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All three of the dog training books we read before getting Otto had entire chapters on how to deal with this so I assume its a really common problem.
I know that's not useful to you in itself but if you google "food guarding" you'll find a shit load of tips and guidance.
Edit: Its such a common problem you don't even need to specify that its for a dog when you search for food guarding. Food Aggression is another term for it.
Stonehedge
Some advice please:
Odie is not aggressive in the slightest apart from a specific situation. If he steals some food (or one of the kids toys or whatever) and then retreats under the kitchen table or similar, he’ll go in to defensive mode. If you try and get the contraband off him or get him out he’ll bare his teeth, growl and even bark (he doesn’t normally bark that often).
It’s not very often, but it’s behaviour I’m really keen on avoiding obviously. What’s the best way to handle this? I don’t feel like ‘alpha-ing’- grabbing him by the collar and dragging him out - is necessarily the best option