Hi Shannon

I have recently purchased a Chow Chow female puppy, she is 8 weeks old. The problem I am having is that whenever I give her her food she becomes very aggressive when anyone approaches her bowl. She also scoffs her food at a speed. Could you please give me some advice on how I can adjust this behaviour as I have a 3 year old bitch and I am afraid that there will be fights over the food in the future.

Regards


Food Fairy

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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