Food-Related Aggression in Shelter Dogs: A Comparison of Behavior Identified by a Behavior Evaluation in the Shelter…

Many shelters consider food aggression (FA+) a dangerous behavior and will either adopt such dogs out with restrictive conditions, or consider them not appropriate for adoption and euthanize them. A 2013 study from Boston asks us to rethink conventional wisdom. In a sample of 97 dogs studied three months after adoption, researchers found that only 55% of dogs who were food aggressive (FA+) in the shelter displayed similar behavior at home. Of the dogs that were FA+ after adoption, almost all (93%) of them displayed the behavior rarely and only 18% displayed more aggressive behavior such as lunges or bites.

Shelter dogs have plenty stress on their plates: not only are shelters wholly unnatural and difficult environments for most dogs to thrive in, but dogs who exhibit problem behaviors or who act out in different ways have a lower chance of being adopted. One such behavior is “food aggression”, when dogs do anything from growl, bare teeth or lunge and bite when they are approached while eating. Many shelters consider this a dangerous behavior that could be related to other types of aggression and will either adopt such dogs out with very restrictive conditions, or consider them not appropriate for adoption whatsoever and euthanize them. However, the results of a 2013 study out of Boston ask us to rethink this conventional wisdom that food aggressive behavior in a shelter is predictive of what happens in the home.

In a sample of 97 dogs studied three months after adoption, researchers found that only 55% of dogs who were food aggressive (FA+) in the shelter displayed similar behavior at home, while 22% of the non food aggressive (FA-) dogs in shelter showed signs of food aggression at home. Of the dogs that were FA+ after adoption, almost all (93%) of them displayed the behavior rarely and only 18% displayed more aggressive behavior such as lunges or bites. Perhaps the most interesting bit of data is that almost all of the surveyed dog adopters (93%) considered their dogs not to be FA+, even when they had displayed such behaviors, while 7% were unsure. Furthermore, adopters who had observed FA+ behavior were less likely to see it as a challenge or say that it would change their mind about adoption.

This type of research should give shelters and adoption advocates pause to rethink how FA+ dogs are labeled, how such labels can shift after adoption, and how we might be able to think of food aggression in less problematic and more nuanced ways.