It's nice to be able to trade a higher value reward, if one exists, to prevent guarding.

I do believe you better be able take away something from your dog even when he really wants it and is possessive about it because a) you should be the ultimate influence in his life (alpha) and b) for his safety.

Obviously you should do this with someone experienced for your own safety if the dog is already into resource guarding.

Two things that very helpful in this situation.

1) To be able to recall the dog from his food. That means bomb proof recall.

2) You can block the dog with an object so he can redirect his aggression on the object and wait him out until he gives up the toy. It would be ideal to tie him up when setting up this exercise so you know your boundaries and can be completely safe. There will be a point where he just gives up. Show him that you will not back away until he relinquishes the possessed item. You can see Cesar do this a few times on the Dog Whisperer.

#1 is much safer IMO but they are both effective and I think a combination of everything is ideal.

What I did with my dogs is give them half of their food ration, and when they were almost done with that I put my hands in their bowl to add the rest. They learned that my hand in their bowl didn't mean I was taking anything away from them...in their eyes, my hands near their food meant more good stuff was coming. I did want them somewhat relaxed about hands in their food bowl, just in case someone in my house did something unexpected (I believe a healthy dose of prevention is a good thing! )

I don't feel the need to do that any more, though. Even with marrow bones I don't have a problem. I have to take those away sometimes because they'll walk off to an inappropriate place with them and I have to move them. But I do tell them to drop it first, as a bit of a warning. I don't think it's wise to just swoop down on a dog (even those I trust) and grab their prize away.

I think you have to be careful, because attempting to desensitize the dog could actually cause the behavior you're trying to prevent. It makes logical sense to me that a dog who has his food messed with all the time would begin to be protective of it.

In canine packs, a good pack leader would never mess with the other's food over and over. He eats first, yes, but when he's done--he's done, and he doesn't go back to steal bites.

When I first got Mojo, I gave him a beef rib, a few minutes later walked by him and he growled at me. I was shocked and pissed that this little 9 week old did this. I immediatly took his bone and put it up. I also did the alpha roll (I know now it wasn't the best think to do). I gave it back to him a few hours later and left him be. I though about the Alpha thing and how to make him non aggressive over his food. I began by picking up his bowl after he had almost emptied it, and holding it for him to help finish the food. This seemed to work great, created a trust that I can be near him and assist him with eating so to speak. He has never since givien me any grief over food.

 Quote: edward egan

I began by picking up his bowl after he had almost emptied it, and holding it for him to help finish the food. This seemed to work great, created a trust that I can be near him and assist him with eating so to speak.

We did the same thing with our dog - we actually started doing it once we switched to raw because he really DID have a hard time sometimes licking the sticky little bits out of the bottom . He's never been at all possessive with us regarding food and resources, but I'd like to think this helped and I'm so glad he's completely comfortable with us being near him, and even touching his food and bowl, while he's eating (I agree with Amber though, the pestering just for pestering's sake isn't fair to the pooch).

Never had an issue with taking away bones, but when he does get them as treats, our dog has a "rug" (old bath mat) that he chews them on - he's an indoor dog and I just didn't want the floors greased everytime he had a treat. We taught him to always keep the bone "on your rug" by routinely stopping him from gnawing once the bone had migrated to the edge of the rug, picking it up, placing it in the middle of the rug and allowing him to continue (in conjunction with the voice command). We didn't take it away, just made him watch us 'move it', and it took a fair amount of doing this before he got it (he'll now automatically pick up a bone and reposition himself on the rug if the bone gets pushed off onto the floor). I suppose that's something you teach AFTER any possession issues are worked out, but it worked well for us and our dog.

~Natalya