Dog food aggression is a serious problem.  If your dog becomes aggressive around his food dish, here are four tips to end this canine behavior problem.

Don’t Let Dog Food Aggression Get Started

In the wild, the leader of the dog pack is always the first one to eat, usually by himself.If you always leave your dog alone at mealtime, he may get the wrong idea.  This can lead to canine aggression in the form of him snapping or growling at anyone who ventures too close while he’s eating.

When your dog is still a puppy, always feed him after you and your family have already eaten.  This reinforces the idea for him that you and your family members all rank above him in the pack.

When you feed your puppy, anyone should be able to approach him while he’s eating.  Slipping a little treat into his bowl while he’s eating teaches him that it’s good for someone to get close.

Four Steps To Control Food Aggression In Dogs

An older dog who is already using aggressive dog behavior to protect his food will require different training.

Spend about ten to fourteen days on each of these steps.It will be necessary to do these things every time you feed your dog.  If your dog is extremely aggressive around food, you may need to keep him on a leash for your own protection. 

The first thing you’ll do is to put his food dish away for a couple of weeks.  Your dog will be eating out of your hand for a while.  Feed him just a few pieces of dog food at a time, until his meal is finished.

After a couple of weeks, you can progress to the next stop.  Get out your dog’s food bowl again, but don’t put anything in it.  After a while, walk by and drop a couple of pieces of kibble in it.  When he eats it, keep adding small handfuls of food every couple of minutes until his meal is finished.  At this point, he’ll probably be begging you to walk up to his bowl.

You can progress to the next step in about ten days; put out a half-full bowl of kibble for your dog.  Walk up to him as he’s eating, and as you go by, drop in a couple of treats.  Then walk up again and add the rest of his food.

The last step is to put a full bowl of food down for him while he’s obeying the sit-stay command.Keep your control over him by not allowing him to eat until you release him from the command.  This is where the leash comes in handy, as you have control over him for this step, but hopefully you won’t need to use it.Break things up once or twice a week by calling him over to you while he’s eating and rewarding him with a tasty treat. 

Always use the sit-stay, wait, and take-it commands when you feed him so that your dog understands that you’re in charge of the food.  This reinforces your status as the alpha dog for him.

If your dog reverts to his old dog food aggression behavior, start again at step one. 

Don’t continue to live with the potentially dangerous problem of canine aggression.  Click on any link in this article to learn how a good dog training program can help to end this aggressive dog behavior.