Food Aggression Behavior in Dogs

Many dogs that become food aggressive have a history of neglect or were improperly socialized. Aggression for any reason is a dog's way of asserting dominance and controlling his environment. Food aggression is the most basic way of demonstrating dominance. Retraining a dog with this issue should be done by or under the supervision of a professional. Some dogs cannot be retrained out of this negative behavior.

  1. Cause

    • Dogs are pack animals. Packs are composed of a social hierarchy. In the pack hierarchy, the leader eats first regardless of who found the food. Dogs that are food aggressive tend to falsely believe they are the pack leader and it is appropriate to guard their food. The other common reason dogs become food aggressive is the dog has been starved to the point he has developed a serious fear of starving again thus will aggressively protect his food.

    Aggression

    • Aggression in general occurs when a dog that is nervous in his environment acts out when he begins to feel overwhelmed. In the case of food aggression, the dog is insecure about the availability of food and becomes aggressive due to this insecurity. Once the dog has found some success in controlling his environment through aggression, he will routinely become aggressive to protect his food. Dogs that have been allowed to become very aggressive can be extremely hard to retrain and are a safety issue for anyone in contact with them.

    Food aggression

    • Food aggression can manifest several ways. For instance, if you try to remove food you have placed in front of the dog, he may growl or snap. Sometime he will do this to other family pets but in extreme cases will show aggression towards humans as well. Another manifestation of food aggression is when the dog will actively take food that is not offered to him from someone's hand. A lesser form of food aggression is when the dog eats in a frenzy as he is worried he won't get enough food. Anything that gets in his way can be accidentally bitten.

    Retraining

    • Retraining dogs with food aggression should be done carefully and meticulously. Retraining carefully, because you do not want to get bitten or to elevate the aggression. Meticulously, as it can be a very deep seated problem where any aggressive events during retraining can set your training back to square one. Often, focusing the training on obedience in other areas will help the dog understand his place in your family's hierarchy, and will lessen his aggression during meal times as he no longer thinks he is the leaders and entitled to the food.

    Severe cases

    • For very severe cases of food aggression a professional trainer should be consulted. The most severe cases are often seen in severely abused dogs and can not be dealt with by the average dog owner. Most adoption agencies will test a dogs food aggression as a main determination of a dogs adoptability.