Handling and Food-Bowl Exercises
Handling and
food-bowl exercises will make your dog safer to be around. Your veterinarian, groomer, and young
children will benefit if you take the time to make your dog a safer companion.
The food bowl:
You have probably heard at some point in
your life to leave dogs alone while they are eating. This is sound advice with other people’s
dogs, especially ones you don’t know well.
Your own dog, however, should get used to and even welcome activity
around the bowl at feeding time.
Before beginning,
however, I should qualify my advice. Keep
young children (especially 6 and under) away
from the bowl until you are sure your
dog is safe. Supervise carefully, and
never allow children to harass or tease Fido while he is eating! If your dog is already actively guarding his
food bowl (stiffly standing over it, growling, giving hard stares, etc.) then
obtain professional advice.[1] One
key to preventing the dog from developing food-bowl aggression is to feed him
on a schedule. Give him twenty minutes
to eat, and remove the bowl when done.
The bowl is more likely to remain your property, not Fido’s, in the
dog’s mind.
Save some of your
best treats (leftover dinner scraps) for food bowl exercises. While the dog is eating, slowly walk up to the food bowl and drop something good in. Do this over the course of several days. If the dog seems fine, slowly reach down to
the bowl before adding the treat. Again,
if the dog seems relaxed and comfortable, remove the bowl, put a great goodie
in it, and return it. Praise
effusively. Again, continue over several
days.
Just because the
dog is fine with you doesn’t mean he’s fine with anyone else. Have your spouse practice this exercise, then
your older children (12 and up). If
you’ve never had any problems with the dog, you can have the younger children
do this exercise, too, but always under an adult’s supervision. It might be safest if children under three
simply toss the food in from a safe distance.
Know your child, know your dog, and use your judgment with
toddlers: if the child trips and falls
on the dog, you could have a disaster! Also,
when adult friends are visiting, ask them to slowly approach the dog and drop a
great tidbit in the bowl. Most dogs by
this point should be thrilled and wag their tails when someone approaches their
bowl! At this point, you needn’t repeat
this exercise every night. Still,
whenever you have an especially terrific goodie you should consider using it to
reinforce Fido’s manners around the bowl.
[1] Jacque Lynn Schultz, Director of ASPCA
Special Projects, has written an excellent series of articles on
resource-guarding called “Mine!” It is available free at the online library at
Petfinder.com
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