We have a 17 week old male malinois who is so far proving to be a great and responsive dog. We are very careful to always direct his actions and make sure that he knows his place in our "pack". We have two young kids so I feel this is vital. He's never shown any aggression at all towards any of us except for yesterday. He was eating (he gets fed 3x day) and as I was walking by, I reached down and patted his back. Maybe this was my mistake, but he growled and guarded his food. It bothered me because we do have kids. Although we NEVER allow them to approach Vader while he's eating, his reaction to me barely touching him has made me concerned. We can mess with any of his toys at any time and he will easily "out" anything in his mouth. I've done my best to teach him good food manners..he has to be calm and sit quietly while I prepare it and he may only approach his dish once I've released him. What should we do?

Leave him alone while he eats.

Continue to work with, 'leave it', 'sit'. 'wait', 'heel', 'here', no, etc.

He's still very young. Don't worry he'll learn his place, meanwhile let him eat in peace.
If you teach the children as well as the dog it'll all be okay.

If my dog isn't learning, I'm doing something wrong.
Randy

Thanks for the reply. Out of 50 views you were the only one to offer any advice. Thanks...I will keep working with him.

Keep in mind that anyone can view this forum. Those "views" that you see may or may not even be members here. Sheesh, One forum I'm on a lady posted a question and got over 200 views and only 2 answers. It's the nature of forums. Not everyone has the answer or not everyone has the time to type out an answer when they read it. And some people just read it because they're curious.

Or maybe in your case it was because you got great advice pretty quickly from Randy, so no one felt a need to answer any further. And Friday evening are notoriously slow on most internet forums.

I think most people here probably read Randy's post and thought, "Yep, what he said." I know some folks will also hand-feed a pup its meals, or will add the food slowly to the bowl as the pup eats it (so the pup thinks your interference with his food bowl is for the purpose of adding to it instead of taking away).

I have a whole herd of Malinois, all with slightly different tolerances for disturbance during meal times. I also have a very precocious 5 year old daughter. All of my Mals are fed in their crates, and we leave them alone while eating regardless of their feelings about people messing with their food. It took some supervision and "training" on my part, but I've worked very hard with my daughter to teach her how to behave around my dogs (and vice versa). Ultimately, it boils down to constant supervision and management when the dogs and child are together, even outside of meal times.

As an aside, what are your plans for working this dog?

He will be trained as a personal protection dog. We are working on obedience for now and lots of socialization. We are in the process of consulting with several trainers to find the best one for our situation. He comes from strong working lines..both his father and full brother are full service police dogs. So far he is amazingly easy to work with. I'm a stay at home mom so luckily I have tons of time to devote to him and his needs.

 Quote: mara jessup

... Or maybe in your case it was because you got great advice pretty quickly from Randy, so no one felt a need to answer any further. And Friday evening are notoriously slow on most internet forums.

Yes.

And the fact too that there are so many threads on the topic (and that Randy's POV is by far the prevailing one in them), that many folks probably figured that it had been covered again -- short and succinct.

But seriously, such common issues (and also just about every uncommon issue) just abound here, with page after page of detailed posts. The O.P. doesn't want to rob herself of so much info by relying only on the current thread. JMO.

Here's one:

http://leerburg.com/forums/ubbthreads.php/ubb/showflat/Number/264372/page/0/fpart/2

 Quote: konnie hein

I think most people here probably read Randy's post and thought, "Yep, what he said." .... I have a whole herd of Malinois, all with slightly different tolerances for disturbance during meal times. I also have a very precocious 5 year old daughter. All of my Mals are fed in their crates, and we leave them alone while eating regardless of their feelings about people messing with their food. .... Ultimately, it boils down to constant supervision and management when the dogs and child are together, even outside of meal times.

Yup!

Glad to hear you are planning to work him. I saw in one of your previous threads that Will offered to help you find a good trainer. I hope you're able to take him up on the offer. He is sure to steer you in the right direction.

How social are the sire and dam of this dog?

Connie, I did do a search on food aggression on this site before I posted and although I got tons of helpful information, I wanted to address my situation specifically since I do have young children. I also didn't know if the age of my dog may have been playing into the sudden aggression. I wanted to put my specific situation out there to get some other opinions on it.

Konnie- His sire and dam are both working dogs. His father is a full service dog with obviousy a high drive. He is reserved with strangers of course but is an incredible police dog. Is dam is a little more friendly with people and has not been trained in bite work. Vader was the pick of the litter due to his strong working drive and a high prey drive. He is not hyper at all though and as long as we get a good long walk in daily (3-5 miles) he is very content around the house and very gentle with our kids. We do not allow strangers to approach or pet him but he is relaxed around new people and essentially ignores them.

Everyone had different attitudes about this, here's mine:

I just don't have it in me to tolerate a dog that growls at me while it is eating. I really wouldn't be happy with a dog that growled at me if touch it while it's eating either. What good is a dog to me if I have to pussy foot around it in daily life? Now, I don't expect my dogs to be completely tolerant of everything my family does, but me, absolutely. I want my dogs to be able to accept me fussing around them when they eat, so for example I might fill the water dish in my Malinois kennel while he is eating breakfast. I too feed my dogs in their crates/kennels and I don't interfere with their meals, but I do expect them to be completely tolerant of my presence around their food and toys.

So if I have a pup that acts hinky when he is eating I do feed them from my hand and I always expect them to do some obedience before I put their food down for them. You can split the food up and after he finish a little, pick the dish up and put a little more in it etc. The goal isn't for you to be able to pet him while he eats, its for him to understand that he is eating your food, in your house, given to him out of your personal generosity. You are his fair but stern dictator!