Food Aggression. Help Please.

[Cassandra & Honey]

I need some help [advice] on getting food aggression out of Honey. if it's even possible.

Until now it's been manageable and i thought she wasn't being like it anymore.

But bring Ocea into the picture and it's war again.

She's fine with me and people taking her food bowl and messing around with it and touching her when she's eating. But the complete opposite with dogs.

She becomes very aggressive and goes into a full blown attack on the other dog thats near or has food she wants.

Tonight i didn't get to Bostons food bowl in time to remove it, Ocea slipped out the door and went straight for it. Honey went for it at the same time.

And Ocea came off with a bloody nose and a tiny cut under her eye.

So it is quite bad.

Help?

How do i train it out of her?

[i have been looking into getting in contact with a trainer, but it's all being put on hold atm]

I always feed everyone in separate areas. Ocea eats inside, honey outside, and boston outside but in the pool area.

Mums really stressed out, so this dog fight tonight was the last straw and she went off at me.

Everyones cranky at home, so i am copping it big time whenever the animals do something wrong.

[tim&sky]

hi , hummmm im in the same boat as you , but what i tend to do is feed one in her crate ( locking sky in ) and feeding decoter the outher side of the room,

i know what the fights are like but as soon as feed time or bone chewing times over there the best of friends,

so if u have a crate use it , or if not tie one up out side just for feed time ......tim

[Sarah]

can you feed them seperatley hun?

[Cassandra & Honey]

can you feed them seperatley hun?

I currently feed them all separate. And always have..

Is that just what everyone has to do? There;s nothing much that can be done for this??

[jnetser]

My sibe had severe food aggression when I got her 3 months ago as a rescue. It is essentially gone now. When we started she would attack her bowl in a complete frenzy, swallow the food without chewing in about 30 seconds then head for the next bowl where a fight would immediately start. My other dogs have never shown any food aggression.

I started out by feeding her in her crate and then moved to feeding her in a separate room from the others. At the same time I taught her sit and down which was pretty easy as she is very food motivated. Then I required that she sit and then down before I fed her. We are now up to me putting her in a down then putting the bowl in front of her and making her wait until I tell her she can have it.

I then started feeding her in the same room, although at least 10 feet from the others. I started that by giving her food to her first so she is occupied with it while I put the bowls down for the others. I put myself between her and the other two and then use body language and my gruff "grunt" sound to let her know she was not allowed to go near their bowls. She would not try to attack their bowls if I was standing guard. I think this was key. If she had tried to go through me to get to the bowls, I probably would have just kept them separate.

We then moved to me asking her for a down about 2-3 feet from their bowls. I stayed right next to her. I rewarded her for this by giving her a piece of kibble out of their bowls if she stayed in the down and remained calm.

Now I am able to just remain in the kitchen but don't have to keep between them. If she finishes first she will walk over and watch somebody else eat but will not invade their space.

You should also pick up all the bowls when they are done and not allow bowl surfing.

This took 2-3 months to accomplish.

Good luck to you. If you end up having to keep them separate, its not a huge deal.

[Sarah]

great post Julie added to rep

[Cassandra & Honey]

Thanks so much Julie! i'm printing off your post!

I'll give that a go then .

It's really not a big deal to me at all, i'm fine with feeding everyone separate and if they have little fights, its just dogs being dogs.

It's just my family that get freaked by it... i get the ''dogs shouldn't be like this'' and ''i don't think we can do this anymore, they're too agro'' .

But the dogs get over it in a few minutes and are back to being best buds.

It's just a rocky time in my house.