# Behavior Problems: growling and food holding



## 1ROTTHOFF (Jun 9, 2009)

Blaze is a beautiful 8 month old V for which we had since he was 8 weeks old. He has developed food holding and tries to snap if you tamper with his food while he is eating or if he has a really good bone in his paws.

In Addition, he is still intact and wasn't sure if neuetering is recommended, if so what age? I am a big believer in training. We have had him professionally trained through group lessons over a 12 week period. We are very active with him and does recieve a lot of exercise. I understand that he may still be in his adolescence phase but I'm am not sure what else I can do.


----------



## tgrove (Mar 5, 2009)

how I trained Bella was this. Give small amount of food in the bowl, then take it away. Immediately but the bowl back with more food. Repeat until your are at your normal serving size of food.


----------



## tbone13 (Apr 24, 2008)

A lot of people think that neutering a male is going to have this magical effect on dogs. (not that that's what you're suggesting) We didn't find that to be the case. Our male was around 12mos when we had him fixed, he didn't have any major issues with aggression, but he would occasionally growl with a bone.

Neutering him may have settled him a bit, but not much. All the improvements he's made since them were due to us working with him. Whether it's walking on a leash, food/bone aggression, etc.


----------



## 1notenough (Sep 6, 2008)

Tbone how can you say that utting part of your dog off is fixing him to me it seems like breaking him.I pay the extra money to license my dog that isn'fixed


----------



## madaboutvizslas (Nov 12, 2008)

Don't know much about food possesiveness. I just kept sticking my fingers in the bowl when she was a puppy. Also I always made her wait for food ie. Make her sit and wait, then put the food down. Give the OK command and then and only then can she have the food. I do this everytime she gets breaskfast and dinner. Sometimes I would walk away around the corner for a minute and then give the OK when I came back. It took a bit of time to build up the obedience. But you are the top dog and she just has to accept thats thats the way it is.

My mates German Shepard became food possesive at about the same age. I don't know that you can change them once it starts. Might just have to accept it???


----------



## tbone13 (Apr 24, 2008)

I didn't coin the phrase "fixed" I'm just using it. Even people who don't have pets seem to use it, so it's apparently broadly accepted. It's also worth pointing out that the extra $8 it would have cost me to license my male for not being neutered had nothing to do with my decision to do so.

1. It's been proven that neutering your male reduces the risk of prostate cancer.
2. Based on that alone, if you're not going to breed him why wouldn't you neuter him?
3. Many Vets believe that neutering does in fact calm aggression, reducing marking during walks and territorial tendencies.

I'm not saying everyone has to do it, but I think those are valid reasons why people do it.


----------



## Vlicked (Jun 19, 2008)

I've seen trainers do something like a previous poster suggested. During feeding time, introduce the food into the bowl a handful at a time. You should just pull a chair up to the bowl and camp out while feeding! Make sure he knows the food comes from you. Then you can start introducing hand feeding instead of putting it in the bowl. And then build up to actually touching and stroking him while he's eating (I've read you shouldn't do this right away though!).

I'm not sure if this helps food aggression or not, but from the start, we also made our guy sit and wait for his food. You put the food down and then wait a few moments to give the release command. We've never had a problem with food aggression (again, not saying that's why). We also don't feed him until we're done eating ourselves.

I'm not sure neutering will make a behavior go away once it has started. But there is thought that it will help calm a more dominant/aggressive dog (less raging hormones!). Our pup was a submissive guy in our house but once I took him to my office, where there was another male dog, he decided the indoor plants were a great thing to mark. And he never exhibited this behavior before. We got him neutered when he was about 15 months and never had that problem since! He's also super social and submissive at the dog park.

Good luck! If it becomes a bigger problem and/or you have small children, then hiring a trainer for a session might be a good solution.


----------



## 1notenough (Sep 6, 2008)

Tbone I didnt want you to take any offense to what I said about {fixing}your dog.It seems to me that it is a choice that people make sometimes to make it easier on them,when it comes time to controll there dog.I just prefeer to have my dogs whole,I like it that way.As far as cancer goes let the chips fall where they may I take great care in feeding my dogs good food and changeing there diet regularly in order to nurioush them properly.I hope that this will keep them healthy.


----------



## scooby (Mar 23, 2009)

Hi I'm no expert but I did read that putting the food down then removing the bowl can be seen as a negative experience for the dog which can make them more protective of their food. Instead it suggested putting down there usual amount of food and then whilst they are eating it put some treat food on the top. I started this with Scooby from day one and our boys aged 4 and 5 used to give him cooked chicken, we have never had a problem with him being aggressive or protective over his food he even sits and let the 4 yr old hand feed him tiny bits at a time !


----------



## virgilsmom (Aug 13, 2008)

We got Virgil at 3 mos and he started getting real still or lunging at the cats as they walked by when he had food out.

I have always petted and handled my dogs faces when eating from the time they were little and this seemed to get him over it. At 1 year I still rub his face when eating or pick up the bowl occasionally.

When giving treats I make him wait and tell him to take it nice and make him take it real slow without grabbing.


----------

