Molly won't share

[eclecticmk]

Since I've come back from vacation, Molly has been showing a new behavior. When ever she has any food or greenies and one of my mom's dogs get within 10 feet of her she starts to growl at them. She even is getting pissy with me when I hold her greenie and if I try to take it away from her, she runs away with it and tries to hide. She must have had a hard time with Otto the Golden she stayed with while I was gone - maybe he was eating her food. But she has never to share at home and has never growled at the other dogs. Do you think this will stop when she realizes that things are back to normal? Or will it continue? I'm afraid it will get worse and I'm not sure what to do about it.

[lashwish]

I think food aggression is really common among dogs. I also think a lot dog owners don't do anything about it. There are been many occasions while at the park that I have seen other dogs snap at another dog when a treat is being given out.

When Oscar was a puppy, I used to take away his food bowl while he was eating & then give it back to him. I know that's hard to do considering how fast they eat, but its worth a try.

He's loves his food but he doesn't do squat if another dog tries to eat his treat, other than try & grab it first. When he loses he just moves on to another activity.

Can you ask the people who watched her what the feeding situation was like?

[2PUGS]

My Snorkey at about eight months, he will be a year old in July got a real case of food aggression. If I put my hand near his bowl he made noises I never heard from him before, real mean. Then it was with the bones, he used to like me to hold them while he chewed them. I went to pick it up and I thought he was going to bite me the way he got was real ugly. And he got real nasty with Chloe if she came anywhere near his bone. It took me about four days of two feedings a day to stop this behavior. When I went to feed him I sat on the floor with his food bowl between my legs and if he wanted anything he had to come into my space. Well he would not do it at first I would feed him a few pieces from my hand and stir the food around with my other hand. Then he would slowly with head down come between my legs and be real tentative eating. I would put my hand in part of the bowl and if he growled I would take it away and only give him a couple of pieces from my hand and then put the bowl back down and try again. It took four days of this and by the second feeding on the fouth day he was coming between my legs and eating and I could put my hand in his bowl and no growling and he would just eat around where my hand was in the bowl. I think he just needed to relearn that all good things flow from me and I would not tolerate that behavior. And that fixed him with the bones also with no other work. Now if Chloe comes to his bone he gets up and goes and gets the one she was chewing and they switch off a couple of times like that, I can't figure that one out, but they are Pugs and need no excuse. Bob, Bernadette, Snorkey and Chloe in Florida.... Oh, my friends solution was wack him one he will stop it. Great Dane owner and I don't believe in hitting them for anything. They have never been hit or will be.