As many of you know, Snoopy resource guards very bad when it comes to other dogs and with people when it comes to certain things. I know that food aggression is trust and fear based and I have worked with him a few times. Now he doesn't growl at me when I approach him while he eats but he does stiffen up.

However, no matter what I tell my mother or how I tell it to her, she insists on kicking and yelling at Snoopy or throwing him outside by his scruff whenever he growls at her when she approaches him while he's eating(giving him more reason not to trust her), and then calls me to yell at me that I have an unruly dog. It's infuriating and he's developed a new habit. He will walk up to people that are eating, if they're in the living room or sitting on the floor, and growl at them. I believe that this is strongly correlated to the way my mom treats him when he growls at her when he's eating and that he has made that connection with all food, not just his own, but I'm not positive. Can someone else explain the psychology of this to me?

I'm not sure on the psycology of except that by her doing those things to him, she's reinforcing the bad habits. Is there a way to feed him when only you are home and not let her do it? Because she really isn't helping the situation or making it any better for him. He most likely feels like he can't safely eat in his own home and this isn't fair to him.

Unfortunately not. I'm currently staying in Luxemburg renovating a house until October and Snoopy is staying with my parents in Pulaski until we're done with the house and can move into it. We're 50 minutes apart  If I'm not wrong about my mom causing his new behavior, then I can tell her that and maybe she'll stop. Just like how it took me three months to tell her that if she doesn't want the dogs to fight over their food then don't throw the food on the ground and then go about your day. Either watch them or feed them in separate rooms. The problems are easily preventable but she insists on causing them and I'm pretty sure it's so she can yell at me.

I would think there definitely is a direct connection. Is it not possible to just have your mom feed Snoopy in a crate and let him be? Pushing dogs who already have a RG problem always exacerbates it. I would hate to have him pushed to the point of snapping because that would be a whole new can of worms

I would try to feed him in his crate and tell you're mom to leave him alone. When you're back in your own place I would then start from square one of food aggression again.

I would walk up to your mom while she's eating and snatch her food away, when she complains and yells grab her by the hair and throw her outside.....sorry she just infuriates me, I don't think any dog deserves that

The most irritating part is that all of his bad behaviors are preventable and they're just getting reinforced, and he doesn't deserve the stress but I can't have him up here with me :/

He doesn't have a crate. We had one, but my mom got sick of it taking up space and threw it away. And if I tried to steal her food she'd probably stab me with her fork, she resource guards too haha

Honestly it sounds like Snoopy being with your mom is not a good situation (is Nunya there too?). It sounds like she has no respect for your wishes and training. Did she really just throw the crate away? Does she have dogs of her own?

I'd try to get them out of there as soon as you can, though it sounds like you really can't with your housing situation currently.

Yes, Nunya is there too as he's her dog, and she did throw the crate away. She feeds Nunya outside now and if she doesn't want to deal with Snoopy then I don't see why she can't feed him outside instead. Yeah, she threw the crate away. I have one folded up in my room but I don't think I should bring it down because I have a feeling that one would just disappear too. We're hoping we'll be done with the house sooner than October but we'll see :/

I ended up taking Snoopy to the cottage around the beginning of August. I started with hand feeding him in his kennel. The first time I did that, my sister's cat walked up to me while I was sitting perpendicular with the kennel entrance and Snoopy immediately lunged. I blocked him with my forearm on his chest and my other hand on his forehead and waited for him to calm down. Within thirty seconds he'd settled back and I continued to calmly place pieces of food in his dish in his kennel. Within the next week he was able to be hand fed in the living room without reacting to the cats at all. He didn't even look at them as they walked around and went about their business.

The next week I introduced smoked bones. I started with those outside since he will take them and run when someone approaches him. He quickly figured out that if I was approaching him I was also tossing treats at him and if he moved away from the bone he got more treats. By the following week he could eat chew them in the house without reacting to the cats at all, he wouldn't even take it from a cat if he'd left the bone and a cat approached it.

We had no incidents at all and he was doing great. He wasn't being reactive at all, he hardly bothered the cats at all. I cut back on rewards for 'leaving stuff' and started using a sterner voice and I think this might be where I went wrong.

Monday evening he attacked Freya, my female cat, while she was eating out of her own dish. Luckily I was right there and I was able to grab him and kennel him before any damage was done. I was painting early Tuesday morning (1:30 am) with my sister and we moved our stuff to lay on the floor. Kick Start, my male cat, walked over to my sister, who was laying on a blanket by the water cup for rinsing our brushes, and Snoopy walked over to him and tried to guard the cup. Before anybody could do anything he attacked with intent to kill. Unfortunately I was on the other side of the room and the blanket kept slipping out from under my sister on the tile so by the time I got there the damage was done. It was all on Kick Start's head, we thought for certain he was going to lose his eye but the vet said it looks okay. While he was under for his stitches they checked it more thoroughly and they don't think the eye itself is damaged, but his pupil still isn't dilating properly, but we're going to wait until his post-op appointment next Tuesday before we talk about having him checked by a specialist.

Any thoughts or advise on anything at all? Questions? Sorry if I wrote this confusingly, I've had a terrible headache all day that's been making it hard to focus.