Food Aggression

Food aggression is when a dog displays any type of aggression around their food dish towards humans or other animals. Some dogs will just make a lot of noise and others will bite with severity. 

As a puppy it is best to put your hands in the food dish and around the dog while they are eating and reward them for good behaviour. That can prevent a lot of issues. Some puppies will be very aggressive around the food dish at a very young age. I recall working with a 9 week old Golden Retriever female that was super aggressive around food at 9 weeks of age. 

Why does this happen? Smart dogs. Learning quickly increases the odds greatly of seeing any kind of aggression.

Should your pup show any aggression around food I would recommend coming to learn from us as quickly as possible. There is a lot things you will want to know to avoid any big issues.

If your dog is older and bigger and showing possessive behaviour around food, you will also want to come and learn from us right away as well. Training gets a lot more dangerous when the dog has some size behind them and they are food aggressive. I have heard stories of owners fingers being bitten clean off with dogs guarding food dishes.

If a dog is showing food aggression then they are quite likely to develop aggression in other areas. Those include sleeping areas, going to pet the dog, aggression with guests, dogs or people coming into their personal space, aggression over objects, etc. 

Not to worry, we see this a lot. We have helped lots of people overcome these very same challenges. We will teach you why it happens, which dogs it most commonly happens to and signs to watch for in preventing future issues with any dog.