Yahoo Answers is shutting down on May 4th, 2021 (Eastern Time) and beginning April 20th, 2021 (Eastern Time) the Yahoo Answers website will be in read-only mode. There will be no changes to other Yahoo properties or services, or your Yahoo account. You can find more information about the Yahoo Answers shutdown and how to download your data on this help page.
Trending News
Why do dogs become food aggressive??????????
yesterday my dog snapped at my daughter and bit her leg and had pretty good it did break the skin not enough to bleed all over but is now bruised and black. I was wondering what would make a dog that we have had for a year now snap like that and what can i do to stop this before we have to rehome him? He had been awoken in the middle of the night to strike at whoever woke him also, Is it best to cage a dog at night for something like this or do I turn him into an outside dog? I need help with training him, he is spoiled and now most of the kids are afraid of him, He has never snapped at me but everyone else in the family except my baby, are we next if it gets worse ??? Help any answers would be helpful!
I wanted to add that he does not snap often, this is the first time in a couple of months the first time he was awoken in the middle of night he was asleep on my be and wasnt supposed to be, My dog is said to be a sheltie mix he is smaller around 20 pounds. so any answers that are rude and just plain stupid will be deleted! I am trying to make him a good dog but previous owners caged him constantly, they bought him as a cute puppy at 6 weeks and when he wasnt cute anymore they caged him, I rescued him but honestly havent owned a dog since I was a kid. I wont kill him, or send him to a shelter.
2 Answers
- Point and FlushLv 51 decade agoFavorite Answer
This needs gripping quickly.
First thing to say is that your daughter (or any other kids) should not be left unsupervised with this dog at any time.
If he is a year old he will be a full blown adolescent challenging for rank. The food guarding and aggression is part of this
Your dog needs to recognise you as the leader who provides the food. It can be prevented by making a slight fuss of the dog while they are eating, taking the food away and then putting it back and feeding in different places.
Also try putting down an empty bowl at his meal time and when he goes to it and realises that it is empty put some of his food in it. When he has eaten that put a bit more in and keep doing it until he has been given the whole meal.
You could also try feeding him by hand for a while. When he is used to this feed him by hand over the bowl. Then start putting food in the bowl.
In this way he will get used to the fact that you control food – he doesn’t.
This needs to be coupled with some pretty serious training to get the dog in its place.
Finally you should never wake a sleeping dog by touching it. Even the most placid animals can bite if they are woken in this way. Just call its name from a distance if you want to wake it.
If you have not got the time or confidence to deal with this then you have to consider re-homing.
ADD - If you decide to re-home then please make sure that the rescue folk are made fully aware of what the issues are!
ADD - Please - whether the dog has done it once or a hundred times - it has bitten a child! Trying to make him a 'good dog' is an understandable aim but you really need to do a lot more than that to prevent a disaster happening.
