Cane corso pup showing possessive and aggressive behaviour

[invis]

Hello everyone,
i've been reading you for a couple of weeks but after the latest incident i thought i should seek for some advice from experienced owners on the subject.
I own a 3 month old cane corso pup named Siri, she moved with us when she got 2 months old.She lives indoors with me and my girlfriend. Everything is going well, she already understands basic commands but she doesn't obey every time. I guess it takes some time until we reach that 100% success (if not correct me).
What really concerns me is that late incident.
She was eating from her bowl and i approached, started petting her in the back and she started growling,i gave her some time without removing my hand.She got used to eat and continued eating. The moment i started moving my hand from her back towards her head she growled hard and tried to bite.
Any advice is trully appreciated

 

[jersey girl]

Does she do this with only her food or certain toys as well?

 

[voidecho]

Sounds like food agressions for sure. I don't have any experience with this, but you definitely need to teach her that you control the food. You give it and you can take it any time you want. I think people are going to recommend that you feed her from your hand for a while.

 

[invis]

One more time in the past she growled while she was licking a bone (treat) but i kept petting her, she stopped, got it from her and gave it back to her. Since then i've been petting her and taking that bone and she is fine with it.

 

[CeeCee]

There's a thread in here called Do You Actively Train Against Food Aggression? It contains some things that other people have done to train their dogs to not react when they're approached while eating. Make sure that meal time is a relaxing, non-exciting event and then start hand feeding her. I like to make sure that my dogs are in a sit or a down position when I hand feed.

I didn't use, but I really like the idea of adding something extra yummy and special to their bowl when you do approach. If she's growling now, you may need to work your way up to that. (You don't want her to be rewarded for growling.)

 

[Mustang9846]

Do you make her wait for you to release her before allow her to eat? This helps teach that you control the food.

 

[invis]

Thanks for your responses and the thread, helpful stuff in there.
I always get Siri to sit and wait until i say "get it" while the bowl is in front of her and she is ok with it. Maybe if i make her wait too long she will bark a couple of times but still she 's not making any move.
I guess both times she growled was because both the Chewing Bone and the food today was of high value for her (didn't mention that her menu today was a mix of milk eggs and kibble), every other time i attempted with success to pet or take her bowl was just kibble in the bowl.
She 's also hand fed during clicker training if it counts.
I'll try hand feeding her at meal times as well

 

[musicdeb]

She is resource guarding. I dealt with it with Titan when I first brought him home. It took 4 long months to correct it. It takes a long of patience and consistency with training.

Do you make her sit before she eats? Make her sit and look at you. Place the bowl down and tell her to leave it providing you have taught her to leave it. Do not allow her to touch the bowl until you give her permission to do so. Titan has to sit and look at me and we're up to 30 seconds of look at me. I then tell him good look and tell him he can eat.

For the first few times you do this, put the bowl down and tell her to leave it. Pick the bowl back up. Place it down again, make her look at you. Pick the bowl up and feed her food out of the bowl by hand. Do this for a couple of weeks so she knows that the food is only hers to eat because you allow her to eat.

Do this with anything she is resource guarding. If she starts to growl when you approach her, tell her to leave in a low, authoritative voice (no yelling). Make her sit. Walk over to the item and pick it up while she remains sitting.

This is no easy way to fix the behavior. It takes a lot of patience. Like I said, took us 4 months.

Keep us posted.

 

[thelady_v2010]

My dog does not resource guard against me, but he does a little towards the cats. So, I have not had to fix it. He is VERY food motivated and I just wanted to let you know that it is relatively easy to get them to sit and wait for their food. My dog is always hungry, but it only took 2 times of me taking is food away when he went for it to learn and be spot on. I don't have to tell him to sit for his food anymore, he sits when he sees me pick up his bowl.

 

[musicdeb]

Titan will also sit when his food ready.

 

[thelady_v2010]

Titan will also sit when his food ready.

I really think it doesn't take them long to "get" it!

 

[jsavoni]

My CC is the first dog i have actually owned, and since we got her at 8 weeks we have always made her wait to eat until we tell her to eat. It was tough at first but she doesnt even go to eat her food anymore until she hears the command. We havent had any food aggresion in her yet. I do pet her and have my kids pet her when she is eating. I also have my kids pick her bowl up and put it back down once in awhile. I have only had her growl a little bit at me once and she didnt get away with it. Whenever i give her really good raw treats like bone marrow, i always make sure she isnt going to be aggressive by taking it and giving it back. i did use to put my hand in her bowl since she was about 9 weeks though.... sorry i dont have very good advice, jsut trying to tell you what i did...lol

 

[musicdeb]

It's great you started it early, jsavoni! Even with early training, some pups will kick into resource guarding when they have a high value item.

 

[SavingGrace]

Our first Corso did this at first too - we simply took her food away if she growled why she was eating. We'd put it up on the counter and walk away. Return 30 minutes or so later, make her sit and wait for her food and then try again. She learned pretty quickly that even during eating, we had control over the food. With both of our current dogs, any time we gave them a toy or a bone we'd make sure that we could walk over and take it away at any time. If they growled, they didn't get it back (at least not for a while), when we did give it back, we'd repeat. You have to be consistent with it.

Either of our dogs will allow us to stick our hands in their food or mouth and take their toys away whenever we want. You could try teaching and practicing with the drop command as well. If my CC is too excited about "HER" toy around our other dog and growls I make her drop it.

 

[SavingGrace]

Sorry for all the typos in that last post! One last comment - we've always made a point to continuously do these things with our dogs as they grow into adults, which includes (playing with their paws, their ears, their mouths) so that they continue the good behavior. That way when their true instincts come out around 2 - they don't revert back to bad behaviors around food or toys.

 

[NeSaxena]

Thankfully, Boone's not been food, treat or toy aggressive ever. I've had him since he was maybe 4 weeks old, and he's been hand fed that time (with a milk bottle) cuz he was pretty sick. He's good enough now that whoever's given him the meal (No one else) HAS to tell him to "eat" and point at the food or he will not go to it. I don't know how he's developed the "waiting for the point" thing, but I'm not complaining.

I think consistency in doing what folks have suggested above will definitely help loads. If she's snapping, please be careful of your hand as well I think giving her a value treat from your hand and taking it away and then returning it to her should be easy to start with. And then of course, move up to the food bowl, and adding a treat to the bowl as deb said.

 

[KristinandCianna]

I've never had a problem with my girl and recourse guarding, personally, I think the more you mess with a dog's food, the more issues your going to have. Just think, if someone puts down your favorite dish for you to eat, your starving and you just got home. And that person keeps taking it away and putting it down, or keeps putting their hands in it, and touching you. Your eventually going to get pissed and snap! Hey, I know I would. This has been my philosophy with Cianna, and to this day I can take anything away from her without issue, even her most high valued thing, a beef marrow bone. I learned this from my mother, who has done it with every one of our dogs growing up (6) not one of our dog's had a food aggression issue. I would however, concentrate on developing a good relationship with your pup on all other levels. I'd get into some obedience training and stick with it ( very important for this breed, they are very dominant) your pup need's to know your the leader in a fair and non confrontational manner. I got my pup to do Schutzhund training with and wasn't going to do any basic pet ob with her because I didn't want to kill drive. Well, when she hit about 15 weeks she really started showing her ass, growling at me biting me etc. Not constantly, just when she wasn't pleased with what I did or wanted her to do etc. I didn't want to constantly correct her or yell at her so I took her through my moms basic course just to help develop our relationship, and let her know i'm the boss not her, but in a very fair manner. This helped a lot, and just throughout her life I've been very fair and consistent. We've not had any issues since. This is just my opinion and what has worked for me, I know many other, and in fact most people who do the take the food away and mess with the food thing with their dog's, and it has also worked for them.

 

[captainstormy]

Interesting thread I have a 13 week on CC and BM mix. He isn't food aggressive at all. We actively train to avoid that.

Sometimes when we are outside he snatches up pine cones to chew on. When we try to take them he will growl at us and he won't give them to us by command (like we train him, he gives his toys fairly well).

I'm not talking about a little growl either, I'm talking about a serious "this is mine" sort of growl.

So far we haven't had much luck with getting him to not do that. Anyone have some suggestions?

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2

 

[ruthcatrin]

Well yah, cause you take them away and don't give them back. Have you tried trading for them? A higher value treat or toy?

 

[mx5055]

I worked with Bella from the get go, and do not have any food aggression issues. I can take ANYTHING out of her mouth or away from her at any given time. In fact, on a daily basis I have to put my whole hand in her mouth doing a cavity search for whatever she picked up and is trying to hide from me...lol...her guilty look and the way she holds her mouth always gives her away!!

If I did have the issues you are having though I would go with the advice musicdeb gave you; and she is totally right that sometimes fixing these issues take time and persistence on your part. Every dog is different..you might luck out and have it only take a few days given your pup's age. I have a Cane Corso also, and I'd like to emphasize the advice Deb gave about not raising your voice. The minute I raise my voice to Bella I have already lost the battle; she is very sensitive to my voice and tone. Sometimes I even whisper things to her if I am having trouble getting her attention. Good luck