Food aggression
 

Okay I finally decided to ask this question. I had put it off because London is so small but I didn't think it was a big deal. When she is eating Teddy who loves to get near her gets growled at. Then when I put his food for him he runs to his bowl and growls even more. She won't let him eat from her bowl or his bowl. He is like 10x bigger than her but still he gets scared and stops eating and hides from her. I feel so bad! She is so tiny and has total control. She growls and will just sit in between both bowls and grill him like if she's thinking 'I dare you to move'..I need to get a video of it. Should I worry?

Is she constantly doing this or is it just from time to time ?

It's every day when I feed them both. Otherwise she is a total doll and sooo friendly but when it comes time to eat she guards her food and just stares at him like if she's daring him and he gets scared. He is older. But I can touch her food w/o a problem, she doesn't care if I do. It's just with him...

You don't need to worry, you might need to get in the middle of it and let her know that it is not acceptable behavior in your house. You probably don't want her to behave like that so just let her know that you control the food not her. It's not easy to be the bad guy but stopping it now will offset problems later. I know how much you love her and Teddy, this is part of loving. You don't have to yell and you're not being mean, just firm.

Even when I pick her up and let him eat, cause she won't she growls at him while she's in my hands. It's like she's human :eek: I tell her no but she still does it. She watches him like hawk to make sure he doesn't touch her food.

A friend of ours adopted an Austrailian Shepherd from a shelter that had been hit by a truck, lost a leg and lived on mice in the woods for a month until she was found. Whe he adopted her she was like that with my dogs. Did not want their food but did not want them to eat. I stopped that in one meal. I sat in the middle of the kitchen floor and would only feed them each one kibble at a time and they had to take turns eating it, first from my hand and then I started putting it in their bowls. There we sat, me an Austrailian Shepherd & 4 little dogs. By the end of the meal Aussie was munching on her own food and was not even interrested in what they were doing. That was 4 years ago and they come to vsit several times a month. At meal time they all eat together in the kitchen with no problems. The only thing is that at home she stands to eat and here she's flat on her belly when she eats so that she's eye level with the yorkies!!!

I would separate them to feed them.

It is probably a pecking order thing. Just let her know that you are "alpha dog" and the behavior should stop. I've only had one dog ever do this (many years ago) and I would remove her from the eating area everytime she growled. She eventually got the point and learned to share! Good luck! :)

I've never tried this but it sounds like a very good idea to me! :thumbup:

Can I amend my post? I took the easy way out...

Both YorkieMom and Rhiannon's posts were much more helpful than mine. YorkieMom's method is actually a well-accepted protocol for dealing with food-guarding amongst dogs. That is: handfeeding one for dog a and one for dog b, over and over, but only as long as both dogs are behaving. I like how she extended it to one for dog a in your bowl, one for dog b in your bowl. Don't get discouraged if it takes more than one session.

While working on the problem that way, I wouldn't let London practice bad behavior. If she misbehaves, I would take Rhiannon's suggestion and remove her from what she covets - the food. If growling and acting ugly leads to being fed, that behavior is accidentally being reinforced. If there is any chance she might snap at you when trying to remove her while she's in that mode, you could keep a leash on her at mealtimes so that you can remove her that way.

Should you worry? Yes and No. The yes side is that if left untreated, the behavior could escalate. It is best that you intervene. On the other hand, food guarding is VERY common behavior in dogs. It doesn't mean that London is bad, it just means she has "issues" (ha!) that you need to deal with.

I hope that's more helpful than my first post!

We had that problem for a few days--when Oscar first came and we were trying to feed them different foods. I finally gave in, mixed the foods together and put two separate small bowls out for Emmy and Oscar. The bowls are exactly alike (I tried 2 different color bowls--that did not work--for whatever reason). They don't have a certain one they eat out of, but they seem to just munch out of whichever is the closest when they run by. When we sit down to eat, I move one bowl by hubby and one bowl by me. They will each pick a bowl and eat--with no growling. For a couple of days, prior to mixing the foods, I also did the handfeeding option--1 for Emmy, 1 for Oscar. It worked, too, but took TOO MUCH TIME!!!!!

Good luck with feeding time--your little lady is just showing big boy who is boss! hehe:p

That's a great story! I will try feeding them like that, the problem is Teddy chows down his food but I'm def going to try.

Can't chow it down if you feed him 1 kibble at a times!

I know, he just about bites my hand down lol. London takes her time anyway so with her it's fine.