In this episode, we discuss food aggression in dogs. When I was a less experienced trainer, I thought this was an issue of poor pack hierarchy in the home. I know many dog trainers continue to believe this. Today I know better. I wasn’t completely wrong back then; my knowledge was just incomplete. Food aggression in dogs can certainly be a rank issue, but most of the time, it isn’t.

We generally distinguish two types of food aggression in dogs: a genetic predisposition or a learned behavior. The former is more common and has to be managed, and the latter is less common but can be resolved.

Before diving in, please understand that food-aggressive dogs are not automatically bad dogs. They are often great dogs aside from food aggression. This challenge is easily managed and not a reason to give up on your otherwise amazing dog.

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Buy Ralf's book If Your Dog Could Talk - Understand Your Dog Like Never Before (5th Edition) on Amazon.