So, I realize this may be a bit long, but I'm gonna to my best to keep it to the point.
Since I brought Bella home, she's had some food issues. I wouldn't call it agression becuase she doesn't bite, growl, snarl, or anything like that. BUT she is a freaking lunatic at food time. She becomes a different dog. Terrified that someone's going to take her food. She runs back and forth through the kitchen looking to see if anyone might be coming (protecting her food obviously), and IF someone does come into the kitchen at this time she'll jump about a half-foot off the ground and put her teeth on you. There's nothing about her body language that is threatening, and people tell me she's super gentle when she does it (she doesn't do this to me of course). Anyway, I spoke with my trainer months ago and she gave me a "food bowl dessentization" program which I did for 6 weeks. It was hand feeding for about 3.5 weeks followed by slowly introducing small amounts in her bowl and gradually increasing. This solved my problem until the end of the six weeks when I put all her food in the bowl. BAM! Back to square one. SO, then I bought Mine! A Guide to Resource Guarding in Dogs. The author actually has a name for Bella's behavior... she calls it "accelerated consumption". I tried following some of her techniques and again found that they helped only while employed.
Eventually I came to the decision that since this problem relates only to her feeding time I would do what I could to treat the problem everyday. SO, the boys help me feed her; we rotate the responsibility so she knows that they too are responsible for her food. I also feed in a muffin tin to force her to slow down a little. However, if you touch her, she bolts into this frenzied, trembing warp drive (NO growling or anthing). This was what I had decided to do, and of course limit her feeding times to when they were the least stressful (i.e. no one else over visiting).
So, that's the back story. The rest should be quick. Last night I had a friend over for dinner. I haven't had a friend actually cook with me in the kitchen ever, and as soon as we got started I realized Bella was in her trippy state. She's pacing, jumping up and teething on my guest (He had no clue... thought it was a game). I tried to tell myself that's what it was too, but when we sat down to eat my son came over to tell me something and Bella did the same thing (like, "back off. There's food here." I've never seen the behavior happen when I'm eating, or when I'm cooking but it seems that this frantic behavior is now progressing to other places. I don't know what to do anymore! On an interesting side note, she let Piston my cat share some of her canned dog food right out of her muffin dish this morning with NO problems whatsoever. I think her issues have to do with humans.
One thought is simply to crate her during cooking time, and when I'm feeding company. The other thought I had was to force a sit-stay or down-stay in the kitchen the whole time I'm preparing food, and then a crate during dinner. I've never seen a dog with this kind of behavior. It's always been "Yeah, I'm cool about food" or "Nope. I'm not and I'm gonna try to scare you into leaving me alone" kind of aggression. Has anyone else seen this accelerated consumption thing? I'm sorry this is so long. I've just run out of ideas and the I've tried what the books suggest. I sort of think none of that's working becuase Bella isn't showing aggression tendencies, but something different. Neurotic and frustrating!
Thanks to anyone who just listened to me vent and who might have some ideas!
