Training Your Dog – Food

The first thing to remember before you start training your dog is that food is a dog’s priority. Your dog should know that he will get food only if he listens to you. You can be stern but you should not be rude to the dog.

As a first step when the dog is eating its food, remove the food for a minute. You must do it very carefully without irritating the dog. The dog should have faith in you. While removing the food use the words like ‘stop’ or ‘leave’. Use the words ‘good boy’ in a soft tone so that the dog knows that you will not harm him. Then put the food back before the dog and let it eat.

Normally the dogs that need not fight for their food are the ones who come from very few litters. Those that come from large litters have to fight for their food otherwise its brothers and sisters will eat up its share also. So these dogs are always possessive about their food. Since these dogs get what they wanted by showing aggressiveness with its brothers and sisters, it will try this out with every toy, bone etc. It will try this trick with human beings as well. If you notice such behavior you must try to stop this at very early age. Otherwise it will create problems later on.

To deal with the problem of a dog being possessive about food, start feeding the dog by hand for a few weeks. If the bowl is kept on the floor the dog will start guarding it and will not let anybody touch it. Feeding the dog by hand will bring the dog closer to you. The dog will start thinking you as its leader from whom he will get his most favorite thing i.e. food. Gradually you can train the dog by giving small orders like after a handful of meal ask the dog to sit and after the next handful ask the dog to lie down. After one or two days the dog will know what you want and start obeying your orders. But this will occur gradually. Dogs will try to resist by ignoring your orders. You have to repeat the order in a mild tone. Remember not to make the dog run around and jump for the food as it will affects its digestive system.

After a couple of weeks you will find a change in the dogs behavior. It will no longer be aggressive towards the food. Then you can start giving the food in a bowl. But notice that the dog is no more possessive about food and takes its food normally. Do not give toys or bones to the dog that is possessive. Once the bone or toy is given to the dog it will start guarding it and nobody can take it back from the dog. When you feel that the dog is no more possessive about its food, start giving him toys to play with. But the dog should know that it is playing with your toy and should stop playing when you want him to.

Hopefully these tips will help you with training your dog. Good luck!