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Old March 13th, 2006, 07:02 PM
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toby's tracy toby's tracy is offline
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Join Date: May 2005
Location: Montreal
Posts: 340
Unhappy distressing change towards agression - sometimes!

My dog Toby (turned 1 on Feb. 27) has begun growling and barking at me when I feed him and this behaviour has now spread to when I go near him when he is with a toy (not always, just sometimes).

About 4 months ago, he began growling around his food. I received advice from the trainer at our obedience school to feed him by hand for a while. That worked at the time. We moved into a new apartment 2 weeks ago and this behaviour is back in full force. I have tried feeding him by hand, and now he growls at me even then.

He always eats at about the same time each day – 6:30 am and 6:30 pm. I do not leave his food or bowl on the floor all day. I ask him to sit and stay until I have placed the bowl on the floor. Often he will start to growl after I have put food in the bowl (bowl still on counter). Sometimes he begins growling and barking while he is eating – whether I am standing next to him or not, and other times he starts to growl/bark when he is waiting for me to release him from the sit/stay.

When he growls at me I make him (through verbal commands) move away from the food and go lie down in another area of the apartment – he does listen to me, but his hair is up and he growls and barks in protest. I do the same thing when he gets aggressive/possessive with his toys. The toy thing has actually only happened 3 times - but 3 times too many for me!


I have been doing this for the past 2 weeks. Not much seems to be changing. I am at a loss about what to do. He is generally a sweet, playful, responsive puppy. He has never shown any type of aggression towards another dog or anyone else. In fact, at the dog park he usually stays away from ‘play’ that is becoming too aggressive.

I have also become the only person he lives with. I have always had Toby (since he was 8 weeks old) and been his main care-giver, but we used to live with someone else, and then stayed with my parents, and are now on our own (for the past 2 weeks).

Thank you for any support you can give me about this! It is quite distressing.

Last edited by toby's tracy; March 13th, 2006 at 07:20 PM.
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