Urgent - Problem with my Black Labrador

[Jared2608]

Hi Guys,

I figured maybe someone on here can help, given how popular these dogs are. I have a Black Labrador, her name is Bella. I found her as a stray, she was very young, probably only 3 months old at the time, and she's about a year old now. She's an awesome dog, and she normally doesn't give me any trouble, but this morning she attacked our yorkshire terrier cross, and hurt him quite a bit. He's not in any danger, but still it was really bad!

The thing is, the two of them normally play for hours during a day, be it tug of war, or wrestling, or just running up and down outside barking at the dog next door. The only time she is ever aggressive with our two other dogs, is when we feed them. We have a minpin cross that she did this to as well, and after that we started feeding her outside, and everything has been going okay until this morning. As we where taking her food outside, the little yorky fell off his chair, and she grabbed him by the throat. I managed to get her off by pulling on her choke chain, but she had already bit him.

I was wondering if anyone else have ever encountered this kind of behaviour with their labrador. She never does anything like this unless there is food around.

Is there any way to stop her doing this. She hasn't been spayed yet, I'm going to do it as soon as I can, but the operation is extremely expensive, for some reason Vet's cost more than human doctors do in some cases!

Any ideas would be greatly appreciated!

[CoolioTiffany]

Sounds like she may just be very food aggressive.

We had a German Shepherd for nearly 15 years and he was extremely food aggressive like so. It's hard to break a dog from this habit, so we always fed him separately from our other dog.

Your dog most likely became food aggressive because she was starving during the time of being a stray. Most of the time food aggressive dogs never get adopted out because of the danger it could cause.

The best I could say is always feed her separately from your other dogs. Make sure the other dogs aren't near her when you're taking her to go eat outside. I assume the excitement of wanting to eat made her bite because she thought the other dog would steal her food.

[Redneck_Crow]

Jared, did she do any actual damage to the other dog?

I bred dogs for years and I've had plenty of big dogs. Most dogs will guard their food from other dogs to some degree. Your lab sounds like she could have killed that yorkie in one chomp.

What I think you saw was the lab trying to grab the other dog and put it on it's back to enforce that she owned the food and was not going to tolerate the yorkie taking it. The reason I think this is 1) this is how dogs behave and 2) you didn't mention the other dog being at the vet or dead. A real dog attack is not just slobbers and growls--it does massive damage.

Dogs see other dogs near their plate as competition for their food, not as company. What your lab did is normal dog behavior and the easiest solution is for the owner to accomodate and give each dog some privacy when it eats. Neutering is not going to make a difference here. Dogs don't want other dogs near their food when they eat and that is how they are.

[Jared2608]

Ya that what's I figure. The thing is she wasn't always like this, it seems as she get's older it get's worse. She's never been aggressive to me, and I take her bones away often, and I've taken food from her too, especially food that someone was careless with and let her steal, I never let her eat food that grabs off tables, I don't want her thinking that's ok too....

Will having her spayed calm her down a bit? I know male dogs calm down and lose a lot of aggression when they get neutered, but I don't know if the same happens for females.

[Jared2608]

Well she did hurt him, but it wasn't like he was torn to pieces. He does have some marks, on him, but they aren't deep or anything. We put some anti septic on, and if they don't look good tomorrow he'll have to go to the vet I guess.

She wasn't trying to put him on his back, she just sort of grabbed him and held him. I only got her off by pulling on her choker chain, because her jaws are way to strong to try open yourself.

I'm quite sure that if she had wanted to she could have killed him, because she's very big and her mouth could fit around his whole neck. Still, it is a very worrying sign because she was definitely doing more than warning him. The food wasn't even on the ground yet, we where on the way outside with it, and the little dog fell off of where he was sitting, and she just turned and grabbed him. The little dogs get fed inside, and her outside, to try keep them seperate because I know she won't appreciate them being around.

[Redneck_Crow]

Holding onto another dog and not trying to bit further is also something that you see in dogs that is more "this is mine, you have tried to take my food, etc." I've seen adult dogs do the same with pups to correct them.

I really don't think that you have a behavior problem here. I think that it's just a matter of making sure that the lab eats by herself. Even though you didn't have the food out yet, dogs learn by association. She knew that she was going to be fed and then another dog literally drops down on her like it's going to steal her food. Even when dogs don't fight over food, it stresses them to have to eat with other dogs around.

I saw one real dog fight. My foxhound was going through the door one day and my dobe for whatever reason decided to bite his ear. It lasted less than 15 seconds and the foxhound eviscerated the dobe. We had to have the dobe's guts put back in, he almost didn't make it, and this was a fight between two roughly same-size dogs.

[Jared2608]

Thanks Redneck! I was just worried that she was staring to do something dangerous. I'll continue to make sure they eat apart from each other. Would it maybe be better to take her out the house before I start prepping her food, so that she is already outside by the time the food bowls come out?

I guess you're rite, if she wanted to kill him she could have done it very easily, it's just that her teeth are big and she's much bigger, so she can hurt him by not even trying to. I phoned my mom to check on him, apparently he's sleeping now, he's not bleeding or anything. I was worried she might have hurt his throat, but he's not bleeding. Apparently he's a bit hesitant to swallow or drink water, but I suppose I would be too if my throat was held like that!

[Redneck_Crow]

You can do that.

The big dogs tend to eat pretty quickly so the 10 minutes or so it takes isn't much of an inconvenience if you want to feed her indoors and toss the others in a bedroom or bathroom.

[Jared2608]

Thanks!! The little dog is doing fine! He's sore, and not very happy with the world at the moment, but I suspect he's also enjoying the added attention. He had a few scrapes and cuts but they're not bleeding and have been treated. The only thing is that his throat seems a bit raw, my mom said his bark is a bit off pitch and he seems to be a bit hesitant to swallow. She's gonna keep an eye on him till I get home, and then we'll decide if he needs to see a Vet, but at the moment he isn't in any danger!

[wolfy-hound]

I disagree that food aggression is not a behavior problem. Especially with small and large dogs in the same house it needs to be dealt with. Food aggression can lead to toy aggression leads to outright fighting. Waiting until a dog actually mauls another is not the solution and feeding them seperately is not going to do a thing for when someone drops a bit of sandwich when both dogs are nearby.

You should be correcting any hint of aggression(stiffening, staring, etc) when there is food and other dogs. You can have the lab on a leash during this time to help control her, but in my opinion there's no excuse for aggression at any time between my dogs. They push each other and posture to a small extent, but biting is way too far. And my dogs eat together without issue and are given treats in a group. Any aggression is dealt with immediately, and the other dogs rewarded as long as they did not respond.

In my house *I* am the only Alpha dog and only *I* am allowed to "discipline" or show aggression. (My "aggression" is speaking sharply in 'that tone' or clapping hands or physically grabbing a dog, obviously I don't bite them, hair gets stuck between my teeth) I have one large dog, one medium dog and 5 small terriers. When I'm not home I have to put only one dog into a crate, and that's only because she has occasional seizures.