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Dear
Food Fairy
It would appear that your pup has an enhanced food drive
coupled with elevated resource possession. Both of these
behaviours are quite normal, but of course as soon as
they lead to any form of aggression they need to be
addressed promptly.
Being
a Chow Chow she may also have slightly restricted vision
when approached directly from the front. Many Chow Chows
have this quirk and it needs to be addressed when handling
them. Perhaps she did not see a person approach from
the front while she was feeding and she startled and
reacted aggressively?
She
may also have come from a large litter where possessive
behaviour and nerve is a desired trait. In the grand
scheme of things this is not necessarily a disadvantage.
Pups from large litters are often more behaviourally
sound as they have developed greater behavioural resilience
due to resource conflict, success and failure.
I
would first suggest a vet check to ensure that your
pup is in perfect physical condition. Your vet can also
advise on the correct food and feeding schedule for
your puppy. Young pups grow at a phenomenal rate and
require at least four meals a day until the age of four
months. Perhaps your pup is not able to meet her body's
nutrition requirements hence her increased appetite
and resultant possessiveness over the food? Perhaps
she is getting enough food, but it needs to be split
into smaller more frequent meals in order to avoid an
empty tummy?
Once
this has been addressed you will need to do some retraining.
She has learnt that aggression around her bowl can bring
about the desired response so it will be that much harder
to retrain this behaviour.
It
is important to make your pup know that a person near
her bowl is not necessarily a bad thing. This can be
accomplished through "drip feeding". First
get your pup used to taking a piece of food calmly from
your hand. Then a while before you normally feed her,
place her empty bowl on the floor. She will no doubt
dive into the bowl and be quite surprised that it holds
no food.
Once
she has backed off you can place some food into the
bowl and let her eat it. Wait until she backs off from
the bowl and repeat the process. This procedure teaches
her that a person near her food bowl can in fact mean
she is getting something as opposed to her thinking
that something is going to be taken away.
This
should be repeated until she is showing no aggression.
Please do not expect her to happily accept your hand
in her bowl while she is eating. This would be pushing
the boundary.
While
this technique can work very well, it is by no means
a guarantee that she will never be aggressive around
her bowl or any other food resource. Always supervise
children around any dog and if a dog has shown any aggressive
behaviour in the past this is even more necessary.
As
with any case involving aggression I would strongly
advise that you contact an accredited behaviour consultant
in your area to work with you through this problem.
You can consult the Animal Behaviour website
for more info.
Best
of luck!
Shannon