and keep holding the bowl. When that's gone and he's quiet, add a little more, until his meal is finished.

Your dog should never feel he has to guard his food.

Good post JG :)

What surprised me was that he has always been a nibbler and this was the first time he scarfed down his food.  (new kind of dog food)

I think I'd be more inclined to object if I thought someone wanted to take away my plate of steak and chips with all the trimmings, than my bowl of cabbage soup! ;)

What surprised me was that he has always been a nibbler and this was the first time he scarfed down his food.  (new kind of dog food)

Just to add that even the lowest dog will defend its food if the need warrants it, in the dog's eyes... it's got nothing to do with being alpha, beta or anything else ;)

Lindsay
x

I have two male dogs - the elder dog always gets his bowl of food first and takes his time in eating, the younger one eats his dinner like the world is about to end then goes and stands or sits by the elder dog.  The younger one used to try and push his way in to getting the elder dogs food but after a few quick *no's* from the elder one he is now content to just sit and watch him.  The elder re-inforces sometimes by low warning growls if he thinks the pup is getting too close but that's all he has to do.  This is not food aggression simply a pack order.

The elder *never* growls at us, nor does the pup, as we have always taught our dogs that we can take the food at any time as we are in charge.  When it's feeding time they wait patiently for their meal and if they do ever start to jump around or bark at us we simply put the bowls back on the counter top and walk away (they soon learned not to do this to us), we tell them 'good boys' to release them so that they can eat and at any time we can say 'leave' to them and can quite happily take their bowl away for a quick inspection and then give it back - no problems at all.  (considering our pup is an 18 week old Boxer puppy who every one tells us is mad and that boxers are slow learners we are very impressed with how quickly he has learnt this !)

The fact that the dog bit you when you nudged him says to me that maybe he thought it was the other dog and not aimed at you ?  You could feed them separately but I don't think that this will solve the problem that you have, and if his new dinner is that nice then he is going to protect it.  Personally I'd just keep feeding them together but would stand between them and when one is finished make it sit and wait until the other one is done, take up both bowls and then praise them for being good.

Hi - food guarding between dogs is imo, a perfectly normal situation and it's best to feed separately to avoid this stress.  But food guarding from you is not.  You should be able to readily take away a dog's food, put your hands in the food bowl and move them around etc, without the dog getting stressed or growling, let alone biting. 

I strongly suggest you read a copy of 'Mine!  A PRactical Guide to Resource Guarding in Dogs' by Jean Donaldson, obtainable from Crosskeys books - can be ordered online from them.  This has a very detailed explanation of how to desensitise a dog so that it no longer food guards.