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Thanks that was really helpful. We’d been getting angry with him and telling him off, which we kind of knew was the wrong approach. Think we need to just agree on an approach (treat based and positive) and stick to it. It’s only a very minor blip really as he’s such a friendly and happy boy in every other situation.
Otto is an absolute babe. Ive just forwarded a screenshot to my wife who will go nuts :-D
AlexD-
You’ll solve it in no time!
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As others have said, you'll get some good help looking into food guarding or resource guarding.
We started from a very young age by hand feeding the dog at every meal time which i think is what most of the positive reinforcement books tell you (if you start with a puppy).
Spaniels as a breed trait always want a trade - i always think of it as i pay her a wage for doing what i want her to do. It did take a while to train the drop / leave it command particularly with a toy but i just made sure i had something to reward her with that was higher value than the soft toy / sock she'd stolen from somewhere.
ak
mcmyk
This used to happen with our Catalan Shepherd/German Shepherd 12-month-old rescue, Otto.
The following assumes you’ve signed up to the positive training school of thought, entirely…. You’ve got to present them with a better option to show that they get something better in return if they give up one thing. If they steal food, entice them to leave it by offering even better food (we used fresh chicken breast) immediately and a “drop it” command (or whatever you use).
Then, after a little while, get them to sit or work for that better food.
After a little while more they’ll start thinking about dropping it just with the command and without the extra treat. You should still reward them when they drop it.
Otto used to be awful with this - would growl and snarl terrifyingly.
Now he doesn’t always drop it straight away but is no longer aggressive about it.
It’ll take time and gradual progress.