I think I vital to teach dogs to love having people and children around their food and bones! Rather than seeing it as just a taking away exercise, it's a positively reinforcing people near my food and bones equals something even better!

I regularly add even tastier treats to my dogs meals and, once I'm happy they know what someone approaching their bowl means, my littles girls do it too! My children also get the dogs to sit and wait while they put their food down, then say 'take it' and offer them other tit bits. We have no food aggression/bowl guarding just dogs who look up from their bowls/bones expectantly wagging their tails as anyone approaches.

Nothing to do with being alpha... All to do with raising happy confident dogs.

And it's not about teaching them not to react its about showing them that there is no reason to fear they are loosing their high valued item for ever when an adult or child comes near them but instead welcome them in the vicinity because they usually bring good things!

I too trained Bailiie from a puppy that it was ok for me to take things off her, especially as she does have rawhide and I don't like her having it when it gets too small. She readily gives it up, and anything else too. I hate her picking stuff up outside too so at least I'm comfortable, as is she, with me taking things I don't wish her to have.
I could never get near my Molly when she had things - I was very naive with training back then, but now I understand and know a lot more, and I can get near, touch, anything, whilst Bailiie has something yummy.
Neither of us is worried, and I'm glad I started as I meant to go on from puppy stage. She's very good and knows there will always be other good things coming, such as playtime or treats etc

I did take it off him as I had to put him in his crate while I picked my son up from hospital, I've not given it back to him since reading on here that it is rawhide, I hadn't known that.

Tonight I gave him a frozen Kong and I went to take it off him and he let me with no trouble, just licked my other hand.

Oh thats good, sounds like his breeder has done similar things with him and it is no big deal to him

Hope you don't mind me saying, but its really important to give him an even tastier treat when you do this. If you just take it and then say god boy and return it some dogs, obviously not all, can decide they don't want you to take it as they are getting nothing in return for allowing you to take it for a bit. If you pick up the bone and give him a fantastic treat, chicken, liver cake, cheese, then he will actively look forward to you picking up bones etc...which is really important.

Thanks Catrin, will do this in the future, I did do that when I took the pressed bone off him, I gave him a treat then.

Obviously some dogs DO have a problem with stuff being taken away from them. But has to be said some dogs have no objection to anything being taken off them or even taken out of their mouths. I've not had a problem with this or had to 'train' any dogs to allow me to do it. Haven't even thought about training any of my dogs to 'let me'.

Wasn't all that long ago I told Bella to STAY because I could see she had something in her mouth while walking across the car park and when I removed it it turned out to be a large bit of broken glass! Gawd only knows what she wanted to pick that up and carry it about for?

i can take anything away from marley im not the alpha i would guiess if anyone had to be marked as that it would be the cat

the farm dogs how ever because they wernt worked with about things like that are dangerous around food, its a case of put food down and move to next dog quickly so they dont approach each other, hang around to long they dont like it

Marco is really good if I go in his mouth to take anything out of it, he's a little terror for picking up stones big or small and biting on them so occasionally I take them off him and he just lets me......and then runs to find another