What does the food-guarding aggressive dog look like? What signals might he use?
Using a typical food-guarding context including some common triggers, an observer might see the following sequence of behavior. A dog is conspicuously eating from his/her bowl and an astute owner walks by noticing the dog has stopped eating and is frozen in place. This is accompanied by a hard stare but not directed toward you, the perceived threat. If you continued to impose on the dog, he will usually escalate his signals that may include a low growl and may simultaneously retract his lips exposing his teeth. If this was not enough to ward you off, he may snap, usually an air-snap deliberately delivered. According to Donaldson (2002), “when dogs intend to bite, they bite…when they intend to snap, they snap” and even a “geriatric” dog is faster than even the most conditioned of athletes. Considering this capability, any further advance will most likely result in a bite. I purposely used the word astute to describe the owner, because I would suspect the average dog owner would not be a
