# 3 year old, new behavior



## pistolp1 (Jan 21, 2010)

Well I just got attacked by my 3yr old female GSD this morning. I got her at 1.5yr. I never noticed any food aggression until the last few month. I also never tried to take her food away to see if she was agressive till that point. Now I have had several instances to where I will walk by her when she is eating in the kitchen and she has turned around and bitten my hand... I was not trying to take the food, just merely walking by to get a cup of coffee. Not sure what i should do. I could put her in a separate area when she eats but I/ or anyone who happens to be home would like to not fear being in the same room with her when she eats. What to do?


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## msvette2u (Mar 20, 2006)

Put the dog in it's crate to eat.

Do not give her a bowl. 
Hand feed her until she relaxes, and/or give her her meals only in her crate. 

That's just off the top of my head but I'm sure others will chime in. Watch this Youtube vid to see how you encourage the dog to look forward to your presences as it means good things (yummy treats better than dog kibble).

ALSO take this dog to the vet and discuss the issue, she may be coming down with an illness such as Thyroid disorder that's making her very possessive.

Food Aggression Rehabilitation - YouTube


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## Clyde (Feb 13, 2011)

pistolp1 said:


> Well I just got attacked by my 3yr old female GSD this morning. I got her at 1.5yr. I never noticed any food aggression until the last few month. I also never tried to take her food away to see if she was agressive till that point. Now I have had several instances to where I will walk by her when she is eating in the kitchen and she has turned around and bitten my hand... I was not trying to take the food, just merely walking by to get a cup of coffee. Not sure what i should do. I could put her in a separate area when she eats but I/ or anyone who happens to be home would like to not fear being in the same room with her when she eats. What to do?


What does she do before she turns and bites?
The initial signs are so subtle that often they are missed until the growling, lunging, and nipping are seen. Usually increased speed when eating, stiffening of the body, changing body posture to better protect the food or keep an eye on the person, stiff pause in eating, showing teeth and growling are common signs before they will leave the bowl to bite.

Often these early signs will appear just as a person in the house walks by the dog while eating and the person doesn't realize. The dog will then start to relax once the person has moved on and may feel you moved on due to the signs the dog was giving even if that wasn't your intention. This could cause the dog to escalate in the behaviour despite the fact that she was being left alone.

This is why the best thing is to find a good trainer/behaviourist to help you out. Knowing the state of mind of the dog and its threshold can be the difference between success and failure with food guarding.

This is a good article
Food Guarding


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## Jax08 (Feb 13, 2009)

pistolp1 said:


> Well I just got attacked by my 3yr old female GSD this morning. I got her at 1.5yr. I never noticed any food aggression until the last few month. I also never tried to take her food away to see if she was agressive till that point. Now I have had several instances to where I will walk by her when she is eating in the kitchen and she has turned around and bitten my hand... I was not trying to take the food, just merely walking by to get a cup of coffee. Not sure what i should do. I could put her in a separate area when she eats but I/ or anyone who happens to be home would like to not fear being in the same room with her when she eats. What to do?


I think it's probably best to start a new thread so your question doesn't get lost in this one and more ppl might look at it.


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## pistolp1 (Jan 21, 2010)

She never has warned with a growl or teeth, just goes straight to the lung and snap. I have noticed the speed up of eating, and maybe a quick pause she notices something might be challenging her. Background... I use an e- collar during obedience and have done so successfully with a good trainer. I started to use the ecollar on her with her while eating to ask her to leave it and come to me.... that would work and she would leave the bowl and come and sit, then I would release her and back to the bowl to quickly scarf the food. I got her at a year an a half. previous owner never had aggression issues, just too much energy for their lifestyle. Maybe I should not have tried this late in the game to mess with her while eating? I have done hand feeding recently and make he do simple obedience and make her wait in front of her bowl up to a minute or so until I release her"ok!" to eat. I don't have a problem separating her... crate/another room but I can't have he lunging at me for no reason now, its not like I was bending down to physically take the bowl.


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## codmaster (Aug 5, 2009)

pistolp1 said:


> Well I just got attacked by my 3yr old female GSD this morning. I got her at 1.5yr. I never noticed any food aggression until the last few month. I also never tried to take her food away to see if she was agressive till that point. Now I have had several instances to where I will walk by her when she is eating in the kitchen and she has turned around and bitten my hand... I was not trying to take the food, just merely walking by to get a cup of coffee. Not sure what i should do. I could put her in a separate area when she eats but I/ or anyone who happens to be home would like to not fear being in the same room with her when she eats. What to do?


If you are able to - see a pro trainer/behaviorist asap! Preferably one who has worked a lot with GSD's and/or other large aggressive breeds.

That is not a problem that you can or should live with (IMO). BUT, it may take a pro to help you solve the problem.

It is certainly fixable, so go for it!

How is she taking treats from your hand? One suggestion that I have heard is to hand feed your dog all of her meals - get her used to the idea that all food comes from you so no need to have to do any protecting her food from you.

In the mean time I would suggest that you manage her very carefully so she doesn't feel the need to protect her food - until you can get some real help.


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## msvette2u (Mar 20, 2006)

By e-collar do you mean shocking her?
If so that's really a controversial method of "training" and shouldn't be used in the training process except for proofing a thing a dog knows without fail anyway.

Shocking her could very well be making her aggression worse.

***PS. You really do need to start a new thread - and watch the vid links and read the suggestions Clyde posted, they are excellent.


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## Bismarck (Oct 10, 2009)

msvette2u said:


> By e-collar do you mean shocking her?
> If so that's really a controversial method of "training" and shouldn't be used in the training process except for proofing a thing a dog knows without fail anyway.
> 
> *Shocking her could very well be making her aggression worse.*
> ...


agree.

i would not use a shock collar to teach a dog to be less food aggressive.
once you give her the food, it's hers. leave her alone.
she needs to relax when eating, and not have to worry about...is he going to shock me ?


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## pistolp1 (Jan 21, 2010)

I agree that she should be relaxed to eat and I see your point about not worrying about being zapped, however i am quite versed with using the ecollar and it is set on the lowest possible setting that will get her attention, it is not used to cause pain...


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## Jax08 (Feb 13, 2009)

pistolp1 said:


> Background... I use an e- collar during obedience and have done so successfully with a good trainer.* I started to use the ecollar on her with her while eating to ask her to leave it and come to me....* that would work and she would leave the bowl and come and sit, then I would release her and back to the bowl to quickly scarf the food..


As an e-collar user, I can say I really believe...

Right there is the source of your problem. That is equivalent to snatching the bowl out from under her while slapping her. I think you need to call your trainer and get help fixing that! In the meantime, start feeding her in her crate and stay away from while she eats.


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## sashadog (Sep 2, 2011)

Please don't take this the wrong way but... why did you use an e-collar in the first place when dealing with her and her food? Especially if she wasn't having any aggression issues initially. Again, this is not an attack as I use an e-collar on occasion as well I'm just trying to understand what the original goal was.


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## pistolp1 (Jan 21, 2010)

well it all started because she started snapping at people going near the couch which I didn't realize she had claimed as hers. Once I nipped that problem in the bud by reclaiming the space and not letting her near it, I wanted to make sure she was not that way with her food...my thougth process was was that NILIF and to use the e collar since she is already used to it for finishing on obedience. as well as a tool to keep my distance from her for safety and for her to come when called. Now in hindsight I realize it was a pretty dumb move. I only did it for about a week, now she thinks I'm gonna take her food all the time?


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## sashadog (Sep 2, 2011)

pistolp1 said:


> well it all started because she started snapping at people going near the couch which I didn't realize she had claimed as hers. Once I nipped that problem in the bud by reclaiming the space and not letting her near it, I wanted to make sure she was not that way with her food...my thougth process was was that NILIF and to use the e collar since she is already used to it for finishing on obedience. as well as a tool to keep my distance from her for safety and for her to come when called. Now in hindsight I realize it was a pretty dumb move. I only did it for about a week, now she thinks I'm gonna take her food all the time?


Gotcha... That's an important thing to mention  The fact that she's had prior resource guarding issues sheds a different light on the whole situation IMO. Did you use the e-collar when working on the couch issue as well? 

On a different note however, is this thread getting "restarted?" Should I be posting somewhere else?


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## Bismarck (Oct 10, 2009)

pistolp1 said:


> I agree that she should be relaxed to eat and I see your point about not worrying about being zapped, however i am quite versed with using the ecollar and it is set on the lowest possible setting that will get her attention, it is not used to cause pain...


i never questioned your ability to know how to use one.

When to use it however....

my thoughts on ecollars are they're great tools for reinforcing a known behavior while off leash.
never should they be used to work on a problem like guarding.
my 2 cents...


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## selzer (May 7, 2005)

You have had her for 18 months. Could you describe what training you have done with her during that time, how often you train and for how long? Are you doing all the training alone at home, or are you taking classes, or is someone else training the dog? And how often you interact with her/exercise, throwing the ball or walking, and for how long? 

You might want to completely change what you are currently doing with her as it does not seem to be working, and try a different approach. 

There is a book by Jan Fennel that might be helpful. It is a good read anyway. 
  *Also Available As:*

Hardcover 
 See All Formats & Editions  

 Dog Listener: Learn How to Communicate with Your Dog for Willing Cooperation (1/20/2004) 


by
 Jan Fennell

Good luck with your dog. Hope you can get this ironed out before it gets worse.


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## codmaster (Aug 5, 2009)

pistolp1 said:


> I agree that she should be relaxed to eat and I see your point about not worrying about being zapped, however i am quite versed with using the ecollar and it is set on the lowest possible setting that will get her attention, it is not used to cause pain...


 
If you want to use an ecollar, I highly recommend that you go to this site all about the ecollar. Lou Castle is the owner of the site and a true expert with the ecollar humane use. Great site for this tool.

Home


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## Bismarck (Oct 10, 2009)

thanks for the link.
going to spend some time reading that over


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## Clyde (Feb 13, 2011)

pistolp1 said:


> She never has warned with a growl or teeth, just goes straight to the lung and snap. I have noticed the speed up of eating, and maybe a quick pause she notices something might be challenging her. Background... I use an e- collar during obedience and have done so successfully with a good trainer. I started to use the ecollar on her with her while eating to ask her to leave it and come to me.... that would work and she would leave the bowl and come and sit, then I would release her and back to the bowl to quickly scarf the food. I got her at a year an a half. previous owner never had aggression issues, just too much energy for their lifestyle. Maybe I should not have tried this late in the game to mess with her while eating? I have done hand feeding recently and make he do simple obedience and make her wait in front of her bowl up to a minute or so until I release her"ok!" to eat. I don't have a problem separating her... crate/another room but I can't have he lunging at me for no reason now, its not like I was bending down to physically take the bowl.





pistolp1 said:


> well it all started because she started snapping at people going near the couch which I didn't realize she had claimed as hers. Once I nipped that problem in the bud by reclaiming the space and not letting her near it, I wanted to make sure she was not that way with her food...my thougth process was was that NILIF and to use the e collar since she is already used to it for finishing on obedience. as well as a tool to keep my distance from her for safety and for her to come when called. Now in hindsight I realize it was a pretty dumb move. I only did it for about a week, now she thinks I'm gonna take her food all the time?


I sounds like in trying to fix one problem another one surfaced. That combined with the fact that you think what you have done for the past week has made it worse I would stop doing anything until you can seek professional help.


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## Bismarck (Oct 10, 2009)

and feed her in her crate. 

you gotta get her to trust you again.


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