Guarding the Bowl
5 cards · about a minute
A growl is a warning
A dog who growls over food is asking you to stop before they have to do anything else, and punishing the growl removes the warning, never the feeling.
Do not take it away
Lifting the bowl to prove a point is the most reliable way to create guarding in a dog who had none. It teaches that people at meals are a threat.
Approach to add
Walk past while your dog eats and drop something better into the bowl without stopping, so a person nearby comes to mean the meal is about to improve.
Feed it calmly
The same place, the same hour, no crowding and no audience, and if the bowl is untouched after five minutes, lift it without comment until the next meal.
Where this stops
Guarding that involves children, or that has not eased after two or three weeks of this, belongs with a behaviourist rather than another fortnight of trying.
On this site
This deck is about food aggression, which has a page of its own with the full detail behind these 5 cards.
Read about food aggression