Should dogs be bothered while eating?

I think dogs should be left alone to eat in peace.

Zeus doesn't care much about food, I don't care much for wee wittle won's in my house. So it is not a problem here.

Growing up, if one of us got bitten for bothering the dog while eating,  we would have gotten in waaaay more trouble than the dog.

Dad:   "Now didn't I tell you not to bother the dog while he was eating?  Didn't I tell you that he would bite you?  You didn't listen to me, did you?  Now go to your room".

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Same here JM.  I got nipped for getting too close to our shelter dog's dinner when I was a child (and I actually had something to put in the bowl, which lots of people here do and advise).  When I went crying to my parents expecting sympathy I just got into trouble for disturbing the dog.

ORIGINAL: glenmar


But the point is, I can do whatever I want when they are eating, and that's as it should be.

Agree completely - we are fortunate that Bugs doesn't have ANY food aggression or guarding (or toys etc) In fact he rather likes that you pet him while he's eating - if I come downstairs while he is having his breakfast if I don't go pet him he will break off from eating to say good morning.  I was ignorant about food aggression stuff when we got him so we are lucky that he could care less.

He shares food with other dogs - has eaten out of the same bowl, had one steal his Busybone he just thought it was a game
I find it very interesting  - Bugs seems to be dominant in dog relations.  Yet as he approaches 18 mos old he still has never growled, never barked at another dog, never even responded when other dogs have been aggressive towards him - its like he knows and they know who's in charge
that's a novive view anyway

While it may be natural for dogs to resource guard against other dogs, I think it is imperative that dogs do NOT resource guard against humans, for many of the reasons already stated. That said, it is also my feeling that we should make it as stress-free for the dogs in the process, and not "force" them to give things up, but rather make giving things up a GOOD thing. My dogs will happily relinquish their food, toys, tug toys, or "hot" items (things they shouldn't have) because they have no reason to think that they might lose out because of it. They always get praise, play, or food reward for giving up those items. It's one of those things that I do think always deserves a reward when done, by the dog to keep up that comfort in sharing their "things" with humans.

There's a big difference between resource guarding things from other dogs, and resource guarding things from people. That difference often being the risk of harm to the human, since dogs are very good at understanding each other's intentions, whereas humans tend to fall quite short of that, because we aren't dogs. There are very few dogs that will proceed to steal the item of another dog that is very clearly telling it to GO AWAY (and those dogs that do often have behaviour problems themselves, usually lacking appropriate canine language skills).

That said, I do NOT make a "habit" of taking away their items. I do it only often enough for them to realize it's still okay, and to heavily reinforce their happiness at giving up that item (and to let them realize that they ALWAYS get back their item if it's not a "hot" item).

Kim MacMillan

I think it's abolutely ESSENTIAL- if the dog picks up something dangerous but tasty (or valuable but tasty- a foster dog killed three of my silkie hens once- we could have saved the last one, I think, if we could have gotten her away from the dog.) It's not a negotiable skill in this house. Luckily, it IS a pretty preventable problem. 

Both of the dogs I had you could take food away or put hand in the bowl with no issues.  They both know what drop it meant. 
Harley is free feed so he doesn't have a specific feed time although he seems to eat half in the morning and half in the evening.   Maybe with free feeding it doesn't give them the feeling of losing a meal since the meal is always in the bowl.  I give him one cup of food per 24 hours.

After some bad experiences with a dog that came into the household with dangerous resource guarding behaviors, we now make a point of routinely playing "no resource guarding" games. They are games-- the dogs think they are fun. They don't think they are being "bothered" while they eat.

I think dogs should be allowed to eat in peace, but at the same time, resource guarding should be nipped in the bud. Blackhawk started with guarding his food. It got to the point that he would growl at you if you didn't get away from his bowl fast enough after dumping in the kibble. Then it went to guarding his favorite sleeping spots. If your feet got anywhere near him on the bed, he would growl and snap. If you tried to move him off the couch, you'd get the same treatment. We modified most of it by NILIF, but he will still growl at the kids if they try to remove a toy or blanket that he is laying on. I just wonder if we would have been able to prevent it all together if we had addressed his food guarding early on.

I just had a question about food guarding. Everyone here is talking about food dishes what about treats? My 3 month old dog will bite, snap and lunge at you if you have a treat, especially if you drop it or try to pick it up and he tries to get at it. But he hasn't shown any signs that I have noticed about guarding his food bowl or toys or anything else but treats. So what would someone do in that situation?


*edit*

Just wanted to add that he will not listen at all to me when I have a treat. This is my post about what happened the other dayhttp://forum.dog.com/asp/tm.asp?m=247345&mpage=1&key=𼟔

I don't know, since I can' see the behavior - but, I am not sure whether a 3 month old is actually guarding...  Is he/she maybe just chasing the treat and very rudely trying to get it?  If the second is the case, I would hold the treat in a closed fist and allow your pup to mouth at it and try to get it - don't give it to him/her.  The minute your puppy backs away and/or looks away to try to figure out what's going on, say "yes" or click (if you are clicker training your dog) and open up your palm and give the treat.  Keep doing this and then start to wait a second or two before clicking and letting the pup have the treat.  Eventually you can add cues...  Someone on the board recommended this to someone else and I have been using it to make Wesley better mannered - the point of the exercise is that pushy dogs don't get treats, dogs who wait patiently to be told to take the treats get treats...  Wear gloves if you have to to protect your hands from puppy teeth! 
 
If your puppy is already resource guarding - you would do well to get the book "Mine! A Guide to Resource Guarding in Dogs."  I think for resource guarding that already exists, I would always follow the protcol in "Mine!" - this book has helped us turn Wesley (a rescue dog who came with guarding issues) around...
 
Seeing how scary resource guarding can be, I will, for every other dog we ever bring into our home - do preventative training.  I will teach drop it, give and leave it early and reward these behaviors heavily...  We have come a long long way with Wes, and continue to work with him regularly.  I think teaching a dog that having people around when they have good things usually means better things are on the way is vital!  It is probably this that kept little Gracie safe - Tyler had no reason to think anything bad would happen when a person came near while he was eating, so although he was probably annoyed - he got right back to eating and Glenda protected him as best she could by immediately removing the child and letting Tyler get back to his food. 

I think with us, it was more trouble for not listening to dad than bothering the dog.

Usually when I have we wittle won's over, I put my dogs away. 

Kids these days sort of view dogs as toys.

 I don't  expect my dogs to tolerate back rides and  pokes in the eyes.

But then again, I may have some wild kin  with some major wild young un's

ORIGINAL: Chuffy

Same here JM.  I got nipped for getting too close to our shelter dog's dinner when I was a child (and I actually had something to put in the bowl, which lots of people here do and advise).  When I went crying to my parents expecting sympathy I just got into trouble for disturbing the dog.

I taught Blaze from the moment I got him that I was allowed (aswell as others) to go in his dish, take his toys or bones and treats. he never even so much as looks wrong at you for doing it. i still to this day (he is almost 4 years old now) do it once in a while to make sure he wont try anything. But I dont know how he would be with young children. I know he wouldnt snap at them or growl over food. But maybe if they cornerd him with it (as he is very skittish from my neighboors doing horrible things to him) he may growl or snap. But I have no worries as there is never any small children here. And if there ever is (once in a very blue moon) they are very well behaved kids there is 3 of them and there mom has taught them very well to respect the dog (as they have cats, so pretty similier. Espeacially since he is almost 70lbs so he could very easily hurt a child if he wanted to). And Blaze enjoys them very much.

For me, it's very important that Slick does not resource guard as we have two young children.  I do have one of those very special dogs though, who pretty much does the opposite of resource guard.  He likes to have company while he's eating.  When he was a baby, I had to hand feed him - which progressed to me sitting on the kitchen floor next to him and petting him while he ate.  Now, he'll eat on his own but would rather have one of us sitting next to him.. He even has developed a "game" where he pretends to be finished, we say "are you all done?", he leads us to the bowl to show us, we say "not quite Slicky, there's still some in there" where we proceed to either hold the bowl for him or hand feed him the rest of the food.  We go through this ritual EVERY night and it can be anyone, including the 7 and/or 9 year olds.   He simply has NO concept of resource guarding and I cannot imagine living with a dog that does. 

ORIGINAL: labcrab
He even has developed a "game" where he pretends to be finished, we say "are you all done?", he leads us to the bowl to show us, we say "not quite Slicky, there's still some in there" where we proceed to either hold the bowl for him or hand feed him the rest of the food.  We go through this ritual EVERY night and it can be anyone, including the 7 and/or 9 year olds.  

 
I can't imagine having a lab that takes more than 30 seconds to eat![]
 
I can take anything out of either of my dog's mouths whenever I want to (of course, they may swallow it before I get to it).  Neither dog has given any indication that they'll guard their food from me or any other human, but I don't make a habit of bothering them.
 
Charlie will let Cassie take food away from her, but Cassie will go after another dog - even Charlie - who tries to get her food.  I always feed Cassie in her crate, and I don't let her out until Charlie's done.
 

I think there's two separate issues here but my anwer is the same: 
 
*Should you be able to get something out of your dog's mouth safely?  Absolutely
*Should they be left alone during their dinner?  Absolutely. 
 
I can't think of one good reason why I should have to put my hand into my dogs' food bowls.  Not one.  I think you're asking for trouble and asking an awful lot out of the dog--anyone touches MY food without permission and they're getting a fork through the hand.  Especially if it's my favorite ice cream, that stuff is mine, mine, mine.  []  I think you should be able to touch the dog while it's eating--like if I were to bump into one of them (I feed 5 malamutes in 1 room, it could happen) they are expected to ignore it but otherwise there should be no interference.  If you can't get kids to leave them alone then consider crating the dog to eat or keeping the kids in another room.