Food aggression can be a serious issue, especially if you have children. A dog growls, snaps, or even bites a person who comes close to his food. In order to solve the issue, we have to look at the problem from a dog’s point of view – they want to take away my food! We need to ask a question, why does a dog feel that way? Finding an underlying issue is the key to successful treatment. Once we find the cause or suspect one, we can apply some steps. There are several ways to do it, but in this article, I’ll talk about one way to overcome food aggression. 

What Is Food Aggression?

Food aggression is a form of dominance aggression in dogs. It can also be called possessive aggression. It comes from a dog’s notion that the owner or other people/dogs are a threat to its food. A dog, in other words, thinks its owner wants to take its food and leave it with nothing. For simplicity’s sake, this dramatization illustrates the root cause of the dog’s behavioral issue. Because of this, a dog exhibits signs of aggression, such as growling, baring teeth, stiff body position, lunging, etc.

There is no rule, any dog breed can become overly protective of its food. From a small Chihuahua to a giant Leonberger. Of course, the difference is huge when a big dog gets aggressive and a tiny one. However, we need to treat the issue with equal seriousness.

Before We Start

Underlying health problems, unrelated to behavior, can sometimes mask food or general aggression. This is very important to understand, because it can save us and the dog unnecessary stress by trying to solve a problem that isn’t there. 

Here is an example: a dog shows aggressive behavior every time the owner gives him some food. The dog growls or bares his teeth. The owner calls a professional dog behaviorist to solve the issue or consult one. However, the issue lies somewhere else. The behaviorist tells the owner to take his dog to the vet or to check his dog on his own to see whether there are some health issues such as a wound, a scar, or a broken tooth. As it happens, the dog had a cracked tooth which caused pain during eating. Now every time a dog gets food, knowing he’ll feel pain makes the dog stressed and aggressive. 

Solution: fix the dental issue. 

Underlying health issues, such as dental problems, can show as food aggression. In such cases, issues start seemingly out of nowhere.

Solving The Real Issue

If we remove any underlying health issues, we may approach behavioral issues and what to do. There are several techniques we can use: 

• hand-feeding, 
• desensitization, 
• teaching commands “sit and wait” before eating, 
• changing the room where we feed the dog, 
• Treat method 

The one I found the most applicable in various situations is the so-called treat method. That is not the official name for the technique. I gave it the name “treat method” but I guess the more appropriate name would be the exchange method. 

Truthfully, if you look at it from a behaviorist point of view, the treat method is also desensitization in essence, because we use the treat to approach the dog and make him get used to us. Once again, if you look at it as a behaviorist, this method can also be considered counter conditioning because we replaced initial mistrust (causing food aggression) by optimism and happiness coming from the expectation to get a treat from us. This is the ultimate goal.

The goal of the treat method is to gain our dog’s trust again. By offering something better than the food in the bowl every time we are close to a dog while he’s eating, we are showing the dog we mean no harm. We are showing that we don’t want to take away his food, but give him something even better – a yummy treat!

The Steps

Here’s how to do it. Mind you, these steps are not always possible in such an order. It varies from one case to another. 

• We have to choose a good treat, something better than the food a dog is already eating (For dogs, smell is the most important factor; so the smellier treat is better)
• Choose a safe distance from the bowl and the dog (safe meaning not causing aggression sings in a dog, such as growling or stiff body position)
• Toss a treat close to a dog and his bowl and talk in a friendly manner (we need to make sure a dog sees as non threatening); of course we want a dog to see the treat came from us. 
• Be patient. It may take a few days or weeks for your dog to become comfortable enough for the next step and that is: come closer to the dog.
• If there are no aggression signs, repeat the same thing; toss the treat close by, let the dog eat the treat, etc.
• Each time a dog gets comfortable, come closer and repeat the process. If a dog becomes aggressive, take a step back.
• The next big step is to put the treat directly into the bowl. This step can be done only if the dog didn’t show signs of aggression in the previous step.
• Final step: to be able to give a treat from your hand to a dog that is eating.

Our ultimate goal is for a dog to be happy to get the treat directly from you, even though you are close to him and the food bowl is there. The goal is for a dog not to show aggression signs when he is eating and you come close to him or simply pass through the room. We ultimately want to eliminate food aggression and make mealtimes a positive experience for the dog, no matter who is present in the room or who is close to the dog.

Issues With This Method

First, I have to say that I choose this method because it is the easiest thing to do no matter if a person has some education in a dog’s behavior and training or not. It is also the least time consuming per day. Meaning, we do it once or twice a day (depending when you feed your dog) and as long as the dog is eating from the bowl. This is especially important for busy families who don’t have the time to implement other techniques.

However, there are two issues. The main problem is how long it takes to achieve the goal. People live busy lives and they are used to instant messages, in-less-than-24 h deliveries, and other commodities of a modern lifestyle. So they want a quick solution when it comes to their dogs, too. This can be a serious problem if they just quit after a few days or after the first step. They’ll need to do it all over again.

The second problem is other members of the family, especially children. Everyone has to be in on it, not just one family member. We can’t have children scaring the dog by running around during the process or another family member using harsh words for “still being aggressive”. Everyone has to work as one. This can be a bigger problem than it seems. 

Think about it. What if one family member thinks all behavior solutions are new-age stuff and we need to “tell the dog who’s the boss”? That person will cause more problems, no matter how hard we try to establish trust.

Two problems with this method: it takes a lot of time (in most cases) and the whole family has to work as one.

Final Thoughts

Treating a behavioral issue is not a simple thing. This is especially true when it’s aggression we are dealing with. But only a handful of cases prove impossible to solve. If it’s food aggression, you need lots of patience and consistency, but it can be done. The biggest issue with any behavior solutions or methods is that people give up easily. Maybe they don’t have enough time or the family disagrees with the method being used, or they just skip the steps one day and do them the other day. These inconsistencies lead nowhere. We all have to work together and we all have to be patient and consistent in our actions. Only then can we help our dog overcome its issues.

Read Next: Separation Anxiety Solutions

Cover photo by Ayla Verschueren