This is normal behaviour. I don't believe it should be Nipped in the bud, i believe as soon as you get a puppy you should be teaching it that it doesn't have to guard it's food from you.

E.g. - when feeding a puppy, right from day one, you should take a very very tasty treat and plunge your hand into it's food bowl when they are eating, dig around for a bit and pull out the really good treat and offer it to them. From this they learn that it is great to have people around thier food because the person always finds better bits than they can!

In The Perfect Puppy by Gwen Bailey, she goes into good detail about how you can take this further, as well as how to teach off in a very positive way.

A dog should be happy for you to be near them when they are eating of chewing on a bone and the only reliable way to do this is to convince them that it is good to have people around them when they are chewing and eating.

If you shout at them, or take their food away in a dominering way you can end up with:-

- a dog that guards it's food more

- a dog that will let you do it but no one else.

- a dog that increases the distance around it it feels it needs to keep people away from it when it is chewing.

- a dog that sizing up the opposition before deciding whether to give up or guard the food. THIS IS PARTICULARLY DANGEROUS SITUATION TO HAVE DEVELOPED IF CHILDREN ARE EVER TO BE NEAR YOUR DOG.

Dogs guard their food becuase they are concerned you are going to take it from them. If you:

- growl at them
- shout at them
- take their food away from them in a challenging way

you are confirming their fears! They know aren't worried that you are going to take it away from them....THEY KNOW YOU ARE!!!

We need to out think our dogs and show the the boundless benefits of joining our team rather than meeting them head to head at the base level of thinking.

Personally I would endorse the sharing approach rather than turning it into a battle (it`s the difference between leadership and dictatorship). The dog isn`t being naughty or challenging you for ownership of the house - he`s just being a dog. If he learns that giving up his bone can be a good thing he will be a happier and more amenable dog.
I have taught the Leave command, which is rewarded.

Excellent post. Personally i feel basing your relationship with your dog around leadership rather than dicatorship is a much more reliable, kinder and safer way to raise a dog. Safer for everyone including children.

I agree. It's possible for someone to intimidate a dog into giving up a resource - but if the dog isn't comfortable with it they can be storing up such big problems for the future...

For example, the dog who is "made" to give up a bone or toy will often not feel the same way about another adult visitor, family member or child...and that's where you get more problems surfacing, often years down the line...

and that's where you get the shocked "but he's never done it before, I can take things from him" ......

Some good info is here (although this relates specifically to bowl guarding) :

http://www.deesdogs.com/documents/cl...esfoodbowl.pdf

I've taught my dog to retrieve under "dodgy" circumstances, and she'll bring to me anything she may have found "(eg once a very dodgy sharp bone left by foxes) ...

I have an extreme resource guarder, much better around her bowl then she used to be thanks to advice I saw ages ago and posted just now in Wysiwig's thread. I give high value items eg bones. But I hang on to the other end so she doesn't overdo it and she is quite happy with that...Wys is quite right, they don't generalise so learn that 1 person, or a family are OK, but visitors etc are 'fair game'.
(I don't suppose a scavenging pariah dog who would be hard-wired to protect a food source will ever change completely so I am more cautious now. She first bit me and meant business at 9 weeks over a discarded chicken bone in street...wish I understood then what I know now...)

Mary

Some great advice
I totaly agree in swapping and training a 'leave it'
Yes it is important to be able to get nasty food off a dog but bullying it into doing so is not the way

If I was eating a lovely big steak and someone took it off me the 1st time I would be shocked, 2nd time I might grumble but after that I would hold on to my plate and make d&mn sure noone nicked my food from me

Dogs are not trying to take over the world - they are being dogs
alot of these domonant training stuff only works on submissive dogs - get a real strong willed dog and this kind of training will make the dog dangerous


Also never punish a dog for growling
its good that they growl - they are telling you they are not happy with the situation - and then as the human it is your job to take a step back and figure out how you can kindly train them to be happy with the situation
punnish the growl then the dog will not tell you when it is unhappy until the point it is backed into a corner and feels it has no choice but to snap

Dogs are not fur robots and we should not expect them to bend to our wills
They are living breathing feeling animals who love nothing more than to work to please a kind caring owner
But if we are not clever enough to gently find a way to explain to a dog what it is that we want then the dog will become confused