# Joey possessive over food



## Joey (Jun 16, 2013)

Hi there,

This is my first post on here and I am after some advice.

Joey is a 4 month old Cockapoo who has been doing really well settling in to our family home. I have 3 children 6, 8 and 9 and apart from the bit of mouthing he does as he seems to be teething, he has been great and is learning well.

He is on dry food which he seems to enjoy and is no problem around this food even when we move it or pick it up.

However, yesterday he managed to get hold of some chicken off a plate that had been left within reach and he suddenly turned into a demon dog! He went for my oldest child biting her on the arm (she is okay but a bit shook up) and became quite vicious with his growling. He wouldn't let anyone near him. 

We have never seen this before and is not like it with anything else, toys or even his dog food. 

We obviously want to ensure this doesn't happen again or for him to start being like this with anything else.

Did this happen with anyone else's dog when they were a puppy or does anyone have any advice?

Many thanks everyone.


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## DB1 (Jan 20, 2012)

This must be a worry for you, it is horrid when they do something out of usual character I know. Luckily we have not had the food problem. It is a good idea to try the food swap game, to give him some food then approach him with a higher value treat, start with his usual food so he is not quite so excited by it. I would keep the children away when you do this though, gradually give him higher value treats to start but always offer something even better, you should then be able to take away the first thing he has as he will come to expect something better and readily give it up. This is the theory anyway, once they have something really special they may decide that nothing you could offer would be better, luckily for me Dudley has never shown aggression at that stage but just does a runner or swallows what he has really fast before I can take it. When he bit your daughter was she trying to take the food or just happened to be nearby?


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## Joey (Jun 16, 2013)

Hi Dawn, thanks for reply.

She tried to grab the chicken out of his mouth. Unfortunately I wasn't quick enough to tell her not to and let me get it.

I will certainly try anything and your food swap game sounds good. 

He had been out of sorts for the previous 24 hours and had been bringing some of his normal food back up a few hours previously. Whether him being a bit unwell was a bit of a catalyst for this happening I am not sure. He is also going through the teething stage too.

We have said that we wouldn't give him any human food (not purposely anyway) and this was probably the first bit of chicken he had ever tasted (it was a nice chicken casserole too). Would you suggest using some chicken for the food swap game? I know plain chicken is fine for dogs, our main aim with the no human food was to prevent him from begging in the future.

Thanks again!


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## DB1 (Jan 20, 2012)

I do give cooked Chicken, sausage etc as high value treats, but we never feed Dudley when we are eating so he never really begs for food, sometimes looks longingly for a moment or two then settles down as he knows he won't get any then. I wouldn't give it immediately when swapping, although to start with I wouldn't swap anyway, just add something nice, just some dog treats, it may not hurt to add a tiny bit to his food, just about a cm sq. Then in time give him a dog chew that would take longer than a few seconds for him to eat, let him smell you have chicken, tell him to drop the treat (does he know 'drop it'?), give him a little bit of chicken then let him have the original treat back. Having said all this I have never asked Dudley to give up a very high value treat, I guess there would be some highly obedient dogs that would, but hopefully by having him learn to give up some foods just for a moment or two for something better he would be less anxious about people taking things away from him. I would still make sure your children are told to never take food from him, which I'm sure you have done anyway.


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## wilfiboy (Sep 18, 2010)

I think he was just acting like a dog, this is really nice your not going to take it away, obviously it was yummy. I read advice re this yesterday but so rubbish I can't remember I" ll send you a private message so you can access it, it was exactly the same incident but an adult not a child x


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## Joey (Jun 16, 2013)

Thanks again for all your help.

We have told the girls not to take anything from his mouth but I think because we all jumped suddenly as we noticed him tucking in to his chicken casserole she thought she was helping.

Joey is doing quite well with his obedience and knows "come", "sit", "down" and now "paw", but he doesn't know "drop" yet so will be definitely working on this one next.

I think maybe we will start to give him the occasional bit of chicken and use it with a bit of his training so he gets used to knowing he can earn it.

Thanks again.


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## wilfiboy (Sep 18, 2010)

He's only very young, if you give him a chew or something, if he's crated let him eat it in there so he knows his food is safe and yeh a good rule or the kids. You know he'll work for chicken, you can get a lot of dried chicken as treats either fillet sizes or small pieces. X


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## Joey (Jun 16, 2013)

Thanks, and you are probably right. 

As he is a young age and I have children, I probably analyze and worry about every little thing he does. 

I grew up with dogs and never experienced aggressive behavior apart from a rescue Dandie Dinmont we took on once. I know it was my parents who did most of the training but they were never as strict about things as I am probably being.


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## tessybear (May 1, 2011)

I think it's just his animal instinct taking over. He has found a high value treat and wasn't going to give it up. I was taught as a small child never to go near our dogs when they were eating or had a bone, although our spaniels never showed any signs of aggression. It's how I brought my own children up as well. I always give Dexter and Bonnie a wide birth with food or bones and they respect each other's space too. Raw chicken wings are part of their diet so they wouldnt consider that anything special.


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## Tinman (Apr 23, 2013)

Hi there, I also have a 4 month old, ruby and we had an incident over food, her and brother Ralph (9 months) were chewing on a rabbit ear each.
I stroked ruby while she was chewing the ear and she snapped and snarled at me, I was quote shocked as she is normally such a sweet little thing.
I took the treat off her and placed her in her crate. After a few moments I took her out and gave her the treat back. I then put my hands all over her and the treat and she was fine with me, she just carried on as if i wasn't there.
I also have a young child (4 years) and do not want the dogs to be possessive over food - although our son knows not to go near the dogs when they are feeding.
Ps - Ralph has been known to "mug" a child for a cookie when we were out once - I was mortified!!!!


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## Cat 53 (Aug 26, 2012)

Have you tried adding a high value treat to his bowl when he is eating? This allows you to touch him, have your hands near him etc. he gets used to you being near and being non threatening. He is young and needs to learn. As does your daughter. These things happen. Take a deep breath, relax.


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## Lexi&Beemer (May 5, 2013)

I don't know if you do already but maybe you can have your children actually put down his bowl and not allow him to eat until they give the word. Maybe like a chain of command, he sees you give the food to your kids then your kids give it to him - so in the food world he knows he's low man on the totem pole. I read somewhere to pretend that you are actually taking food out of the puppies bowl (as if you are actually eating his food) before you set it down lets them now who is the dominant one via food. I don't know of it worked but I did that (yes, I would put my hand in their bowl of kibble, swirl it around, and pretend to bring a piece to my mouth and munch). But they never growl or get aggressive now when I take food out of their mouths but they will get pretty ferocious with each other when they try to steal food. Also, I like to give them treats like apples and I will have a whole plate of cut up pieces and eat a few pieces first before giving them pieces. Maybe have your kids do that. In essence use his animal instincts (pack feeding behavior) to make sure that anyone can take his food away and he needs to be ok with that. Again, don't know if it really worked but I had a really difficult time with my previous dog that I wanted to address that early on.


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## RangerC (Jan 23, 2013)

The trainer at our puppy play school taught us to make our pups wait before tucking into food. She said to wait for the acknowledgement of a look up from the eyes - or it may be just a slight shift of the eyes towards you- that is the acknowledgement that you are top dog or pack leader. There was also a bowl of food which we had to give our pups and put our hands in to get the pup used non aggressive behaviour with food. I tend to give barney frozen chicken wings at the weekend when I want 5 minutes piece in the morning. He is quite possessive over these but I have been lying down on the floor talking to him and stroking him until he let me take it off him.


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