Food Aggression

[Mikey]

Bombur has steadily getting worse with food aggression (lunging, nipping, stealing food to hide then run back and grab more/repeat, ect). Its been manageable with stern “No”s and feeding him at all once instead of slowly. Blue also had a bit of food aggression, but it mostly revolved round chasing the other two away so he can try to eat all of it himself. To correct him, we scatter food or feed him piece by piece. 

Now, i think both of their food aggressions have been feeding off of one another and it lead to me and Badger getting attacked last night over some Christmas celery. Blue tore some fur from Badgers shoulder (he is fine, there was/is absolutely no blood), and my hand got pierced (i could slide an eyebrow ring through one side out the other; i was literally pierced) by Blues frantic chomping. All the while, Bombur is running on top of everyone trying to get every bit of celery he could find, and possibly running on top of all of us because he was a bit scared. I honestly could not tell what he was running and jumping all over us while the frantic mess over food was happening. 

So its to the point that my boys all need to work on food aggression as our previous tactics no longer work, clearly. Anyone have any ideas? All training will be done one on one before trying it with the group. Bombur takes pretty well to clicker training, so im thinking i will start there, but Blue tends to ignore clicks so im not sure that will work in the long run. 

[GiggilyPuffBunny]

Hum, I’ve never dealt with bunny aggression that bad before. However, I did have a dog and horse that were both individually food aggressive. I would definitely start feeding them separately for a little while. And then once they are individually eating, and don’t show signs of aggression, then I would put them together again. Especially if you think they are building off of each other’s anger. I would try clicker training as well, it does wonders if it’s done correctly and consistently. For the clicker, they need to know what it means for them to have your attention. So, that would mean, just click and give them a piece of food. Click, food, click, food and so on until they associate a click with a reward. So, when doing the exercise it doesn’t matter what they’re doing, they just need to hear the click then food. It also needs to be one on one. If it were me, I would take one to be fed, or take the others in another room, just make sure whoever you’re feeding is the only one there. At this point whoever is getting fed needs to know what a clicker is, so you would have to have done the click, food exercise many times before this point. I would have the food in one hand and the clicker in the other. Now, so far they have associated click with a positive reward. When you begin to put the food down they need to have a non-aggressive attitude. This is where the training comes in. Begin to put the food down and if they show signs of aggression pull it back and say no. I would do this until you get a small positive attitude, and then click and treat right away. I would repeat this so that they know good behavior gets food, and bad behavior gets a no and no food. If they are consistently aggressive and you never get a chance to give them a click and food, I would walk away. And then they would see that being aggressive leave them alone, and no food. After about five minutes I would try again. If a simple no, does not help after a few times, I would get a water spray bottle. And then say no and spray a small bit of water towards their nose when they are aggressive when you try to put the food down. So, the training would be modified. You would then have food, the clicker, and a water bottle. If they are aggressive you have a no and water to the nose. Or, if it is positive they get a click and food. I hope this helps! And good luck, hope you find results!

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