Positive PetzineFood guarding
Posted May 24th, 2010 by bdejong
in
Hello...we have a situation that I wonder if we should correct. Our tiny toy poodle, 4 1/2lb, likes to keep a piece of dog kibble right beside her when she lies around the house. She will pick it up and take it with her when she moves. She has never been agressive toward any human coming near, but if either of our other 2 dogs, a Standard Poodle and a Bichon Frise, comes near she will growl and sometimes even snap. Neither of them are interested in her piece of kibble, but if they even come close she is agressive. We have always thought it was funny, seeing as the Standard outweighs her 10x, but I wonder if this should be discouraged, and how should we do it? If we remove the food, she just goes and gets another.
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Comments
re: Food guarding
Cheeky! One of mine used to do something similar, I don't let anything that might cause squabbles happen so I would take the food if I noticed it. I would remove her access to any more food so that she can't just repeat, there's really no need to free feed and it can lead to all sorts of health and behaviour problems.
Re: Food Guarding
I agree - you should cut off all access to food. Put her food down when it's mealtime, then pick it up 20-30 minutes later, whether she's eaten it all or not. She'll learn to regulate her food intake according to your schedule, not hers. I also agree that free feeding, as a rule, is not a good idea, and her digestive system will thank you for giving her structured meal times.