Couldn't you achieve the same thing by making the dog sit and wait before giving him his bowl of food?

He would sit or lie down. Wouldn't touch the food until 'released'. But he would yap or whine or drum his feet or occassionaly spin around and then sit or lie down again. If allowed to eat when in this mental state he would guard!

Once he's learnt only calm state of mind gets fed he was a changed dog.

I would suggest this is an entirely different scenario to the one the OP is facing.........

I wouldn't describe yapping, whining or drumming his feet and spinning as waiting tbf, to me waiting means sitting calmly until released and not doing so would only delay the release. I've dealt with several resource guarders and have never and would never stand around waiting till 2am till the silly sod got the message, can't say I remember cesar advocating it either but let's not go there.

Exactly - waiting calmly - just took a long time at first..

Depressed perhaps.
The dog cannot read your mind. All he knows is that you are doing things he can`t understand for motives he (and I) cannot fathom.
Would it not be kinder to train the dog?
I recommend you read Jean Donaldson`s The Culture Clash which is a good introduction to behaviour and training.

Anyway back on topic... the OP sounds experienced enough to manage the situation.

You train a dog in a controlled situation. Not in an emergency. That`s where the work comes in.
You train your dog to swap an obect for another. Then reward.
The reward should be in addition to having the other object.
It works the same as any other reward based training.
You obtain the action (lure)
You reward the action (play or treat or praise)
You label the action. (say Give).
You repeat the training frequently in different areas (dogs learning tends to be place-specific).
The behaviour is ` captured ` (learned) when the dog performs it automatically.
This is the same as any training. You establish the behaviour first. Then it can be used in crisis situations.
I hope this helps.

Yes I understood that bit what I didn't understand was the lack of directions from you, as C&D said he's not a mind reader, dogs need directions.

Some good advice given in this thread re. books and resources

It's very easy to show a dog, especially a youngster, that stolen items (food related or not) are very important to us as we humans tend to get a bit panicky about it and act as if getting it back is the most important thing in the world..

Training for eventualities is important, but so is chilling out about dropped items (tissues/yogurt pot tops and so on).

It is not a problem to even leave the dog to eat it and then retrieve it later IF it means the difference between a confrontation or not...

My dog will sometimes eat things like that, but I relax. She will bring them to me as she's been taught to retrieve for fun and then I reward her with games and praise. She isn't a guarder, but her breeder always gave her ice cream and choccie wrappers as a tiny pup and so she likes to get them if she can

Years ago, with one moment, my fault, she started a sock fetish. With calm training, she got over it and happily helps me to empty the washing machine. So the training in Mine etc does work well. I agree with the advice to give things back - very very important.

Good luck!

Wys
x

I feel this has gone a little off my original problem, but nevermind all opinions welcome but I certainly don't want you arguing , it feels a little heated!

Wysiwig your post is very true and we I think have done most of it right so far, we did have a big scare with him 4 weeks ago when he stole a pin cushion and then ate 7 pins for which he had to have major surgery, the younger members of my family have been a little jumpy when he has stolen things since because we don't want him to hurt himself again.
I have been very much of the mind that something like a piece of kitchen roll or a sock can't hurt him so I tend to ignore things like this because he gets bored just like a naugthy kid would if you pay him attention, it just worries me when it's something that he could harm himself with!

I'm hoping the book will arrive Mon/Tues and then we can get to grips with things, just trying to be very careful around the house and being very strict about what he
is/is not allowed to do.
Thanks again.