Food aggression can be a serious problem in just about any breed of dog but it can be a serious issue especially for the Siberian husky. Siberian huskies are pack dogs which makes them more prone to be food aggressive. Out in a wild pack of dogs or wolves a pack members very survival depends on food. Domestic dogs are calm and loving animals but they all came from the wolf. No matter how much you domesticate an animal it will always have some traits from it’s ancestral background. In this picture to the left is Nick. Nick weights about 65 pounds. If he attacked a small child he could easily kill it. If he attacked an adult person, he could cause serious injuries. Nick is not food aggressive towards humans. Nick was trained from a puppy not to be. He is eating a tasty bone and you can take it from him anytime you like without a confrontation. You will get that look ” what the crap man I was eating that bone!”
The worst type of food aggression
If your dog guards it’s food and growls at humans then it is displaying the worst type of food aggression. This dog will bite a person should it make a wrong move around the dogs food. The most dangerous situation would be to have a baby or toddler crawling about the house. A small child will not know to pay attention to the dogs posture at the food bowl. The dog can be playing and loving on a child one minute and attacking it the next should there be food present.
Another bad situation would be having other dogs around. If your dog is food aggressive then it will cause a fight. These types of fights are serious and can be deadly. A medium to large sized dog that is food aggressive may attack your smaller dog or puppy causing serious injury or death to the small dog. At the least there will be pain and suffering and a very expensive vet bill.
How to train your dog not to be food aggressive
Believe it or not anyone can train their Siberian husky or any other dog not to be aggressive with humans around food. You need to start the day you bring your puppy home. The sooner you start the easier it will be. Start out feeding your dog by hand. Just take a bite of food in your hand and offer it to the dog. A lot of times the puppy will bite your hand from getting excited and trying to hurry up and consume the food. This is normal in the beginning because the puppy is trying to eat the most food it can in the shortest amount of time so it gets more than it’s siblings. Even though they are not around it’s just the puppies natural instinct to do this. The puppy who gets the most food has a better chance of growing up and being stronger and being the dominate dog of the group. This means they get to eat first, have the most food, and they also get to breed first once they are mature. These are the most important things to a dog.
Once your puppy is eating out of your hand you can then start putting it in a bowl. As the puppy eats from the bowl you should put your hands in the bowl and push the food around. If the puppy growls at you just pick up the food and tell him “no” in a firm voice. Do not offer the dog anymore food for 15 minutes. Then set the bowl back down and repeat. The whole purpose of this exercise is to get your dog to understand that you are the pack leader and the dog gets it’s food from you. You decide if and when he gets to eat.
If you get your dog when it’s a little older then you can start out by feeding it by hand and then put the food in a bowl and repeat that process but you should do it with caution or you may get bit. If the dog growls at you then you must take him by the nap of the neck and pull him over on his back and hold him down. Don’t allow him to get up until he stops struggling and calms down. The purpose of this exercise is to make the older dog understand you are the dominate leader. By placing him on his back he understands your actions because it’s the same action an alfa dog would do if challenged at the food bowl.
Food aggression towards other dogs but not humans
As much as I have tried myself I can say that food aggression towards other dogs is common and you probably won’t be able to stop it so you must learn to manage it. If you have 2 or more dogs that are food aggressive towards other dogs then you must feed the dogs separately. We feed several of our huskies in the same kennel but stand and manage them while they eat. If one dogs stops eating from his bowl and starts to walk towards another dogs bowl then I just stand in it’s way and won’t allow it to go to any other dogs bowl while they are eating. If he won’t go back to his bowl then I take it up and he is done eating. I then make him go out of the kennel.
If you just have a couple of dogs then feed them at different times not allowing the other to be present while it eats or feed them at the same time in separate rooms. Be sure to take up any food they do not eat. I suggest taking up the bowls. Do not allow puppies to eat near adult dogs that are food aggressive. A puppy can be injured quickly in a blink of an eye. Puppies don’t understand dog society yet and will easily provoke an attack without knowing it.
Learning to manage a dog to dog food aggression will keep all your dogs safe. Learning how to train a dog to not be food aggressive towards humans is a must. If you can’t take the time to train your dog then you should get rid of it before someone (most likely a kid) gets hurt.
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