How can I correct my dog's behaviour?

Question

I adopted her from the spca 1 month ago. She was fine in the beginning, but now she growls and snaps at my husband and I when we come anywhere near her food bowl while she is eating.

How can we prevent this behaviour and/or correct it?

Answer 1

This is a learned behavior and you need to have it unlearned. Try a shock collar and use it when the undesirable behavior is displayed and praise the dog when she is good. Sooner or later she will get it.  

Answer 2

training.

Answer 3

oooh i saw this on an episode of dog whisperer too bad i dont remember what happend

When a dog (either as a puppy or as an older dog) enters a new pack, the new family, you must make sure that the dogs knows its place in the pack. And has to be the last place in your pack's ranking order! The dog must understand that all humans are higher ranking then it! Why? To avoid that the dog starts to behave as the alpha dog and starts to play the boss! And that can include aggressive protection of what the dog considers as "its", may it be "its" food, "its" toys or "its" territory. So how do you achieve this? The following tips are valid either for a new dog or for a dog that needs re-training in this aspect. And as this hub was requested as "How do you deal with a food aggressive dog?" My tips and advice concentrate on this aspect:

1. Determine when the best time is to feed your dog. Dogs normally rest after a meal; larger breeds HAVE to rest after a meal to avoid serious problems like bloat (Gastric Dilatation-Volvulus). You want to feed your dog at a time when there is relative quietness in the house and when the dog can relax afterwards for a time, for example when the kids are in school ;-). That brings the stress levels down and allows the dog to relax more and be a bit less protective. Try to feed your dog always at the same time. In the ideal case that should be after the "human pack" has eaten, as the alpha wolves eat first and the lower ranking pack members last.

2. Establish a place and a routine to feed your dog. Always feed your dog at the same place and follow a certain routine. You will imitate the alpha wolf that comes back from hunting and shares the food with the lower ranking members of the pack. You even might to fake that you are eating a bit first and then giving the bowl to the dog to emphasise that. Have one "main" feeder in the family, but make sure that everybody takes his/ her turn to establish the idea in the dog that all humans are higher ranking pack members that share food with the lowest ranking pack member - the dog. Soon your dog will know when it is feeding time and follow you around as you prepare its bowl. Before giving it to the dog, fake that you eat a bit of it, then let the dog do something simple like "sit" or whatever command the dog knows to "earn" their food. Don't allow that the dog jumps around, and up and down at you, wait until it has calmed down and then set the bowl to the ground. Remember you are the alpha that decides when and what to give, not the dog that demands that you do it "now". When you have set the bowl to the ground go quietly away and let the dog eat. When the dog has learned to make "sit" for the food you can expand this to train him to "sit and wait" or "down and wait" making, until YOU allow it to go up and eat the food.

3. After the dog has eaten. When the dog has finished eating and wanders off to have a rest, remove the bowl. Don't let any food standing around until next feeding time. Where no food there no food aggressiveness ;-)

4. If you have several dogs/ pets and they are "food aggressive" amongst themselves, you must know who is the higher ranking member in the "dog only" part of the pack and feed them in this order, higher ranking members first. If you don't know that, are unsure or your dogs go through a phase of re-establishing their ranks feed them apart and out of sight of eachother.

5. Feeding at the table Don't feed the dog at the table whilst you eat, remember the alpha wolves/ dogs share the leftovers after they had their fill, not before. Remember that a lot of human food is not suitable for dogs, salt can damage its kidneys and chocolate can even kills smaller dogs. So the best is not to feed the dog at all at the table! If they are dog-suitable leftovers keep them until the usual feeding time.

6.Things that may help. Make sure that your dog gets enough exercise, a tired dog is less likely to get aggressive then one that has to much energy left over. Make a distingtion between food time/ place and other things like playing with your dog. Give the dog the possibility to "switch the chip" between playing and being fed.

Summary: Food aggresivity is a symptom of a dominance problem. The dog doesn't know its place in the family and/ or believes itself higher ranking then one or more human members of the pack. Rfox has written an excellent hub that gives a lot of sound advice how to (re)establish the human leadership in your pack at How To Prevent Dog Bites Involving Children In case you liked my hub feel free to give it a thumb up or leave a comment in the box, I would be especially grateful for comments that help me to improve the lat-out etc of my hub, please BE critical! ;-) SY

http://hubpages.com/hub/How-do-you-deal-... found this here

Answer 4

Resource guarding is a fairly common problem, especially for dogs who may have been abused in the past. Here are some things you can do:

1. Show her that humans coming near her during meal times is a good thing. Approach her from a far distance (before she starts any bad behavior) and throw some really good food to her (e.g. cheese, bacon bits). Keep doing this until she is looking forward to your approach. Then you may reduce the distance. Make sure to do this slowly. If she starts her growling again, back off and try the exercise from a farther distance.

2. Do obedience training. Train her for short sessions (10-15 minutes) a couple of times, every day. Use positive reinforcement training. This will help you bond with your dog, and help establish your leadership.

3. Follow the NILIF program. Don't give her anything (including toys, affection, and freedom) until she does something for you first (e.g. sit)

4. Don't give her food toys (e.g. rawhide) that she will likely want to guard.

5. Teach her the "drop" command.

This site has more information on resource guarding:

http://hubpages.com/hub/How-to-Stop-Your...