Dinner bowl difficulties

Sounds much like "food possession" to me.
Another thing you could do (if you feel brave enough) is what I did with a dog we had, who had major problems with food, and would nip at anyone who came near him while he was eating, or even just walking past him as he was eating is....
Put the food in the bowl as per normal, also put a couple, no more, of bits of bread to one side of the bowl, but out of sight from the dog. Don´t give the bowl to the dog immediately, but "pretend" to take their food from their bowl yourself (actually taking the bit of bread) while saying "yummy yummy, mmmm, nice, isn´t it?" (or something similar) and put it in your mouth and eat it. Make sure the dog watches your every move, and if you don´t get the attention the first time, then do it again (with the second bit of bread). I don´t know why or how this works, but our dog never got possessive over food again.
And we only had to do it the once! (thank Gawd)

After moving Tiny´s food bowl into the front room for her meals she has stopped being so possesive of it. She no longer gulps her food and has stopped growling and snapping. She is even willing to leave food in her bowl to see what we are doing.

Thanks for the advice. We are going to start feeding Tiny in the front room, incase it´s the fact that it´s a small kitchen that´s making her feel insecure. At the moment I am sitting on the floor with her bowl on my knee and she is happily eating without growling.

I will keep you posted on how things progress.

Again Thanks for the advice.

Hi Greywolf,

Food aggression is sadly quite a common problem and there can be many triggers for it. It is impossible to say what it is in your case without going into lots of detail, but I wouldn´t be worried about the dropping of the meal numbers. Generally dogs are happy as long as they know they get fed at some point. Here are a few ideas on how you might be able to help Tiny.

Firstly, a lot of people advocate always being able to remove your dog´s food from it. The general thinking is it reinforces your position as the pack leader by having control over the food. Unfortunately this often backfires and the dog becomes very guarding of the food as it thinks you are going to take it away. It is better, if you do want to remove the food for whatever reason, is to distract the dog out of the room and then take the bowl away. This way your presence is not associated with the removal of the food.

Try preparing the food bowl when Tiny is not there, so she is not sitting and waiting and getting progressively more excited about her dinner. Bring her into the room when the food is ready and then make her earn it from you by sitting and waiting, or offering a paw. Do not disturb her while she is eating, try to keep the children away and try to keep from walking past if that triggers the growling. This may mean you have to feed her somewhere else from where she is now but if she feels secure when she is eating she is less likely to be aggressive.

The same advice goes for treats and chews. Do not disturb her when she is eating and if you do need to remove it, attract her away with another treat or toy, and then take away the chew. Also, always make her earn extra treats or chews by sitting or doing a trick. However, you then need to respect that she earned it and leave her to eat it.

Do not respond to the growling at all, this may potentially reward the behaviour. Simply completely ignore her and continue on where ever you were going. Do not look or make eye contact. This will also help reinforce the idea that you are not interested in her food.

It is possible to make a positive association with you approaching Tiny´s food bowl but you have to be sure you won´t get bitten. Put only a small amount of food in the bowl, and while she is eating that approach the bowl with another handful and put it in. Do this regularly and hopefully she will see you coming to the bowl as a good thing, as you give her more food!

Also, do ensure that Tiny´s position in your family pack is regularly reinforced. For a dog, knowing its position will always make it feel more secure in its environment and less likely to be aggressive. Do things like, always feed her after the family and make sure you go through doors first. Ensure she always earns food and treats by doing what she is told and never let her dictate to you when it is time for a treat or dinner! Make sure everybody in the family knows the rules.

I hope this is helpful and Tiny improves soon.

Cat

i definatly think you need to work on this behaviour, try researhing clicker training, then once she has got that start rewarding her for having her food taken away ect... its important to remember, although most of us never intenid it but at somepoint in some of their lives a dog often visits a rehoming center, this sort of behaviour is often a reason to euthanise a dog rather than rehome it. so i will always recommend dealing with problem behaviours rather than living with them