Food stealing and growling

[MollyMoo]

Hello all!

I have been wading through some posts to help us deal with an issue we are having with our sweet Molly but hoping someone might have some advice a bit more specific to our situation. We adopted Molly 2.5 years ago and she has come a LONG way! We initially had some issues with resource guarding on beds and couches which have disappeared as we trained her not to get on the beds and to share the couch. She also used to growl if we got too close when she was eating. She now barely notices if someone is close and even lets us touch her while she eats. She has become so much more trusting and attached to us in general, especially me as I have done most of the training work with her.

We do still have an issue with resource guarding when it comes to food stealing though. If we are present and she sees food she could steal she will back off if we tell her to 'leave it'. However, if she comes across something without us seeing it is often impossible to get it away from her. She growls and snarls and we back off unsure what to do. We have experimented with tossing high value treats near her to distract her away from what she has. That sometimes works but not always. I am unsure how to train her with this issue as it only occurs when she steals something so it is unplanned and unexpected. Any advice would be very welcome! Thank you:)

[HeyRunDog]

The obvious answer is don't leave food where she can reach it. Then start to adapt the "leave it" command by giving her a reward when she does instead of throwing treats at her as a distraction. Start by doing it on something you know she will leave on command and give her a reward straight away.

 

[MRK]

Hi MollyMoo -- I was just doing a search for a very similar problem with my grey.  He can be very food aggressive, but only when he steals food (we feed the dogs separately for this reason).  We are very careful not to give him the opportunity to steal any food, but sometimes when we are eating (more my son than me), he gets this intense look and stares at what he wants.  I can usually snap him out of it, and it doesn't happen all the time. In fact, I can usually eat a meal with no problems even if he's sitting next to me on the couch.  It's like something snaps in his brain and he becomes a different dog.  He also will sometimes go after my other dog if she is walking past the dog bowls (not aggressively, just runs up to her, maybe nips her).  It's like he thinks she's going to get food and he won't. 

I'm wondering if your Molly displays the same behavior and if you've had any luck with fixing it.  I was planning on trying to teach my boy "leave it."  It's hard to train out the aggressive behavior otherwise because it's kind of rare and when he's in that mode he's not the same sweet goofball that I know and love.