Food aggression help needed!

[LovemyChowChow]

This past week Bear attacked the two other family dogs that live upstairs over a treat. We just got home from our first obedience class and had him upstairs. My boyfriend was giving all 3 of the dogs treats when Bitty (jack Russell/ chihuahua mix) decided to take Bears treat right out of his mouth. When Bear tried to get it back Bitty growled at him and Bear attacked. He had Bitty right above the tail and was whipping him back and forth like a rag doll. It gave me heart attack as I've never seen this aggression come from him before and the fact Bitty is only 15 lbs. I pulled Bear off of him by the harness he was wearing but he kept his teeth clenched. I ended up having to pry his teeth apart with my hands to get him to let go. Which I know isn't the smartest thing for me to do but didn't know how else to get him to loosen his grip. The next night while Bear was outside in the back yard the other dog Tootsie (chocolate lab) came downstairs. As I was giving her a treat, I saw Bear scratching at the door to come inside. Thinking nothing of it, I let him in. As soon as I opened the door he pounced and attacked her. I had to do the same thing I did the night before to get him off her. Both dogs are now scared to death of Bear and wont even come outside while he's out there. Bear has been around both of them everyday since we brought him home at 8 weeks old and has never done this before. He will be 7 months old on 3/18 and was just neutered about 3 weeks ago. What is the best way to correct this behavior? It scares the hell out of me as I don't want anything to happen to the other dogs or to himself. Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks,
Erica

[Sirchow]

First off I suggest you take some deep breaths....you can get past this.

Now the next thing is to think about the whole scenario. It was Bears treat and he had it taken out of his mouth....that should never have happened and if it did you should have intervened immediately to restore it to him. I would stop all treats that are taken away to be eaten at leisure for now. You need to work on building bears trust and obedience. Get all three dogs to practice their sit for treats and they must be bite sized. Work up to getting them to sit together in front of you and each dog has to wait their turn to receive their treat and remain sitting whilst waiting. If necessary you will need to work on their sit and wait individually until you reach the point they can sit together. Once you have reached this point you can move on to taking a dish of food and making them all sit and receive a mouthful from your hand. You need to be sure they will remain sitting at this point as the food may drop to the floor if they are clumsy eaters. If it does tell the other two to sit and wait (or stay what ever command you are using) and quickly give the other two a small piece each to keep everyone concentrating on you and obeying their sit commands. Take time to reach this point don't rush it as you need to be quite sure that it will succeed. If they start jumping forward for their treats or food remove it and go back to individual training again.

It may be that you can never have Bear with the other two with take away chew treats. But this is not a complete disaster just make sure you stick to it and he wont need to defend himself.

You need to also remember that his hormones are most likely all over the place at the moment and he will settle down to a more steady boy as he gets a little older with the right kind, firm understanding and training. Use positive reinforcement training at all times as having lashed out this time he needs to learn to trust that you will look out for him and his needs so that he doesn't have to.

Good luck

[Sirchow]

I suggest walking them all together and keeping moving as a way to get them comfortable together again. They need to regain trust with each other now.

[Ursa's daddy]

At least for a while, you may have to avoid treats that are large enough to be taken away. Right now, I am careful with handing out treats. Small one bite treats are not an issue, but larger ones could become an issue with my pack. Currently, I am fostering a Chow Samoyed mix, and he wants to assert himself. This gets to be an issue with the other two chows, so I avoid things that can cause an issue.

In the past, we give out cow hooves as chew treats. Ursa will round all of them up, and then chew one while guarding the others. The other dogs don't like this, but Ursa is showing her alpha female status. After about a day or so, she will have chewed on all of the treats, and will no longer guard them. Then the other dogs can have them. I would not try to hand these out with my current foster, since he wants to challenge Ursa for pack status. He is a bit insecure, and wants to have the position closest to me when I sit outside on the deck. This causes some issues, so I monitor the physical arrangement when all the dogs are close at hand. Perhaps some of your issues are pack status issues. Bear had his treat and Bitty challenged him and took the treat than growled. Bear took offense at this and asserted himself. The outcome may have been different had both dogs been more physically matched. Bear is becoming an adolescent and wants to assert himself. I have a female rat terrier and a male Chihuahua that like to assert themselves. Bit, our Chihuahua, does not draw Ursa's ire, he is usually the first one to take a treat from her. Maggie, the rat terrier, however, will get told off by Ursa when she gets assertive. I think part of that issue is that both are females. The problem is that the size difference makes her the loser. Since I am the pack leader, I will use physical space and maybe a door to manage things. Also, treats are gifts that require a "sit" before being given. We have rules here, and everyone has to follow the rules, or the treats don't get handed out.

Bear needs to know that you are the pack leader. If he wants a treat, he has to follow your instructions. You cannot let Bear harm the other dogs. Bear has to respect that the other dogs are part of the household. We will send the small dogs to their beds if things are getting difficult. They know that they are safe in their respective beds (same concept works with crates, we just use the beds), and Ursa and Malachi know that they are not to go there. I am not sure if Bear is allowed upstairs, but if he isn't, then you need to enforce that rule and use upstairs as the safe zone for the other two dogs. That can be easier said than done. I know, because I have a foster dog that is not supposed to go upstairs, and is great when someone is watching the gate on the stairs. Look away, and he jumps the gate, so we are left with putting the leash on him when we cannot physically be there every moment.

Sirchow, does this sound like a good explanation?

[Sirchow]

I think we are both totally talking about the same thing. Your examples let LovemyChowChow see exactly how to manage the situation. I do think with thought and training so that they all learn respect as, lets face it, Bear was not the one in the wrong first here, they can learn how to live together. There are always times in our house where things are reassessed such as one being on heat, a visiting dog or one being sick ( he dynamics will change as soon as one dog is weaker in any way than usual). Start to think ahead and be proactive not reactive....always think through what might happen and slowly it becomes part of the way you think and not any effort at all to lift a bowl of food before letting another dog in or put prized toys out of reach, close a door between two dogs or shut one in the kitchen before answering the door.

[Ursa's daddy]

Start to think ahead and be proactive not reactive....always think through what might happen and slowly it becomes part of the way you think and not any effort at all to lift a bowl of food before letting another dog in or put prized toys out of reach, close a door between two dogs or shut one in the kitchen before answering the door.

Sirchow, I think that sums it up quite well. With the addition of Harvey here, I have had to change the feeding arrangements slightly. Ursa has decided that she wants to have "words" with Malachi after finishing her meal. The language she uses is certainly not for anyone with sensitive ears. Malachi does not appreciate being spoken to in that manner by Ursa, so he lets her know using the same tone and language. I don't want to listen to all that, so we have modified the feeding arrangements just a bit. The little dogs are fed inside first, then the big dogs all gather in the breezeway. Ursa's bowl in placed inside the house so that the storm door separates her from the others. Everyone can see what is happening, but Ursa cannot get in Malachi's face. Malachi gets his bowl in the breezeway, and then Harvey gets his bowl. Slight change in conditions and a big change in the outcome.

[Chowgroomer]

Never feed chow chows together, that is in their breed.