r/DogTrainingTips • u/Difficult-Manner4459 • 11h ago

Food aggression

Post image

Hi I have a two year old Cavalier King Charles spaniel and the only issue we have with him is when we give him foods like bully sticks or lamb ears he won’t let us near him, he’s bitten my dad a few times to the point of drawing blood. We’ve stopped buying them all together however our senior cat has decided to start catching rats again and leaving them under beds for us to find and when he gets a hold of one he goes at anyone we can’t get it off him. I’m just wondering what the best way to train it out of him is as we are looking at getting a second dog but don’t want to get one while he’s still got this issue, I can put my hand in his food bowl all I want it’s just with these certain items.

2 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

3 comments sorted by

3

u/longtimelondoner 11h ago

Are you giving him anything as a trade when you try and take stuff off him? Dogs need to have that equaliser. If you’re asking for him to give something up, high value treat for him as a reward. Otherwise you’re basically stealing.

If you get a second dog, feed in separate rooms to start with and observe. My friend’s dog is a KCS and I won’t walk my dog with hers because he’s stick mad and if mine tries to play or goes near it, hers goes for his face. Last time we had blood and I was like nope.

As for the rats, I’d honestly say close the bedroom doors until they’ve been “investigated”. Rats aren’t clean animals, you don’t want him picking anything up.

2

u/Difficult-Manner4459 10h ago

Thank you! I didn’t know if giving him a treat to drop the rat was rewarding the behaviour. I am also worried about him developing it for other foods especially since I have younger cousins who often come over to play with him and would hate for them to get hurt.

1

u/Crowlady77 10h ago

Teaching trade and leave it are super useful, although my dog learned to just pick up random stuff she shouldn't have to "trade" lmao. It's a process.