Cesar is a very bad word in my house.

Thanks for all the replies.

We took him on because we have 7.5 years experience with Giants, they can be difficult, strong minded, pig headed creatures and although our other one was difficult at times mainly recall and going off to say hello to dogs that were half a mile away we kept on with constant firm but gentle training all his life, he is a fab dog and I really want Alfie to be the same.

Thanks to the other dog trainer, sorry I can't remmeber your name and I can't get back to your post now I'm typing this, I think we may well need some 1-2-1 help with this.

My daugther had to go out after the incident this afternoon but as soon as she came back the first thing she said was 'Mum we mustn't give up on him although he scared me a lot'

I appreciate fully what a dog could do if it really wanted to and that this was a warning, my daugther was not threatening in any way to him she just asked him to 'leave it' he didn't so she then tried to exchange for something better and that was when he got nasty, she is a calm girl but I do believe he sees her as being lower in the pack for some reason. I feed my dogs raw food and while he is fine with us being around him while he eats he does not like her being there and will growl.

When Alfie has a meaty bone we put him in his crate, he feels safe and so do we but I personally like to be able to take a food item away from a dog if necessary, for instance if a dog got hold of something dead while out walking I know for a fact that if I told my older dog to leave it he would, what if that was a poisoned rat or a diseased rabbit and you could not get that away from him, to me that's the same as teaching him an emergency down, if you need him to do it he should respond to your command and it's used in an emergency and that is what we want from Alfie ultimately. It all just feels a very long way away at the moment.

Perhaps your daughter should be the only one to feed him from now on. At first with your presence, then on her own, so that Alfie sees her as the provider.

I would urge you to take SB's advice, but this bit really stuck out for me.

For my dogs, food on the floor was seen (and in some extent still is!) as free food. If I drop something and one of my dogs gets it, that is MY fault. Trying to exchange it for anything else really doesn't cut it with mine. (Obviously, this has been worked on, and I can if I need to, but it is still better food in their eyes than anything I give freely!)

The "leave it" command only works with dogs that have been successfully taught it. Dogs do not speak English

In the meantime until the book arrives we must all be very aware of leaving things lying around that might cause a problem, we have put a baby gate across our kitchen in an attempt to stop potential stealing from worktops etc

Thanks again and I'm sure I'll be back for some more help very shortly.

Do you know how she tried to swap it? Did she try to take the item he had out of his mouth or did she simply offer him something else without making any attempt to "steal" his prize?

I've taught my dog to swap what he has for something else but in all honesty, if he steals something and it isn't dangerous I usually leave him to it.

I totally get that, if I drop something then that's to be expected and good luck to them I'd say an d I would never takje it back, this new dog of ours is so food orientated, it has been hard to get used to that because the older one couldn't care less, you could leave a plate of roast dinner in front of him all night and he would not touch it, the new one would eat the plate aswell!!

I'm sure we will get through this, I will get my hubby to look at the Kindle app later and get the book sooner and we need to get a trainer, thanks again and if anyone out there has any other ideas I'll be more than pleased with further suggestions.

To teach LEAVE IT with food.

Using food to train this will help make your dog feel more relaxed around food and help him learn self control around it. It is very useful as it has some other beneficial side effects re teeth on flesh etc.

CAUTION

Only do this if you are confident your dog will not bite you.

Take some smelly food and put it in your CLOSED fist with the top of your hand uppermost and hold it out to your dog.

Your dog will probably mug you for it and try to get at it with his mouth and/or paws. You say nothing. You do nothing.

The MOMENT he backs away (this could mean just his head, his body, and he may sit, stand or lie down) say GOOD and turn your hand over and open it so that the dog can take the food from the FLAT OF YOUR PALM.

Repeat ad infinitum, until the dog starts to automatically back off at the sign of a proferred fist.

These are the first steps in self control and the dog working out what is in its best interests.

When the dog can do this, you then put in a cue "leave it", of course the dog has no idea what this means but as long as it continues to remain backed off you say good and open as before.

Once this is strong you then move to the next step.

Offer your hand OPEN with food in it, if he approaches, close your hand.

when he backs off, open the hand say "leave it" if he remains there, say GOOD and let him have the food.

He will now associate the words LEAVE IT with remaining away from the food, so you have the BEHAVIOUR first and then label it.

This is IMHO the best way to introduce this command as you are ALWAYS in control over the resource which is key in these cases.

If the dog knows that he can only access a valuable resource with your permission and by following instruction, he will develop self control because IT WORKS.

Next step is to put food on the floor ANY movement towards the food in your hand as you lower it to the floor you raise it, you keep on doing this up and down until the dog learns that if he approaches the food it goes away if he remains where he is it gets closer to the floor.

If he does not move, open your hand, say LEAVE IT wait one second and say good and let him take the food.


Repeat.

Eventually you should be able to lower the food to the floor, wait for him to look at you (this is hard for the dog he has to tear his eyes away from what he wants) and then you can say GOOD and let him eat.


Once this has been accomplished with ONE member of the family this MUST be repeated by the rest so the dog GENERALISES the behaviour.

CAUTION

Do NOT use a container that he can guard.

Do NOT use only ONE location for this.

ETA NEVER SNATCH YOUR HAND AWAY!

This will only increase the likelihood of the dog competing with you for it.

I agree with this. My current dogs are great and will give me even food items if I ask. The one dog I had that was a resource guarder was easy to deal with if I distracted her with something of equal or higher value than she had and she would relinquish what she had without a fuss or threats to bite. Maybe the OP's daughter should try that next time rather than asking for a direct "give" and see if it works for her and the dog until he's had more training? Also, is she willing to do some basic training with him so they can build a bond and they grow to trust and understand one another more?

Some may call swapping one thing for another a bribe, but as you say, life's too short to fight with and confront your pets. It's quicker and easier to change the parameters of the situation so nobody gets wound up and frustrated about it, be that dog or human.

Smokeybear everything you've said is almost there apart from maybe all the family doing it and changing the location. He is extremely good at leaving a fist that is placed in front of him, if fact I'd say he is better at it than my older dog. We regularly do that with him and have introduced the 'leave it' command which going well. We can even put a treat on the floor in front of him and he will wait until we give the command to take it, so he does have a reasonable amount of control, it is stolen items that cause the aggression.

My 15 year old daugther wants to show Alfie and we went to our first ringcraft class last week with him and he did very well. He is a mixed up pup I think, he adores being groomed he has no problem with being handled and touched and is sweet natured other than the guarding.

There are so many good points to him and he is extremely intelligent and I also feel that needs channelling into an activity, he would make an excellent tracker but I have no idea how you would get started on something like that!

Thanks again, all your comments have given me a light at the end of the tunnel.