My Havanese bites when eating treats. How to handle food aggression?

I would recommend hiring a trainer to come to your home. I feel that at this point if he is that aggressive when you are trying to take food from him them a trainer should be involved to help you learn commands on how to deal with the situation and teach Chewy about this situation also. Thank you for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach.

Hi there and thank you for using PetCoach! For food aggression problems, I typically direct clients to the ASPCA website for a detailed write up on dealing with food aggression. If these measures do not work, then I typically recommend using a service such as Bark Busters to come to your house and help correct this behavior. This can be frustrating to overcome but with persistence and patience, Buddy will likely improve. I hope this helps! Please let me know if you have any other questions or concerns. https:// www.aspca.org/pet-care/dog-care/common-dog-behavior-issues/food-guarding

I hate to hear this is happening. If you do not want to rehome her, I recommend to work with a professional trainer because this will give you the best results the fastest. Canine aggression is a complex behavior as it can stem from dominance, possessiveness, fear, anxiety, resource guarding or a combination. Most people are not familiar with reading canine body language and training. A professional trainer is fully capable of reading the body language and then teaching you how to modify this behavior. Researching on your own will also be helpful. Familiarizing yourself with canine body language and dog training can help you to recognize what your pet is trying to say. You can find many books written on the topic and there is a trainer named Victoria Stilwell who I think is particularly helpful. Best of luck.

Hi there! I'm sorry to hear that you're having this problem with Petey. Many dogs get anxious and may show some resource guarding aggression around feeding time, especially if they've had to fight to defend their food in the past - we often don't know much about a rescue dog's history, so it's hard to say what is driving this behavior in Petey's case. It's hard to give you specific advice without more details about your normal feeding routine, including what specifically tends to trigger this behavior from Petey. In general, the best thing to do for resource guarding issues is to try and avoid making the dog feel threatened, and leave him alone to eat in peace. So for example, you might use a baby gate to keep Petey out of the kitchen while you're getting his dinner ready, place his bowl on the floor, and then remove the gate to let him go in and eat. I would leave him alone while he's eating, and go in and put the empty bowl away once he's completely finished and has walked away. If you want to work on this problem further, to eventually try and get him more comfortable with having you around while he eats, it would be best to get in touch with a veterinary behaviorist who can evaluate him in person and help you put together a detailed training plan. You can search for one in your area here: www.dacvb.org. I also highly recommend the book "Mine!" by Jean Donaldson, for detailed guidelines and training protocols for dogs with resource guarding issues to help get you started.

It sounds like Suzy is dog aggressive, and I would speak to your vet about a referral to a professional behavior expert. I never recommend owners try to train aggressive behaviors on their own because it can be dangerous and the owner can get hurt. This is something that is best left to the professionals. It is definitely something that needs to be worked on immediately with a trainer, as she could hurt another dog or get very hurt herself if she goes after a big dog. Give your vet a call today or first thing in the morning to discuss professional behavioral experts in your area. Good luck, I hope this helps!

Oh dear! If Yogy is becoming aggressive and trying to bite people when he meets them, he is telling you that he's not comfortable meeting strangers at this point. This is something that can often be improved over time, but it's important to go slowly - I would strongly recommend working with a veterinary behaviorist or a good reward-based trainer who can help you in person. The training plan will likely involve starting at a distance from strangers where Yogy is comfortable, and feeding him treats to help him associate good things with seeing new people. As long as he's doing well, you can gradually move closer over time until eventually, he may be comfortable saying hello to a stranger. It's very important not to put him in situations where he is afraid or uncomfortable, so I would stop trying to introduce him to strangers for now - this will only make things worse. It's also important not to punish him for showing aggression, since this will only make him more afraid and worsen the problem over time. You can search for a board-certified veterinary behaviorist in your area here (www.dacvb.org) or a qualified trainer here (www.ccpdt.org).

Poor Jasper. It sounds like he has a lot of fear and anxiety. Losing his owner had probably only made things worse. I would talk to your vet about starting him on a daily anti-anxiety medicine like fluoxetine or trazadone. I have had good success with these for fear aggression. I would also think about getting a trainer to come to the house to teach you different things you can work on to help her feel more comfortable. I hope this helps!