# My pup growls whilst eating. Is this normal?



## louis.uk (Aug 29, 2013)

My 11 week pup is fantastic. Great with kids, dogs and other animals. Recently I've been having a slight problem with him whilst he eats his food. The thing is when I give Louis his normal food (dry biscuit food) in his food bowl he's fantastic. He eats without any noise and allows me to brush his coat and general clear up around him. No problem. The problem occurs when I give him supplements to his normal food such as chicken and beef. He LOVES it. His crazy for it. When I even attempt to go close to him he growls with his head in the bowl. When I say i attempt to go close I mean not to pet him or brush him. Merely stand a few metres away. Like unsaid web he has his regular food he's fine but anything he really fancies he growls. Is this normal? Please help. This is the only time he growls. 


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## Sunflowers (Feb 17, 2012)

No, it is not normal.
This could be the beginning of food aggression.
I would have him sit for every bite, and only hand feed him, especially for the high value treats such as that chicken. Alternately, I would only feed kibble and walk by his bowl, and toss the chicken in. Don't just give it to him.
He has to know the food is yours, and you are allowing him to have it, and he needs to do something to get it. Also, he has to understand that once you give it, you will not take it away.


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## louis.uk (Aug 29, 2013)

Thanks. I will try that. What throw me was the fact he only acts this way with only high value food such as chicken and not with his regular food. Whenever I feed him even if its his regular food I ask him to sit, down and paw. Make him work for it before I put the bowl down. I want to resolve this issue before it becomes a big issue. 


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## louis.uk (Aug 29, 2013)

Any other advise? Can i please hear from anyone who have experienced anything like this? And how did you resolve it? Thank you. 


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## Capone22 (Sep 16, 2012)

louis.uk said:


> Any other advise? Can i please hear from anyone who have experienced anything like this? And how did you resolve it? Thank you.
> 
> 
> Sent from Petguide.com Free App


My puppy didn't growl, she went straight for a bite. Only with high value food such as rAw and bones. Fix it right way before it gets worse. Start by feeding these foods out of your hand only. If you give him any food out of a bowl, leave the dog alone. Do not mess with the dogs food bowl after you give it to him or you will create full blown food aggression. After a short while of feeding by hand I moved to feeding her out of her bowl. Every so often, while she was eating I would walk by and drop some high value (higher value than whatever he's eating) into her bowl and keep walking. Don't stop. Don't bother. Just drop food in bowl and continue on your way. Once he is obviously looking forward to approaching his space (this could take days or weeks. Depends on the dog.) Then I move to bending down and placing the high value food in the bowl. And standing up and walking away. Basically any time you approach him eating he should get some kind of high value food. And don't over do it. Aside from these times the dog should be able to eat in peace. This got rid of any potential food aggression in my puppy very quickly. She eats in her crate, no one is allowed to bother her. My kids know the crates are off limits. But if I have to I can take any none or food from her at anytime. 
http://thebark.com/content/preventing-aggression-over-food


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## mtmarabianz (Jan 7, 2010)

Feed him & leave him alone
it is his, let him enjoy his food = Geesh
The more you leave him alone, the more at peace he will be while eating, no need to growl

Do you like someone messing with you while you eat?
stick their hands in your food, brush your hair, 
give him a break = Peace

Respect is a two way street
let him have his food in peace
what your are doing is causing food aggression


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## Jashelgren (Aug 31, 2013)

Hi, I am new to this, but with my adult male rescue age 4, I hand feed him any of these so called high value treats. He used to growl if I put them on the floor, so I simply told him that he no longer gets them on the floor. He has been perfect with me, but not the kids. I am going to start having them hand feed him after making him sit and stay. I have not had the problem with his regular dry food though. I have only had him for 8 months and I can full out hug and kiss him while he eats! I love my baby!


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## warpwr (Jan 13, 2011)

mtmarabianz said:


> Feed him & leave him alone
> it is his, let him enjoy his food = Geesh
> The more you leave him alone, the more at peace he will be while eating, no need to growl
> 
> ...


Totally disagree with this sentiment.
That's great for wild animals where survival is key but dogs are domesticated and as such share our homes, food, etc.
Any puppy that growls or resource guards is a potential serious danger especially to children who may not realize they shouldn't come close at mealtime.
I put my hand right in the bowl with the desired food hidden in my fist until that puppy learns to love having a hand in his dish while eating. Then I further childproof them by rubbing ears, legs, back, etc while they eat. My dogs do not care at all when people or other dogs approach them while eating.
A full grown German Shepherd that resource guards is very scary indeed.
Take care of this problem now. You and the dog will be much happier & calmer in the future.
Dog Resource Guarding Behavior | Article by Linda Brodzik


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## loveformygermanshepherd (Aug 16, 2013)

warpwr said:


> Totally disagree with this sentiment.
> That's great for wild animals where survival is key but dogs are domesticated and as such share our homes, food, etc.
> Any puppy that growls or resource guards is a potential serious danger especially to children who may not realize they shouldn't come close at mealtime.
> I put my hand right in the bowl with the desired food hidden in my fist until that puppy learns to love having a hand in his dish while eating. Then I further childproof them by rubbing ears, legs, back, etc while they eat. My dogs do not care at all when people or other dogs approach them while eating.
> ...


I completely agree. If you don't do something about his now then it can and will be a very scary situation. Maxx is not even 4 months yet but as soon as I started feeding him I was sticking my hand in his food, grabbing his food and letting him eat it out of my hand. Then I would change it up a bit and put more valued and special treats in my hand and he loves that. I can do whatever I want to him while he's eating ( I have 3 small children in my home) and I have had food aggressive dogs before and by taking the bowel away and hand feeding and making them work for it really did help. Stay consistent with him and be patient, some dogs will hold on longer to old habits then others 

Good luck!! 


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## marshies (May 18, 2011)

I will also add, once you've given him the food, don't keep playing with it and taking it away. From what I've read (no expert other than reading this forum) that will make it worse. If you're doing hand feeding, do it BEFORE you hand your dog the bowl. Once the bowl is set down, it's his.

You may also play the trade-up game, where you trade something that your dog currently has for something EVEN better AND the thing you took away for trade. I played this with my dog when she was younger. You can do a forum search for trade-up game.

Lastly, I would implement NILF to add more structure to your dogs life. This can be googled as well for detailed instructions.


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## louis.uk (Aug 29, 2013)

warpwr said:


> Totally disagree with this sentiment.
> That's great for wild animals where survival is key but dogs are domesticated and as such share our homes, food, etc.
> Any puppy that growls or resource guards is a potential serious danger especially to children who may not realize they shouldn't come close at mealtime.
> I put my hand right in the bowl with the desired food hidden in my fist until that puppy learns to love having a hand in his dish while eating. Then I further childproof them by rubbing ears, legs, back, etc while they eat. My dogs do not care at all when people or other dogs approach them while eating.
> ...


I agree with you. The thing is I can quite easily say ok I will give Louis his high value treats and walk away. No go close to him whilst he eats and I'm 100% sure he won't growl. But like you said he's a pet and not in the wild and needs to be taught this behaviour is not acceptable because I also believe this could cause major problems when he gets older with children who aren't aware they should back off and adults alike. I have two girls and plenty of Nephew and nieces and it scares me to even image if there was a situation where Louis bite them. From day one I've introduced the children to him. They love him and play with him and he also enjoys their company. I've also socialised Louis with other dogs and animals and he's doing great. This is why this growling business has taken me by surprise and I don't like it one little bit and I believe instead of ignoring it I must tackle the problem head on now. I will look into the techniques you guys have mentioned and will keep you guys updated. Lets see what anybody else has experienced. Thank you for all your advise thus far. It means a great deal. 


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## angierose (Apr 20, 2009)

I guess I don't understand why you need to mess with his food, or him, while he's eating. It's his dinner, can't he have five minutes to eat without a hand in his bowl?

My Sam used to resource guard bones. He came to me as an adult, and let me say, having 70 pounds of dog you've only known a few months growling when you enter a room is scary. He stopped doing it when he realized I wasn't a danger. I would toss him treats when I came in while he was having his bone-- excellent treats, cubed chicken or meatballs. Eventually he stopped growling. Eventually I began being able to trade a pile of treats for his bone (I had to take it away if it became too small). But he never had to give up what he had for nothing, and I didn't constantly push him about it. 

Now I can walk right up to him when he has a bone, take it from his mouth, and leave a few treats in its place. Or grab a cooked chicken bone out of his mouth when we're in the yard (squirrels like to drop things from people's trash) and not replace it with anything but a "Good boy!"


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## wyominggrandma (Jan 2, 2011)

Because the one time a child walks by the bowl and the dog takes the childs face off is a good reason to not allow food aggression.Or walks by a bone or toy. 
I am one of the believers that what I give my dogs, I can take away from them. 
Do I harass them while they are eating or playing with toys or chewing on a bone. No, I don't have to because they learned from a puppy that I can and will take things from them at any time and they accept it because the dogs live in my house, I don't live in theirs.
Trading up for higher value treats, toys etc to prevent growling is good in theory, but if the dog has a mouth full of some type of toxic food or item or animal(squirrel, etc) I certainly don't want to spend the time looking for then coaxing the dog to give up t he dangerous item for the higher value treat.
My house, my rules.. Anyone better be able, in my home to walk safely by my dogs eating, playing or chewing on bones at any time .


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## Capone22 (Sep 16, 2012)

The people telling you to mess with his dogs bowl is VERY dangerous advice and completely out dated. PLEASE read the link I attached. That is not how you go about preventing or fixing food aggression. 


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## Saphire (Apr 1, 2005)

My Cairn terrier came to me at 9 months old....food aggression was horrid. He would put any full grown GSD to shame when in the "MINE" mode. 
Meals were served in his crate for several months. No talking...petting..touching....simply dinner time.Problem solved. 
Over time he no longer cared about people being near his food...why? He learned it was his food and nobody was going to take it from him.
I have never tried to take my dogs food from his once given as I see no need.


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## Capone22 (Sep 16, 2012)

wyominggrandma said:


> Because the one time a child walks by the bowl and the dog takes the childs face off is a good reason to not allow food aggression.Or walks by a bone or toy.
> I am one of the believers that what I give my dogs, I can take away from them.
> Do I harass them while they are eating or playing with toys or chewing on a bone. No, I don't have to because they learned from a puppy that I can and will take things from them at any time and they accept it because the dogs live in my house, I don't live in theirs.
> Trading up for higher value treats, toys etc to prevent growling is good in theory, but if the dog has a mouth full of some type of toxic food or item or animal(squirrel, etc) I certainly don't want to spend the time looking for then coaxing the dog to give up t he dangerous item for the higher value treat.
> My house, my rules.. Anyone better be able, in my home to walk safely by my dogs eating, playing or chewing on bones at any time .


You don't trade up forever. This was protocol for a dog who already shows signs of food aggression. I don't do that with normal puppies with no issues. I just feed them, let them be. And train them, and bond with them. I fully expect to be able to take food from my dogs mouths at any time also. But my shepherd came to me with the start of food aggression and it had to be fixed. To prevent food aggression, messing with their bowl is not the way to go. The fact that people do this and have dogs not get food aggressive is because they have a good dog. Because if they did this with a dog that is naturally very possessive, you create the exact problem your trying to prevent. You hear it a million times over. 


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## Capone22 (Sep 16, 2012)

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=IIt_yj893qU&desktop_uri=/watch?v=IIt_yj893qU


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## angierose (Apr 20, 2009)

I specifically said that I don't always have to "trade up" anymore. I never said that I "allowed" food aggression. I trained it away. I was bitten badly in the face by a food-aggressive family dog as a child and I know that behavior is not acceptable, just don't agree with some of the methods used to get rid of/prevent it.


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## louis.uk (Aug 29, 2013)

wyominggrandma said:


> Because the one time a child walks by the bowl and the dog takes the childs face off is a good reason to not allow food aggression.Or walks by a bone or toy.
> I am one of the believers that what I give my dogs, I can take away from them.
> Do I harass them while they are eating or playing with toys or chewing on a bone. No, I don't have to because they learned from a puppy that I can and will take things from them at any time and they accept it because the dogs live in my house, I don't live in theirs.
> Trading up for higher value treats, toys etc to prevent growling is good in theory, but if the dog has a mouth full of some type of toxic food or item or animal(squirrel, etc) I certainly don't want to spend the time looking for then coaxing the dog to give up t he dangerous item for the higher value treat.
> My house, my rules.. Anyone better be able, in my home to walk safely by my dogs eating, playing or chewing on bones at any time .


Thanks for your advise. How did you train your dog as a pup to allow you to let's say take a bone off him without him growling? 


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## louis.uk (Aug 29, 2013)

@@@@@[email protected]@@@@@
Firstly I would like to thank all you guys for your sound advise. It's a great help. I considered everything and decided I will go down the route of hand feeding cubed chicken( Louis favourite). 
I beg by putting Louis food out once he did his usual sit, stand, down and paw on request. I then put the bowl I front of him with his regular food. No chicken. I started to eat the food. I then began to fed him by hand the cubes of chicken a few at a time and walked away. He eats the chicken and continues to eat his regular food and occasionally looking to say like. " any more chicken" I pop up and agin hand feed him, same result. The third time I drop some into him bowl and he eats away. Do this a few times and walk away. Finally I get the chicken put it into his bowl with my hand in the bowl and sit next to him. He starts to eat the chicken and I stoke him and tell him he's a good boy. Looks up and continues to eat. I brush his coat like I do when he eats his regular food and he doesn't make a sound. Done. Louis eats his food and finishes. No drama. Lol. Think if cracked it. Will do it again next feed time but very happy. Thanks guys. My next mission is to try to take a bone off him and give it back to him. Only once I have given him a bone and big he did not give it up. I see where the phrase " a dog with a bone" comes from. Lets see what happens 


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## NTexFoster (Jul 18, 2013)

Kaiser initially did this but I was able to fix it without too much trouble.
First: hand feeding him occasionally
Second: Feeding with kongs. I have a large kong that gets filled with half of Kaiser's food and the rest goes in his bowl. He needs my help to get the rest so he has to let me put my hands in the bowl.
While he eats I'll stand next to him and pet him. I don't do anything if he growls, I just keep doing what I'm doing. Once he has eaten about half the food in his bowl I'll reach in to pour some of the food from the kong out. As he eats I'll continue helping him.

The reason this is important is occasionally he finds a treasure that needs to be retrieved. I'm able to reach in his mouth to get it back without losing fingers. Kinda important to me.


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## wyominggrandma (Jan 2, 2011)

I just don't accept any issues and have always done it with all my puppies of all breeds. From the first day they come home, I will take away bones, take food dish, put my hand in their bowl, mess with their faces and mouths while they are playing with their toys and food. I just don't act like there will be a problem and there isn't. I reach over and take food, take toys, remove bowls, replace bowls, etc. If puppy is playing or chewing on bones or toys and has them laying around while doing this, I pick up the toys/bones and put them away. Then bring them back out. Put food down in the dish and then remove the dish, then give it back. I just don't make a big deal about it and its not.
I am sure many on here will say what I am doing or what I do is wrong. That I have wimpy dogs.. Well, my GSD puppies are little land sharks like everyone elses when they first come home and it is just how I raise them. I expect them to accept changes in their routine, changes in their food routines, changes in their daily lives because that is a normal way to live. If my grandkids come barreling into the house with their friends, Holly is happy to play with them, do tricks, or just lay beside them. If adults come into the house, she is the same. I have never thought of my dogs as humans or having human feelings/reactions, they are dogs and therefore live their lives with ME and my life, not the other way around.


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## Saphire (Apr 1, 2005)

wyominggrandma said:


> I just don't accept any issues and have always done it with all my puppies of all breeds. From the first day they come home, I will take away bones, take food dish, put my hand in their bowl, mess with their faces and mouths while they are playing with their toys and food. I just don't act like there will be a problem and there isn't. I reach over and take food, take toys, remove bowls, replace bowls, etc. If puppy is playing or chewing on bones or toys and has them laying around while doing this, I pick up the toys/bones and put them away. Then bring them back out. Put food down in the dish and then remove the dish, then give it back. I just don't make a big deal about it and its not.
> I am sure many on here will say what I am doing or what I do is wrong. That I have wimpy dogs.. Well, my GSD puppies are little land sharks like everyone elses when they first come home and it is just how I raise them. I expect them to accept changes in their routine, changes in their food routines, changes in their daily lives because that is a normal way to live. If my grandkids come barreling into the house with their friends, Holly is happy to play with them, do tricks, or just lay beside them. If adults come into the house, she is the same. I have never thought of my dogs as humans or having human feelings/reactions, they are dogs and therefore live their lives with ME and my life, not the other way around.


I have achieved the same with every dog I have owned (including a very food aggressive dog who came to me that way) without ever messing with their food. I believe in developing a strong relationship with your dog as your foundation, with that comes a dog who trusts you...with trust comes respect, both ways. I will respect my dogs meal times and leave him alone to enjoy thus never giving him/her reason to guard it to start with. With so many people coming to this forum with unstable and problematic dogs....telling them to take the food or put their hands in their dishes while eating may cause the aggression to escalate dramatically which leaves them with one more problem to add to their already growing lists.


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## warpwr (Jan 13, 2011)

Capone22 said:


> The people telling you to mess with his dogs bowl is VERY dangerous advice and completely out dated. PLEASE read the link I attached. That is not how you go about preventing or fixing food aggression.
> 
> 
> Sent from Petguide.com Free App


1. No link to any useful information.
2. Don't be silly, it's not dangerous at all to teach an 11 week old puppy not to resource guard.


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## louis.uk (Aug 29, 2013)

warpwr said:


> 1. No link to any useful information.
> 2. Don't be silly, it's not dangerous at all to teach an 11 week old puppy not to resource guard.


What a super cute pup


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## OriginalWacky (Dec 21, 2011)

Saphire said:


> I have achieved the same with every dog I have owned (including a very food aggressive dog who came to me that way) without ever messing with their food. {gently snipped} telling them to take the food or put their hands in their dishes while eating may cause the aggression to escalate dramatically which leaves them with one more problem to add to their already growing lists.





wyominggrandma said:


> I just don't accept any issues and have always done it with all my puppies of all breeds. From the first day they come home, {gently snipped} they are dogs and therefore live their lives with ME and my life, not the other way around.


In all actuality, I think you're both correct on this one. Puppies, I'd highly recommend messing with them and so on to teach them than you're allowed to do that. Same with non-food-aggressive dogs. Any youngster that comes into my house quickly learns that not only am I allowed to mess with their food, but showing aggression towards a curious cat isn't allowed either. And, I don't let other dogs mess with them, but I do expect them to be chill about other dogs being close. 

With a dog that already has issues, I'm going to take a different tack and make sure that nobody can mess with them while I start on hand feeding and so on. If they have issue with me feeding them as being too close, then I take it back even further and start even slower. Trading up can work wonders, and eventually you fade out the trading up part, much like fading out treats for training other things. With a dog that has this kind of history, I'll often feed in the crate or a separate room if I'm not able to supervise, even if we haven't had any more issues in a long time.

I have yet to come across a dog that stays with me long term that will not allow me to pretty much reach down their throat to take something away (and I've done it more than once when I needed to), and I have not yet been bitten by a resource guarding dog. Heck, even most of my cats will let me get things from them if needed. And of course, it's not like I just let the cats run in and take the dogs' food, but if they want to go sniff it, I'll usually allow it, and then remove the cat gently, so the dogs don't wind up frustrated at trying to eat with cat fur up their nose. I think it sends the message to the dogs that the cats get to sniff, fine, and Mom will get the cat out of there.


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## TommyB681 (Oct 19, 2012)

Food aggression. When Penny was growing up I made it a habit of being around her and even run my hand through her bowl while she was eating. That way she got used to people being around her without thinking Im going to take it from her


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