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All three of the dog training books we read before getting Otto had entire chapters on how to deal with this so I assume its a really common problem.
I know that's not useful to you in itself but if you google "food guarding" you'll find a shit load of tips and guidance.
Edit: Its such a common problem you don't even need to specify that its for a dog when you search for food guarding. Food Aggression is another term for it.
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This used to happen with our Catalan Shepherd/German Shepherd 12-month-old rescue, Otto.
The following assumes you’ve signed up to the positive training school of thought, entirely…. You’ve got to present them with a better option to show that they get something better in return if they give up one thing. If they steal food, entice them to leave it by offering even better food (we used fresh chicken breast) immediately and a “drop it” command (or whatever you use).
Then, after a little while, get them to sit or work for that better food.
After a little while more they’ll start thinking about dropping it just with the command and without the extra treat. You should still reward them when they drop it.
Otto used to be awful with this - would growl and snarl terrifyingly.
Now he doesn’t always drop it straight away but is no longer aggressive about it.
It’ll take time and gradual progress.
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Stonehedge
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@AlexD
Some advice please:
Odie is not aggressive in the slightest apart from a specific situation. If he steals some food (or one of the kids toys or whatever) and then retreats under the kitchen table or similar, he’ll go in to defensive mode. If you try and get the contraband off him or get him out he’ll bare his teeth, growl and even bark (he doesn’t normally bark that often).
It’s not very often, but it’s behaviour I’m really keen on avoiding obviously. What’s the best way to handle this? I don’t feel like ‘alpha-ing’- grabbing him by the collar and dragging him out - is necessarily the best option