I had a similar thing with Jarvis, he's definately prone to guarding behaviour,
however, he's almost perfect with food now.
It's taken a few months of training but it can be done.
I asked a question when it kicked off with Jarvis and got a very helpful reply from craftysam (thank you!
) which i hope she won't mind me quoting.
Firstly I believe that I, or anyone else, should be able to remove anything from my dogs without issue. There's a few reasons for this.
Firstly from a safety point of view. If my dog has something that is very dangerous for it, I (or whoever discovered the danger) need to be able to take it from them without an guarding problems. Secondly, I am becoming increasingly aware that people who don't know or don't have experience of dealing with dogs can act unpredictably. Your back could be turned for a few seconds and a visitor or child could quite innocently go to take a toy or something from the dog and if the dog hasn't been trained to accept this happening readily it could cause a real problem.
This is something that I focus on from them being pups. I can tell you how I deal with it and you can decide if its something you want to try. Wink
Firstly sit on the floor, with his bowl in between your legs. Add a handfull of his food into the bowl at a time. When he is comfortable with this situation move on to stroking him while he eats. Again once he's comfortable with this situation move on to the next step. You can decide how you tackle this step depending on how accepting he is being. The aim is to add something tasty to his food while he is eating, say bits of ham or cheese. If you think he will accept you putting this into his bowl while he is eating then do that. If he's not ready for that yet, show him the food let him take it from you, then start to drop it in. Eventually you want to work towards being able to add the ham or cheese to his bowl while he is eating the food and for you to be able to stir it in with your hand.
He will learn from this that you aren't a threat to his food, but in fact you bring him extra nice things too.
Now I would advise you to take each step slowly and only move on to the next step once he's become totally comfortable with what you are doing.
Also begin to trade with him. So for example, play tug with him, while he has the rope in his mouth ask him to give. When he releases the rope praise and reward him immediately with his favourite treat. Then play tug again. Do this numerous times a day. Then start to ask him to give something up that he's playing with on his own. If necessary show him the treat. Once he's been doing this for sometime without issue, move on to a treat he likes. To begin with you might wish to hold the treat, say a tripe stick, while he eats it. Periodically ask him to give, praise and reward him well if he does this without issue. Eventually by the end of this you will be able to ask him to give whatever he has and he will without guarding.
This may take quite a few weeks to resolve. Try to resist moving on took quickly. Before taking the next step make sure that he is fully comfortable with what you are doing.
Even though Jarvis wasn't actually guarding the food bowl specifically from me, doing all of those steps has taught him to relax around people when he's eating. The only time we even hear a growl now is if someone doesn't realise he's eating and puts their face too near him, which i think is understandable so am training family on that one.
(By the way, Jarvis has the occasional raw bone to chew and will even drop that on command and won't growl
)
Good luck.
