Help with resource-guarding behavior!

Hi, my puppy has become very food aggressive in the past month or so. When I feed my cats, the minute I start walking over to their bowls with their food, he eyes the cats in every direction, growls and lunges at any cat in the vicinity. He's never hurt them, but I'm always ready to pull him away. However, he lunges at their face, which has started to scare me. I don't like feeling anxious when I feed them because I don't know what he'll do if I left him to his own accord. He does the same thing when I feed him his food-if the cats are around, he'll lunge at them. And same goes for any food I'm making for myself because he thinks I might feed some to them.

On a related note, I also believe he also resource guards me. One of my cats loves to cuddle with me, and anytime she comes near the couch and/or starts to jump up on me, he chases her away. I think a lot of it's just a game for him, since he's always chasing them around anyways, but it's become so obvious that he does it every time a cat want to be close to me.

Does anyone know how to stop this resource-guarding behavior???

Put him away when you feed the cats.
Feed him away from the cats.

Teach him not to chase the cats at any time.

Hi, I started to crate him when I feed the cats, but I feel like that's just avoiding the problem? I mean I could technically feed him upstairs and keep and feed the cats downstairs. Ideally, I'd love to feed them all at the same time with all 5 bowls down on the ground. If he doesn't get aggressive, the cats graze their forever, so anything that's left he'll eat. Maybe I'm just a dreamer thinking this should work?

Also, the chasing part is near to impossible to stop. He always has his eyes on them, and the minute they move, he's on their tail (literally). I call him back every time to his bed, give him a treat, and hold him there for a bit. But the minute I let him go, he's back at it...

Did you try anything like this with your dog as he was growing up?

My dogs love my cat he's an honorary dog and will hold his own but if I fed them all on the floor at the same time they'd still try to nick his food. I feed the cat on the worktop in the utility room and the dogs in the kitchen or conservatory.

I don't think that would be too good with raw fed dogs Azz and she's making something so simple seem quite difficult IMO

Thanks for the video! And no, I didn't try that when he was younger, but I've done it recently. He has no problems with me petting him, putting my hands in his bowl, picking his bowl up, etc, while he's eating; he only has problems with the other animals.

The simplest solution is to keep them separated whilst eating and keep them out of the kitchen when you are preparing food.

Food is a primary resource for any animal.

If you must keep them together around food - supervise, supervise, supervise! Don't ever let it get to the lunging stage. If you watch carefully, you will see the signs that problems are about to start and it's at that stage that you need to intervene.

I pulled out a rawhide for him last night and the cat was on the kitchen table above him. All of a sudden he directed his attention toward her, started this loud, nasty growling/snarling at her that sounded like a dog fight, lunged at her face, and I hardly had time to even realize what was happening (since I hadn't seen the cat was even there). When I did finally realize it, I pulled him away and put him in his crate and covered it. The cat wasn't even acting interested at all, but for some reason that's a trigger for him. I didn't like his reaction AT ALL. Had I not intercepted, he might have gone for her. And I don't know what he'd do around dogs since he's the only dog, but I don't want it to escalate...

Does anyone have a good recommendation for a trainer? OR know if Zoom Room can deal with this sort of a problem during a private training session?

I'm becoming more nervous about giving my cats any treats when he's around, and even preparing my own food when him and 1 or more cats are in the kitchen. Last night, I had to crate him because I had my plate of food in front of me on the coffee table-he was on the couch next to me and when my cat approached, he gave out a nasty growl and wanted to go at him. He did that same thing when the 3 of us were in the kitchen; I bent down to pet my cat and my cat jumped up on my shoulder for attention. Oliver did not like that...