Food Agression in puppy

Hi Carolyn,

Some breeders tend to feed the puppies by leaving a filled food bowl out all day, which seems to trigger food related aggression between puppies. They learn that they have to fight for their food. Feeding time should always be a controlled situation with the pack leader (you and your family) being in charge.
Food bowl aggression is a form of territorial and possessive aggression.
It seems as though your dog is not accepting you as the pack leader, the so called Alpha dog, in fact, you are a threat to his food, which is why he becomes aggressive. Luckily he is still very young so you should be able to fix this problem quickly. First of all I would recommend that you and your husband read the bonus book "Alpha Dog". This will give you very simple techniques that you can use throughout the day to establish and mantain your Alpha status.
The food bowl aggression can be rectified with the following technique:
1. You have to convince your dog that having you and your husband around the food bowl is a positive thing.
2. You need to be present while your dog eats. In fact, for the next week or two, put his bowl away, and start feeding your dog directly from your hands. Have your husband do this also when you are at work. You will need to do this for all his meals.
3. Next, for another 1-2 weeks, put your dog’s empty bowl on the floor. Add food from your hands at two minute intervals.
4. Then, start to semi-fill the bowl and continue to top it up with food from your hand. Once again, this should continue for 1-2 weeks.
The final step, which should be continued for the remainder of you dog’s life, is to fill his bowl, and ask him to sit before eating. Praise him for obedience, and once in a while when he is still eating, call your dog over to you for a treat or briefly take his food bowl away and add a very tasty treat to it.

I hope this helps.
Let us know how you get on.