Food Aggression

I got Jack from the pound.  He was five months old and only in the pound for a week, so his history's a mystery.  They told me that they had to feed him separately, but no body knew why.  I found out the first time I tried to take a bone from him.  He made a sound like a garbage disposal and attempted, with his tiny teeth, to tear my hands off.

While this may be the cutest face I've ever seen, behind it lurks a vicious predator with a gaping maw.  Make no mistake.  Even tiny dogs can be dangerous.

I didn't know what to do.  My tiny adorable puppy was a killing machine.  Even though I got the bone away, he had scraped skin off my fingers with his tiny teeth!  Imagine what could happen when his chompers started coming in.




I thought about taking him back to the pound.  It may have been my worst mistake.  Food and toy aggression are actually pretty easy to deal with, especially at a young age.  What happens is either a dog is attacked while eating or has limited food for a period of time and they become very defensive of what they have.

I imagine the Captain had been scrounging for a while, unable to find solace or sustenance and had learned to hoard or gobble whatever he'd come across.  Poor Jack was probably wondering the streets of Albuquerque, tearing up McDonald's wrappers for the melted cheese.  He's still got a habit of trying to eat gum off the ground (Yuck!).

So, after thinking about it for a while and doing a little web research, I decided I was going to try to help him get over it.  I set out a bowl of food and I watched him eat.  He hunched over it, completely tense and growling as he chomped the food down with his head in the dish.  Body language.

I took several deep breaths and did a brief meditation to calm myself.  I wanted him to see me as tranquil.  I wanted him to know that I was not a threat.  With my side to him, I very slowly moved toward him without looking at him.  I was worried that he'd make his garbage disposal noise, but I had determined that even if he did, I was going to keep moving in.  He only made crunching noises as he chowed.  When I got close enough to him, he moved away but was still focused on the food.

I picked up the bowl and, sitting, held it between my legs without making eye contact.  When he stopped watching the food and started watching me, I waited for his tail to relax and then gave him the food. After a couple of feedings like this, I realized that I saved a lot of time feeding him from hand.  Now I can pet him while he eats without getting growled at or bitten.  In this way, we cured his food aggression.


In an effort to get over his toy aggression, I repeated the same process with a bone that he liked.  We are five weeks in and while we still have issues with things that he's very focused on, he never bites me anymore and only rarely growls at me.  

I have not been able to get a picture of his War Face, but I assure you:  it is so cute that it's scary.