Sorry Jodee, I didn't mean to give the wrong impression. I don't snatch food away. You're absolutely right: dogs are creatures of opportunity and that would only teach them to compete with me. That's not what I want. I want them not to be worried about me interfering with their food, so that's what I've tried to teach them: me interfering with their food never results in no food, and often results in something nice. I can stick my hand in their bowl while they're eating-- sometimes nothing happens but sometimes there's a piece of paté toast in it. They also know leave it, though that's not always reliable... even the eldest will not always drop a scrumptious pointy horrible rotten cooked lamb bone he finds in the woods. As you say, creatures of opportunity.

Been a while since I was looking at the question I started and I apologize for that but in my time away I have been able to watch him a bit more and last night it hit me what was going on. He only gets the way I described when people in the house get up to leave. It's not just when he is next to my wife although he there a lot or when he is approached or anything, it happens when somebody is trying to leave the house regardless if they approach him or not. We can try leaving by the back door and he will run in and grab our pants legs and pull, if we use the front door he will run in front of us and snap and make us back up. So with this new information is there anything we can do? We used to take him to the park for walks but our vehicle is not working and it's too far for his little legs to walk.

Neither can I. I've never had to resort to such training with my two and both will allow me to take anything away from them regardless of it's value.

Messing around with your dogs food, picking it up, putting your hand in/out etc etc is a sure fire way to encourage resource guarding behaviour if you ask me.

How far away is the park? Chihuahuas and dachshunds have lots of energy and can take a lot of exercise. There is a rescue near me who had 2 Chihuahuas, they were put in the exercise area and managed to escape, she received a phone call from a farmer, these 2 dogs were having fun chasing his sheep, she went and got them and they weren't even tired. Dachshunds also have lots of energy, I know a breeder who takes them to the sandhills to try and tire them out. He may not be getting enough exercise. Also do mind games with him, this will help tire him out as well.

I have a friend who couldn't get through to her partner not to take the dog's food off him when he was eating, they had a lot of rows about it. One day she was walking past her partner when he was eating, she took his plate away, he jumped up yelling and shouting. All she said was "Now you know how the dog feels", he never done it again.

Well, maybe it's not 'training' as such. Maybe it's about how you do your thing, live your life, and all that. You say yours will allow you to take anything away from them-- yep, so will mine. Does it make a difference that I started teaching them from a early age (note: the two youngest are rescued, both at over 18 months) that I can muck about in their food and all is well? I suspect we're not doing much differently.

You have been very lucky, many dogs will protect their food but to me more damage is done to the bonding between the owner and the dog. If one of these dogs had warned you what would you have done?

Dolly has been taught not to growl so does't warn, she goes straight to the bite. Dolly is the 3rd dog I have adopted who had learnt not to growl, it is very dangerous because the first you know there is a problem is when a chunk has been taken out of your hand.

Strangely enough I never formally teach my dogs to give stuff up, but I do offer rewards for leaving things(cued by a click)

The other day Mr T picked up something I don't want him to have(one of my socks off the dryer). I called him to me & he came, I offered a reward for the coming & when I got hold of the sock, he instantly released the sock so I rewarded him again & added the words "good give"

I still am not convinced that there is any need to "muck about"with dogs food once given

I haven't taught any of my dogs to give up their food, on the rare occasions I have had to my dogs have trusted me enough to let me, even the dog who threatened to take my face off.

A dog who has learnt to trust us will allow us to take their food if it is necessary. I prefar my dogs to trust me, I work hard to get that trust because they have lost trust in humans and I really appreciate the trust they give.

Taji has been protective of special treats, and he has warned me in the past. I am lucky: he does warn. If he moved straight to bite he could easily take off a finger. I can't understand why people teach dogs not to warn. What is a dog supposed to do when people are being objectionable at them?

It has never been a very big warn, just a general 'moof', no teeth or anything. I don't know if I did the right thing, but I just gave him a stern noise with my voice and refused to back down, but I did not take the apple away. I wasn't going to, anyway-- I was just doing something else in the same place. After that, for a while, he had to sit nicely and give a paw before he got an apple. I don't muck about with their special treats. I already gave them those, they are theirs.

Dolly is my third dog that has been taught not growl/warn, Gracie was the worst, she was about 12/13 when I got her and a nightmare, I still have the scars on my hands from her. I never managed to get her to warn.

Joe was 10 months old when I got him and he had been taught not to warn, I do know he was beaten for (not) coming back so suspect her was beaten for warning. He did eventually warn.

Dolly was a year old when I got her, she goes in with her teeth straight away but it is a warning bite, not like Gracie or Joe's, whether she will learn to warn again only time will tell.

Bertie my foster boy was the worst, he didn't warn but went for the kill right away, quite a few people ended up in A & E with him, he was also alpha rolled amongst other things so no wonder he stopped warning.

We need to listen to our dogs not punish them, you him but I suspect it was more because you were surprised and shocked than deliberately punishing.

I ALWAYS back away when a dog warns me, that doesn't mean they get what they want, they don't, I use my brains to come at the problem from a different angle.

Take Merlin my Greyhound who would threaten to bite my face off if I needed to take something off him, instead of not backing down I would turn and run out of the room into the kitchen saying in a high, excited voice, "Look what I have got". Merlin would drop what he had and race after me, as he had done what I wanted, followed me, he was rewarded, I was then able to go back into the other room and pick up what he had. I had got it off him without any problems. He did learn to give things up on command which also stopped the problem.

There is always another way to get what we want if we use our brain and not our brawn.