A Specific Kind of Food Aggression - Please help!

[imabbyh]

My husband and I adopted a 6 week old lab mix puppy from a rescue. Now, the puppy is 5 months old. We have been working with him and done a great deal of training and socialization. Overall, he is a very lovable, affectionate dog. However, there remains one very disturbing issue: he has a very specific kind of food aggression.

We noticed when we first adopted him that he was very protective of his food dish. If you pet him while he is eating, he will growl. If you continue to pet him or move closer, he will spastically lash out and attempt to bite. He has succeeded in biting my husband and I about 5 times in the last 4 months.

We have asked our vet for advice, and he told us that it can't be "cured." In an attempt to train him, I have started feeding him from my hand. He does remarkably well with hand feeding, we can even command him to "leave it" and "take it" and he obeys. We can pet him and even gently push him around while he's eating out of our hand. However, as soon as the bowl is re-introduced, he becomes a totally different dog- he becomes crazed. Even if we add more food to his dish while petting him, he will attempt to viciously "bite the hand that is feeding him."

We love him and he is very obedient and sweet in every other aspect, but we don't want risk the safety of guests or future children because of this behavior. If anyone has suggestions, I would greatly appreciate them! We are already looking into taking him to someone that specializes in dog aggression (puppy training didn't help).

[TykoPups]

I hate to say it but why not just get rid of the dish. Having a dog that gets treats from you is not a bad thing. You can even look into putting food into a toy like a kong. This way you can start from scratch. By putting one kibble in the kong at time so that the dog will get use to you taking the kong away.