food aggresive!!!

[lute]

my new puppy, Wolf, is food crazy! when i give her her food she eats like she's never eaten before. i try to put my hand in her bowl to get her use to having her food handled and she tries to push my hand out and sometimes bites me.

this is what i'm doing. PLEASE tell me if i'm doing something wrong or should do something else.

i give her her food and stick my hand in her bowl periodicly.
in the middle of her meal i take the bowl away and feed her a handful or two of the food.
then give the bowl back and let her finish

[Glacier]

She's not likely food aggressive at this point. She's a little young for that, but it could turn into full blown food aggression unless it gets under control.

First, gulping food can be deadly. It's a leading cause of bloat. Huskies aren't particularly prone to that, but it does happen.

This is what we've done to slow Hobo down. He's not actually aggressive, but rather highly food motivated. He LOVES food. It's the highlight of his day. He often eats without chewing and makes himself sick. He will accidently bite if you reach into his bowl. So to slow him down, I take a big rock, big enough that he can't swallow it and put it in the middle of his bowl. I put his kibble all around the rock. He has to slow down to fish out the kibble. You can use a ball, ect--anything that is big enough not be swallowed and not dangerous to your pup.

[lute]

thanks! i'll try that.

[carrie]

Excellent advice and I agree that your pup is not yet food agressive. You are doing everything you can to make sure he/she will become food aggressive, I'm afraid.
As pack leader it is your job to take the best bits of every meal BEFORE the rest of the pack are allowed anywhere near it. The pack leader only allows access to the food when he has finished with it and NEVER returns to take more after the pack are eating. Once you give your dog it's meal you are telling it that this food belongs to the dog and nobody else and it is well within it's rights to defend that food. From the dog's point of view you are behaving very strangely, unfairly and threateningly. If a canine pack leader behaved this way it would be seen as a bully and the pack would lose confidence and became fearful.

Of course, this is not your intention, and to human minds it seems a really good way of showing our dogs that they can trust us with their food as we will not steal it. Your dog will become more relaxed about food if left alone to eat for five to ten minutes undisturbed. You can teach your dog to take food nicely from you by using some of it's meal as treats during training sessions.