A few months ago, I discovered the “do not make a fuss of your dog’s food aggression issue” theory on a dog-feeding forum. The main idea goes like this: resource guarding issue in dogs is quite natural and hard for owners to shoot, so is not a big deal; And as long as your dog always shows obedience and submission to you at other times, you can just leave it alone after putting down its bowel and let it finish its meal without any interruption.
The reason I ask is this: generally speaking, my two-year-old golden is a good boy to human and friendly to its counterparts; he is quite willing to do what’s asked and wait and resist the temptation just before his bowel until getting the “go ahead” command. The biggest problem is: while enjoying its meal, however, it feels uncomfortable if petted on the back or any part of its body, and sounds warning signals if its food is touched. But, it is ok if just being watched. After applying so many methods to correct him, I do not see any chance of eliminating this problem, to a lesser extent though.
The conventional wisdom says that, as a pack leader, you want to make sure you can grab anything from your dog, even take anything away from your dog’s bowel or mouth. And in no circumstances, you tolerate your dog growling at you.
So do you think it is acceptable that your dog is a loyal follower to you in most cases, except that it really cares with someone touching it or its food while eating?
Anyone supports this “do not make a fuss of your dog’s food aggression issue” theory?
Food aggression is serious and should NEVER be ignored, even when it is minor. What if a child grabbed your dog’s bowl and was bitten??? Food aggression can escalate and even transfer to other areas if not taken care of. DO NOT IGNORE IT!!!
You should be able to take anything from the dog without encountering aggression – no exceptions.
Start with giving your dog an empty bowl because they don’t feel the need to guard an empty bowl. Then place a few pieces of kibble in the bowl and pet him in between giving the kibble. This will help him start to see a hand coming towards his bowl as a good thing since that’s what provides the food. Petting him inbetween will get him used to being touched during feeding time.
If he shows ANY aggression, don’t give him any more food until he calms down. Getting food while he is aggitated only teaches him that he can get his way by acting aggressive. Only give him food including treats when he is sitting and acting submissive to you.
Keep working on it, because the potential problems aren’t worth avoiding the work necessary to correct it – trust me! I have trained dogs for over 10 years and I have never seen a food aggression issue not escalate.
This is our project for line following robot at SDSM&T.
Line follower implemented with LeJOS (Java for Lego Mindstorms).
Simple “zig-zag” algorithm for slow line following robot. As Published in ROBOT magzine Sept/Oct 2009 issue. Pretty slow / lame performance. Compare with other video showing same robot with PID algorithm implementation.
Line following algorithm programmed into Formula FlowCode Buggy. Noam Weingarten (15/08/08)