Good Day Ladies and Gents,

I started Thane on raw about a week ago and he's taken to it like a fish does to water but the problem is he has taken to it a little to well. He is guarding his food, he won't bark or snap at me because I have been taking away his kibble since day one so instead he'll try to chow down faster before the bowl is up. Once its in my hands he sits down an waits politely till I return it but with the cat or anyone else he gets very vocal. This has never been a problem with kibble and I was wondering if in time he'll relax and realize it's food and he'll be eating it on a regular basis or if we need to keep being stern with him till we break this habit?

If it's of any help I don't treat train and the treats I do give him here and there are marrow bones or meat chunks(the odd time) so I'm not sure if he holds raw to the same standard as treats.

Raw is pretty high value to dogs. Callie has never resource guarded anything until I started her on raw. She still has no problem with me handling her food, but the other dogs can't approach. Basically what I've done is just make sure they're all separated while she eats. No one else in my family has tried to handle her food so I'm not sure if she'd guard with them. I would say that if Thane is only guarding with other pets, let it go. It's how they establish pack order.

I don't think it's something he'll ever get used to. With raw, you're usually switching up meats so it's not like he's going to get used to always having chicken. Each day could be something new so each day is a brand new reward.

With other people, you're going to want to take it back to step one. If you've got people that are willing to handle raw meat, they can try handing him his dinner with no bowl involved. Straight from their hand to his mouth. Any sign of guarding and they should put the food out of reach and try again in 10 minutes or so. Always make sure you try again so he learns that when humans handle his food, he'll always get it back so there's no reason to guard it.

I handle it the same as any resource guarding. My sibe is the same he doesn't guard anything but raw. He'll let the Chihuahuas come and eat any food out of his bowl, even people food, but if he has raw he won't let them near. He does not behave that way with people though, I have made sure of that and nipped that in the bud. Whenever I feed my sibe raw though, I make sure he is fed well away from any other dogs or people just to be safe.

Just wanted to update on this situation. My biggest issue was Thane got really protective of his raw food and would snap at the cat, not so much humans but the fear of a kid doing something dumb while he was eating always sat in the back of my mind.  After much work and persistence (on the cats end lol) we have achieved our goal and Thane no longer guards his raw food.

Picture or it never happened!


This has now become their morning ritual, the cat plays in his water dish while he eats and then they switch when Thane is done eating. I do not know why but I do not question their ways lol.

Just a question on the guarding aspect. How did you do it?