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  1. #11
    Senior Dog bmathers's Avatar
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    I’ve always messed with my pup when I feed. I take the bowl up and put it down. And I give him body hugs and kisses while he eats. Not the whole time, but enough to make sure he gets used to it. I read somewhere to do that so they don’t become protective. I did this with my previous dog and do it with Diggity.

    Crazy idea but what if you hand fed him for awhile? Doesn’t help with water, but might with food as a starting point.


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  2. #12
    Senior Dog arentspowell's Avatar
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    Good idea. We do keep in touch with Thor's breeders.

  3. #13
    Senior Dog windycanyon's Avatar
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    I have never messed w/ my puppy's food and have never had food aggression. Honey is a bit of a pig so I got her a slow feeder but also send her to a crate (quite comical actually) where she happily eats.
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  4. #14
    Senior Dog SamsonsMom's Avatar
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    A 4 month old puppy that is aggressive? Aww, I sure hope not. When I brought Asher in, Samson was just 4 yrs old. I had visions of Samson snuggling little Asher and being his dad. HA! That did not happen. I had to feed Asher in his crate and Samson in another room. Asher had his own water bowl as well. I didn't force (expect) them to share anything. I still feed them in separate areas (Asher in his crate). They do share a water bowl now but that took a good year. Maybe take a few steps back and start feeding Thor in his own area. Don't ask him to share his water bowl either. One other note...........For the first 12 months or so after I brought Asher in, Samson would growl at me if I touched his belly. He was the man of the house and he was asserting his thoughts to me. I corrected him of course and the behavior died down after he fully accepted Asher. I guess my point is you never know what is going on in the pups head. It's likely the other dogs that are around Thor that cause his angst. I doubt the little guy is aggressive due to some internal genetic issue. It's the environment of other dogs. Maybe check into some of the plugins that help calm them down?

    Sure hope you figure it out and it turns out that little Thor is just struggling with his siblings. Took Samson 14 or so months to accept Asher.

  5. #15
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    I have no advice on how to fix this but I'd like to tell about a 4 year old Lab I adopted 10 plus years ago.

    I was contacted by a breeder in PA who had placed a puppy with a family who had another Lab. She explained to me he was food aggressive and had attacked the other dog on several occasions and they needed to re-home the dog. At the time I had Fannie, my yellow girl who was 10 years old. I agreed to take the dog as long as he and Fannie got along. I brought him home and introduced him to Fannie in the yard, and they got along great. Since I knew I was dealing with food aggression/resource guarding I purposely fed the dogs side by side, a couple feet apart for the first couple weeks, with me standing right there in the event there was an issue. There were none. After a couple weeks I started feeingd them in separate rooms, and picked up their bowls as soon as they were done eating.

    Things went well, Jake and Fannie got along well, and Jake was really a nice dog. Two years went by with no issues. One morning my wife fed the dogs and as they were finishing Jake went after Fannie. I was in bed at the time, but heard the ruckus so I got up and went to find out what happened. My wife told me Jake had finished eating, and went over to where Fannie was finishing and he just attacked her. I checked Fannie over and she was fine. I put them in separate areas in the house when I went to work. Things were fine for the next couple of days. Five days after the first incident, I had fed them dinner, and I was standing near Fannie as she was finishing her supper, and Jake came in and attacked her again. I grabbed him as quickly as I could and pulled him off her, and I could see blood coming from Fannie's ear. She had a pretty good tear in the ear, and we had to take her to the e-vet to get it taken care of.

    I contacted Jakes breeder and told her what happened, and that he could no longer stay with me. She took him back and had him euthanized, which saddened me greatly. I told her that he would be fine as an only dog, but she felt he could not be trusted and could not take the chance that he might attack a human.

    Fannie recovered and suffered no long term effects from the attacks.

    I will say this. I've never been a fan of messing with a dog once I release them to eat. Since I don't know Jake's story before he came to me, I have no idea what may have caused his issues. After dealing with this, I was further committed to leaving the dogs be to enjoy their meal. I feel that messing with a dog while they are eating can cause more problems than having any potential benefits.

    I hope you can work though this issue with Thor.

  6. #16
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    It's hard to believe that a 4 month old Lab puppy would be aggressive in anyway. Especially because you've had him since 8 weeks old. I'm thinking this could be happening because when puppies are with their litter mates, there is more competition to get to eat. He may have learned this behavior then.

    We've had 3 Labs. and I've always taught them since 8 weeks old, to "sit and wait" for their food. This teaches them some discipline and also teaches them they are not in charge of meal time, they need to politely sit and wait until I give them the okay to start eating.

    Ive never had a food agressive puppy...although most Lab pups eat with such enthusiasm, but this is not aggression.

    If your puppy is truly growling while he is eating...you will need to correct this behavior right away while he is still young.

    I would contact your Breeder first and she what her advice is.

    I wish you the best of luck with your puppy.

  7. #17
    Senior Dog Tanya's Avatar
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    I would contact an educated, trained and science/result based positive based trainer with credentials ASAP. He is still young and hte earlier you get a professional assessment and game plan the better. i wouldn't try things i find online in hopes they work. he needs an assessment.

    Let the breeder know, how much i take their recommendations depends on their education and knowledge of dogs. Many breeders may know their breed and lines but not be on top of the most recent information regarding training methods. Assing and fixing behavioral issues isn't necessarily something they have researched, gone to workshops/classes on. (which is no disrespect for all the things they DO know more about)

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  9. #18
    Senior Dog arentspowell's Avatar
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    Thanks all for the suggestions. We went to puppy class last week and it really helped. Spoke to the trainer about it and she gave us some ideas. She also does behavior consulting and offered to come observe him in our home. At home we ramped up the NILF. We’re also feeding him out of a puzzle toy or wobbler in his pen for some of his meals. This morning I fed him out of my hands while we played various games.

    He’s growing so fast that I forget how young he actually is. He’s doing great for 4.5 months old


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  10. The Following 5 Users Say Thank You to arentspowell For This Useful Post:

    barry581 (06-11-2019), bmathers (06-11-2019), kimbersmom (06-11-2019), SamsonsMom (06-11-2019), smartrock (06-11-2019)

  11. #19
    Senior Dog bmathers's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by arentspowell View Post
    Thanks all for the suggestions. We went to puppy class last week and it really helped. Spoke to the trainer about it and she gave us some ideas. She also does behavior consulting and offered to come observe him in our home. At home we ramped up the NILF. We’re also feeding him out of a puzzle toy or wobbler in his pen for some of his meals. This morning I fed him out of my hands while we played various games.

    He’s growing so fast that I forget how young he actually is. He’s doing great for 4.5 months old


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    Sounds like you are making great progress!!


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  12. #20
    Senior Dog Snowshoe's Avatar
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    I will say this. I've never been a fan of messing with a dog once I release them to eat.
    Me too, learned from my own Mum. Dogs on the farm worked hard all day, they deserved to eat their meal in peace.
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