Breaking a food aggressive dog

by **talkpitbulls** » December 17th, 2006, 7:36 pm

My little puppy is very food aggressive against humans/dogs. Has anyone else had this problem and if so how did you fix it? Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks

by **SisMorphine** » December 17th, 2006, 8:47 pm

How old is the pup?

by **talkpitbulls** » December 17th, 2006, 9:23 pm

He will be 8 weeks old on the 28th. He is new to puppy food.

by **SisMorphine** » December 17th, 2006, 9:56 pm

Hand feed everything. Period.

by **mnp13** » December 17th, 2006, 10:33 pm

On December 17 2006, 20:56, SisMorphine wrote:Hand feed everything. Period.

yup.

how long have you had him and where did he come from?

8 weeks is pretty young for "very" aggressive. What exactly is he doing?

by **katiek0417** » December 17th, 2006, 11:05 pm

On December 17 2006, 9:33 PM, mnp13 wrote:
On December 17 2006, 20:56, SisMorphine wrote:Hand feed everything. Period.

yup.

how long have you had him and where did he come from?

8 weeks is pretty young for "very" aggressive. What exactly is he doing?

I agree with Michelle's questions. He may have had to fight other puppies in his litter for food so he might be used to that. I agree that he should be eating everything out of your hand. If he shows any growling or anything, take it away. Try again in 20 minutes (if the dog was older I'd say take it away and he doesn't get it back that morning/night, but at his age, he needs to eat). Keep trying....don't let him get away with any growling/biting, it'll turn into a bigger problem later

by **SisMorphine** » December 18th, 2006, 12:20 am

On December 17 2006, 11:05 PM, katiek0417 wrote:
On December 17 2006, 9:33 PM, mnp13 wrote:
On December 17 2006, 20:56, SisMorphine wrote:Hand feed everything. Period.

yup.

how long have you had him and where did he come from?

8 weeks is pretty young for "very" aggressive. What exactly is he doing?

I agree with Michelle's questions. He may have had to fight other puppies in his litter for food so he might be used to that. I agree that he should be eating everything out of your hand. If he shows any growling or anything, take it away. Try again in 20 minutes (if the dog was older I'd say take it away and he doesn't get it back that morning/night, but at his age, he needs to eat). Keep trying....don't let him get away with any growling/biting, it'll turn into a bigger problem later

If my memory serves me correctly, this pup was bred by him and was the only pup in the litter, so there was no fighting for food!

by **katiek0417** » December 18th, 2006, 1:23 am

On December 17 2006, 11:20 PM, SisMorphine wrote:
On December 17 2006, 11:05 PM, katiek0417 wrote:
On December 17 2006, 9:33 PM, mnp13 wrote:
On December 17 2006, 20:56, SisMorphine wrote:Hand feed everything. Period.

yup.

how long have you had him and where did he come from?

8 weeks is pretty young for "very" aggressive. What exactly is he doing?

I agree with Michelle's questions. He may have had to fight other puppies in his litter for food so he might be used to that. I agree that he should be eating everything out of your hand. If he shows any growling or anything, take it away. Try again in 20 minutes (if the dog was older I'd say take it away and he doesn't get it back that morning/night, but at his age, he needs to eat). Keep trying....don't let him get away with any growling/biting, it'll turn into a bigger problem later

If my memory serves me correctly, this pup was bred by him and was the only pup in the litter, so there was no fighting for food!

If that's the case, then I would definitely feed him out of the hand, take away if there's any sign of aggression. Then try again 20 minutes later. Might take a while...but the dog should eventually figure it out...

by **talkpitbulls** » December 18th, 2006, 1:48 am

Thanks for the advice. Ill give the hand feeding a try. Ill keep you all updated.

by **talkpitbulls** » December 23rd, 2006, 12:50 pm

I started to hand feed my little boy the day after this thread was started..
As of today dec 23 06 the problem seems to be broke..
I will continue to hand feed him every now and again.
Maybe 3 or 4 times a week..
I can actually go up to him while he eats and stick my hand in the bowl and all he will do is shake is tail and continue to eat.
I noticed he went through a few different stages while breaking him.
The first stage was growling
The second stage was him just holding his head over the bowl and looking out of the corner of his eyes
The third stage was eating the food at a crazy speed forgetting to chew it

What i did was hand feed him a little bit then i would toss some in the bowl and while he ate i pet his lower back..
I would just like to thank everyone that posted in this thread..

by **mnp13** » December 23rd, 2006, 7:39 pm

**Caution!

You have NOT "solved" this problem in a week. He's better now, but if you stop working with him, I will guarentee he will regress sooner than later. Doing it "a couple times a week" isn't going to cut it.

If hand feeding is working, then keep doing that for a month or so. One week won't break the behavior, it will just make it go away for a little while, as the hand feeding is a novelty of sorts.

Breaking a food aggressive dog

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