I have a pitbull and a pug. They always get along great, in fact, the pitbull gets along with everyone. She's a happy, fun-loving dog. Other than being plain dumb, and being afraid of anything that moves or makes noise, she really only has one problem - food aggression.
She hasn't always been my dog, I kind of came into her family. She belongs to my girlfriends family and when I moved in, she became my dog, too. I do what I can to train her, discipline her, play with her, walk her, and be dominant. My girlfriend's family is very good at training dogs, we recently had a 13-year old pitbull put down because of cancer. She was an excellent dog that loved life, very intelligent, and trained well.
Anyway, to get to the point, Athena, our pitbull, is food aggressive. She apparently has always been but the family never did anything to break her of it. Instead, they avoided situations that would make her feel uncomfortable. When we feed her, she is put in a different room with the door closed. It's now becoming a problem, though. Whenever food is near her and she thinks she may get it, she becomes defensive. She is not, and has never been, aggressive towards humans, but she turns on her best friend - the pug. If the pug walks by when someone has food, she goes after the pug. Today was the second time she did it and both times, she drew blood. We're very worried about the situation and although we try to avoid putting her in that kind of situation, things happen and they happen fast.
We very badly need a way to break her of this food aggressive behavior. She's about three years old, so it's apparently not the easiest time to train her, but we have to do something. Please, can anyone help me out in any way?
She hasn't always been my dog, I kind of came into her family. She belongs to my girlfriends family and when I moved in, she became my dog, too. I do what I can to train her, discipline her, play with her, walk her, and be dominant. My girlfriend's family is very good at training dogs, we recently had a 13-year old pitbull put down because of cancer. She was an excellent dog that loved life, very intelligent, and trained well.
Anyway, to get to the point, Athena, our pitbull, is food aggressive. She apparently has always been but the family never did anything to break her of it. Instead, they avoided situations that would make her feel uncomfortable. When we feed her, she is put in a different room with the door closed. It's now becoming a problem, though. Whenever food is near her and she thinks she may get it, she becomes defensive. She is not, and has never been, aggressive towards humans, but she turns on her best friend - the pug. If the pug walks by when someone has food, she goes after the pug. Today was the second time she did it and both times, she drew blood. We're very worried about the situation and although we try to avoid putting her in that kind of situation, things happen and they happen fast.
We very badly need a way to break her of this food aggressive behavior. She's about three years old, so it's apparently not the easiest time to train her, but we have to do something. Please, can anyone help me out in any way?