My gsd jasper has been conditioned since I got him to be food friendly, I would sit with him while eating and mix up his food with my hands. Now when he eats, he lays down relaxing and eats, and if you go near him while he's eating and pet him he wags his tail and is more interested in you than in the food

I do this with Bobby, and did it with previous dogs too. I always thought that one of the important things to do with a dog is to be relaxed around food so make sure that they are ok with you taking bones off them, being near them when they are eating etc.

Some people feel their dogs do better on raw, prefer to know what goes into their dogs diet, dogs may have allergies to common ingredients in dog foods, etc.

I've been down the raw route and personally didn't find any changes in my dog (I only had one then) at all, but then there were no problems in the first place. Not only that, but I had to question the point in making him expensive meals which were nicer than what I ate most of the time, only for him to eat poo, steal food and scavenge obsessively for rubbish on walks. So, I went back to kibble and never intend to do raw again. If it ain't broke, don't fix it IMO.

Hi Diana it is a good idea to teach a dog to drop and to leave and to 'swap' one thing for another but as many people have found is is not a good idea to take food from a dog, it can make them protective of their food. How would you feel if someone took your food away while you were eating it ?
I think this idea of removing food goes back to the outdated concept of dominant dogs and showing a dog who is the boss.

We have had a number of people posting on here about taking food from dogs because they read somewhere that was the thing to do and they have been bitten. Holding a bone or taking it away can lead some dogs to become food aggressive.

Years ago someone bought a Cocker to us, they were going to have it put down because it was very aggressive around food to a point where they could not enter the room when it had food. The problem started when they read somewhere about taking food away from dogs and thought they would try it, the dog growled so they shouted at it and hit it with a newspaper so it chased them away and bit them .
The dog came to stay with us and it took me weeks of work to get this dog comfortable around food and to teach the owners how to treat their dog when food was around.

By all means teach a dog to be comfortable around food, as I said do 'swaps' with things, put an empty bowl down and add food gradually, walk past your dog when it is eating and drop a tasty morsel in the bowl so it learns that it is rewarding and a good thing to have humans around when it is eating, but it is not wise to teach your dog to be on its guard because humans take food away.

Started my boy off on chicken wings, he swallowed one whole threw it up and decided that they are best chewed! From day one he had always had this sort of thing taken back off of him or out of his bowl while he was eating and as a result wouldnt even occur to him to guard his food as he knows it always comes back

Any bones he has are well covered with meat/skin, so when munched they are in their own little 'parcel' ready for his stomach.

he also appears to like an extra coating of mud on things too?! he had 2 chicken thighs in his dinner sunday night, ate one buried the other then ate the second one after digging it up last night

Thanks Mini, interesting to read the experience with the cocker.

I dont take food off Bob when he is eating, but have once a day, been putting my hand in the bowl and just gently moving it around - is this the wrong thing to do? I did it intiialy with my last dog too until I knew he was ok about people being around his food.

I have been getting Bob used to dropping 'bones' (tasty chew stuff at the mo) by saying drop and then giving him a treat as a reward.

Why not add something to the bowl rather than just putting your hand in? for example, when I give mine raw eggs (I wouldn't give raw egg to a young puppy BTW), I let them start eating the kibble and then add the egg while they are eating. Mine go loopy over raw eggs for some reason, so very much associate me being near their food bowl with getting something tasty. Doing this I have never had any problems with food aggression.

He likes them well seasoned

Good idea.

I wouldnt have a problem with any of ours, they are all excellent. I do need to hold Harvey's chick wings tho as he has never learnt to chew them up, he would still swallow whole and throw them back up 5 mins later. Just a greedy boy

What would you do with a boy who if he sees you leave his sight, leaves his food to come after you!! Unless I stay in the same room as him, he wont eat The girls couldnt care less