Need help - food aggression, etc.

[debuck]

We have a 7 mo old BC. She is very smart and affectionate. She thinks she is a big old lap dog and wants to lay on you or partly on you all the time (when not playing and chasing balls, etc). She has been spade (at 5 mos), is fully housed trained and loves her crate.

 

Now the problem: She has food aggression and will eat anything. As far as her normal food, we're getting that under control. Sometimes I'll feed her her food out of my hand. She'll sit and wait until we hand her a treat. She will now sit and wait until we give her a command to eat after we fill her food bowl. She will still growl and attack her food if anyone is around but that is getting a little bit better.

 

The area I'm having no success at is making her drop it she picks something up off the floor, ground, etc.such as paper, wood, cloth, clods of dirt etc. When trying to get her to drop something she will actually bite you hard and make sure she swallows whats in her mouth. She has brought blood several times. I don't back off from her and will put her down and make her submissive when this happens.

 

I really don't know what to do at this point. Putting her in her crate is not punishment and if you try to ignore her she'll come up to you and try to lick you and crawl all over you.

 

Need help, is it possible to get the upper hand on this?

[d112358]

Stop ignoring her discomfort and forcing a confrontation. All you're doing is making it more likely that she'll bite you harder, and reinforcing that you are a threat to whatever she's guarding.

 

Work instead on figuring out how to trade. Your approach when she has something of value needs to be accompanied by something that's even better than whatever she's got in her mouth. Drop a piece of paper on the floor, wait for her to show interest in it, then walk near her and toss a piece of chicken to her. Don't let her get the chance to get mad at you, just make it clear that you have a much better option and you coming near her means she should expect something good.

[Camden's Mom]

Interesting, we just had another new member start a post about food aggression, though not nearly as serious as what you are experiencing with your gal. Here's the link to it in case you want to follow that thread as well (since they are going in tandem): http://www.bordercollie.org/boards/index.php?showtopic=36332.

Also, you can search this forum for "food aggression" or "resource guarding" and you will get tons of info!

 

I don't back off from her and will put her down and make her submissive when this happens.

 

I would abandon this tactic right away. So far it sounds like this has only resulted in her becoming more aggressive, time to try something different.

 

 

As far as her normal food, we're getting that under control. Sometimes I'll feed her her food out of my hand. She'll sit and wait until we hand her a treat. She will now sit and wait until we give her a command to eat after we fill her food bowl. She will still growl and attack her food if anyone is around but that is getting a little bit better.

 

Having her wait for you to say she can eat her food is a good start! It's teaching her self control and good manners, I'd keep that up! The problem is once she's started eating she's still resource guarding her food. Check out the other thread I linked at the beginning. It goes into greater detail how you can work on desensitizing the dog to people approaching her while she's eating. In short, what you want to do is convince her that people approaching her food is a good thing. You can do this by dropping high value treats when you approach near her or right into her food bowl (I'm talking about really yummy stuff like chicken or steak bits). You want her to begin to associate people approaching her while she's eating with the hope that they will give her something even better then what's in her bowl. It'll take time, given how reactive she is, but I think convincing her that you coming near her bowl is the best thing ever is going to be more productive then waging a war over the food.

 

 

The area I'm having no success at is making her drop it she picks something up off the floor, ground, etc.such as paper, wood, cloth, clods of dirt etc. When trying to get her to drop something she will actually bite you hard and make sure she swallows whats in her mouth. She has brought blood several times.

 

This sounds like a very bad situation and the fact that she's willing to bite hard enough to draw blood is a big concern. I just saw d112358's post as I was writing my response and I couldn't agree more with her suggestion of "trading up" if she has something in her mouth that you want her to drop. Don't make it a fight, that's clearly not gotten you anywhere good at all. :/

 

I'd also start working on a "leave it" command with her, since it sounds like she's willing to get kinda' dangerous once something is already in her mouth. Train her when you want her NOT to put something in her mouth and reward her for leaving that piece of paper, wood chip, whatever alone.

 

Lastly, since this dog is willing to bite (and bite hard) to guard a resource or item I'd consider getting the help of a behaviorist or a trainer, ASAP! Make sure it's someone who works in positive reinforcement, not that "dominance/submission" silliness. I'd look for a professional who can show you how best to help your dog with these issues without putting yourself at too much risk. Positive Reinforcement training is about building rapport and developing a trusting relationship with your dog, not challenging the dog at every turn. I wish you the very best of luck and hope you are able to get these issues under control with the help of a professional very soon!

[Sekah]

In the interim while you look for a professional...

 

 

http://www.dogwise.com/itemdetails.cfm?ID=dtb740

[Cedzz]

I agree with Camden's Mum, it is best to seek a behaviouralist (especially one who practices positive reinforcement) but in the mean time a 'Leave' command will come in useful, an essential command to teach your dog for many situations.

 

You mentioned that you hand feed your dog so I will mention how we taught my boy the leave it command, in case your pup doesn't learn to leave with the approach Camden's Mum mentioned, which is what we tried initially as it works for many dogs but Duke didn't take to until we tried another approach then went back to distracting him from something he wants with food which he picked up very quickly once he understood leave.

 

We taught Duke to leave by holding a treat in our closed fist, when Duke became interested in the treat we told him to 'leave' and would not open our fist and give him the treat until he got bored or looked away, gradually work up to the point that you don't give your dog the treat until she consciously leaves it, not just gets bored with it, then try with your hand open.

[d112358]

We taught Duke to leave by holding a treat in our closed fist, when Duke became interested in the treat we told him to 'leave' and would not open our fist and give him the treat until he got bored or looked away, gradually work up to the point that you don't give your dog the treat until she consciously leaves it, not just gets bored with it, then try with your hand open.

 

The only thing I do a little different is to treat from the other hand, sometimes with different treats. I try to make 90% of leave it or doggie zen rewarded from a different source (the other 10% of the time is when I'm proofing 'take this, not that' with lots of treats on the ground). That way they don't have the expectation of eventually getting whatever you've asked them to leave.

[Cedzz]

Yes, I can see that could be a concern. It wasn't with Duke but with that said he has no 'territorial' aggression at all, whether it be food, toys, bones or people. He isn't big on treats either. He'd much rather a good boy and a good scratch.

 

I agree with d112358, that would be a better system.

[simba]

It's not intended for this particular situation but a friend did a 'mine' and 'yours' for every meal she ate- she'd hold it with a closed fist in front of the dog and then let it eat it when she said 'yours', working up to open fist, and moving from low-value items gradually up to high value items. Now she proofs it at every meal. Even then it deteriorates quickly if someone lets the dog 'get away with it'.