Now that's the sort of situation I have to force Rupert to give up his prize. Damn dog grabs birds (usually pigeons) out of the air and given the chance will eat them

I dont teach my dogs tricks. The commands they do learn are rewarded with praise NOT food.

You may not see it as bribery but I do. Imagine being in the fields or somewhere and your dog picks up something like a rotting rabbit, you dont want the dog to eat it but it wont let you have it because he hasnt been taught that you can take things from him, you dont have anything to bribe him with, what do you do?

So how do you teach your dogs to give up high value things then? Just take them away by force? If you tell them to drop it and they do then how do you teach them to drop things in the first place?

I always practice swaps with high value stuff....(marrow bones...and more recently with Zeff - Lamb breasts)....it has meant that I have managed to call him off some really high value stuff he has found (dead rabbits)..... although he will only do this for me at the moment.
Never had anything to call him away from the stuff outside, but having learnt it, he responded I was a proud Mummy

I teach them "leave" Right from babies. Starts with not going to others food bowls, not touching things that drop onto the floor, not touching the cats food which is on the floor no matter how long its there for. Leave doesnt just mean giving something up they have, it means leaving it when its there before they touch it.

Ive never had a dog that has growled or guarded anything from me, nor would I tolerate that. Quiet, patient teaching from very young will result in a dog leaving anything you tell it to.

im proud to say neither have i ,or will i..darn jinxed it now havnt i

I agree with this, I think its a good idea to reward the 'leave' rather than a 'barter' or 'lure' eventually the lure may not be enough. Rewarding 'leave' means a reward for the right thing rather than a swap if you think youll like the toy/treat more.. Might be a good idea to watch over them and do some training while your son is there doing it, so that the dog knows, your all one, if he dosnt do it for him, youll make him anyway lol

Well that was a definite problem for me as my dog was a year old when I got him and had already learned to kill and eat other animals.

How would you deal with a dog who did guard food from you? To the point where they would bite if you tried to take it from them? Shadow would leave things if told to before he picked them up but once he'd picked them up they were his. We were told to take them by force and praise him when we got them off him. That resulted in him escalating from mere growling to actually biting if we went anywhere near him while he had food. You say you wouldn't tolerate that but what would you actually do to stop it?

Yes I can see that they can be different. When Tarn was doing a lot of work, I had REAL problems getting him to drop things he had caught, like Rats, Squirrels etc.. It was no fun wrestling with him Im talking 10yrs ago now, the more you got irate and shouted, the more "fun" he thought it was and pulled harder! He was the only dog that did this, but when I said "leave" very calmly and quietly he let go instantly, a fluke to begin with, but always worked thereafter. Since then it means the same here, if you have it loose it, if you dont, dont touch it.

Terriers are really hard mouthed, the more excited or desperate you get the more they hang on! Ive found, with Borders at least, being very calm works best.

Wouldnt worry about your lot either.

Id start from scratch and teach him to leave things, anything. Even if he didnt want it, something he sniffed for example, on a line so you can guide him away at the same time, then praise him loads for doing it. He would know that leave meant leave. Gradually Id work from there. I havent had an aggressive dog, as I said Id never tolerate that behaviour, I have had adult dogs before and leave is always first on the list.