Neighbor's Puppy

[ILoveReptiles]

One of our neighbors has a new Chihuahua puppy, and it's SO cute.

The other day though, she was out walking it and it had its butt planted in the dirt and was nosing around chewing on something. I went over and she was telling me it was eating rocks. I was like oo... that's no good - they can cause impactions! So we tried to get it to stop...

No go - this pup has the worst case of food aggression I've ever seen. I went to move it away from the rocks and it started SNARLING at me, and then turned around to nip at me. It nicked my hand, and I was bleeding slightly, but I'm sure it has nothing I could catch. My iguana regularly doles out much more damage, so I wasn't too concerned.

But it did the same to her. And no matter how many times she said no it didn't listen. Went right back to gnawing on the dirt.

She's taking it to the vet and I told her to tell them that the dog has food aggression. She said that she would, and she walked off with the dog, still biting at her (she was yelping "OWIE" every so often when a bite landed) For such a little dog, it certainly has a lot of spunk.

[aly]

How old is the puppy? For it to be already that food aggressive, it is crucial for your neighbor to see a behaviorist. Working with food aggression is a long process. They should start ASAP while the dog is young, because it can't always be worked through or managed.

People are always letting small breeds get away with nasty behavior. If something terrible happens and they had to give up the dog, he would most likely end up being put to sleep. Not many shelters would put a dog up for adoption with severe food aggression. Even if they did, not many people would adopt a dog like that.

[ILoveReptiles]

Originally posted by aly
How old is the puppy? For it to be already that food aggressive, it is crucial for your neighbor to see a behaviorist. Working with food aggression is a long process. They should start ASAP while the dog is young, because it can't always be worked through or managed.

People are always letting small breeds get away with nasty behavior. If something terrible happens and they had to give up the dog, he would most likely end up being put to sleep. Not many shelters would put a dog up for adoption with severe food aggression. Even if they did, not many people would adopt a dog like that.

I think it's around 9 or 10 weeks old. Very young.