8 m/o showing slight food aggression

[dgodfatherx]

8 m/o puppy showing slight food aggression

Hi all, today I was feeding my dogs breakfast like normal. My puppy, 8 m/o hound mix, placed himself in his crate when he saw me coming with his bowl. We did the typical sit, wait, feed, method that we do every meal time. I hadn’t stuck around and petted his in a couple weeks - I do this to prevent the food aggression. However, this time, he let out the smallest growl at me.

My immediate reaction was to sit down, grab his bowl, and start hand feeding him. Is there anything else I could be doing, and better, to prevent this from worsening? He’s always been extremely food motivated, but not to this degree. I have cats and friends with small kids so I’m concerned. Thanks in advance!

 

[johnseolinkbuilding]

@dgodfatherx give him the empty bowl first

wait for him to look at you

mark the behavior and put a bit of food in

wait for him to eat what you put there and look at you again

then put some more

do that until the food is done

 

[msaning]

@dgodfatherx Yeah, I suggest leaving him alone while he eats. Don't pet him, don't make him wait while staring at his food, don't let your friends' kids' go to him when he's eating. Let him feel safe with his food.

You should look up what a trainer called dogminded on Instagram has on "Why I never teach 'impulse control' exercises around food or the food bowl". Aka, it's usually centered on negative punishment and those training approaches rarely set the dog up for success.