Preventing Food Aggression.

Preventing food aggression is really important especially if you have young children in the house. The last thing any family wants when they have got children and dogs is to have a dog that is protective over his dinner, toys or treats. If a positive association to children and food is made in the beginning then you will have no problems later down the line. 

Outlined below are a few key things to remember when trying to positively associate children and food for your puppy. 

 How can I Prevent Food Aggression? 

 Contrary to much of the advice on the internet that tells people to take food away from the puppy so they get used to it, this is not recommended and we strongly recommend doing the opposite! 

Here are a few important suggestions: 

•  Never take food away from your puppy when they are eating. 
• Make sure children never take food or treats away from the puppy too. 
• Instead, encourage children to regularly drop extra food into their food dish or kong whilst walking by and the puppy is eating. This helps the puppy to NOT see children as a threat having them around whilst eating as children = more food or treats! 
• Lifting up your puppy’s food in between meal times can also help, then let your children give the puppy their food when it is a meal time. 
• This also reinforces a positive association to children and their food. 

We mentioned in an earlier lesson, when your puppy is in their crate leave them alone to respect their quiet time and personal space. Do not let your child wake the puppy up. They can continue to drop treats into the crate though as this will continue to reinforce a positive association to food, children and being in the crate. The video demonstrates how food can be added near to the puppy eating the kong and can also be done with their food dish too. Remember positive reward is the key to preventing aggression related to food and toys.