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Not a dog behaviourist, but here's my take.
If you've created a safe environment for him in his crate, then he could well be more protective of food and treats given to him in his crate, plus he's enclosed/cornered and has nowhere to take his prized food, so could be more likely to guard it. What's he like with food given to him outside the crate?
There are some people who take the view that you should be able to take food off a dog at any time, others see growling as perfectly reasonable (when it's over food) and simply the dog letting you know it wants to be left alone with it's food. I'm not saying the former is wrong, but it does often seem pointless, other than the human trying to prove themselves the "pack leader".
I had a dog that was very protective of food that he was given. He was fed twice a day and always outside (whatever the weather) and never received anything in the house - and we never had a problem. Yet he was able to distinguish between "his" food (the food he was given in his bowl) and food he scavenged, and would drop on command or let me remove chicken bones from his mouth when on walks.
Interestingly, he was way less food motivated than my current dog, Reggie, who will eat anything and everything, but never guards or shows no aggression around it.
Markyboy-
It depends on the size of the food. And if it’s in something (e.g. toy). Small treats he’ll just eat. Larger things like edible chews he’ll either eat (annoyingly quickly the savage!) if he’s hungry or just leave there. We’ve learnt to take these away if he’s not immediately interested because it potentially turns into guarding later on. Treats in toys though is a bit different. We want to give him some mental stimulation (so kibble in wobble dispenser thing) but he has ended up guarding that FFS. I’m now wondering whether to double up on these toys to make them less special.
Back to last night’s/today’s episode… He came out around 1ish. Can only assume because he was thirsty AF and the smell of the ox chew around the corner was too much to resist.
wools
Anyone on here have any success with resource guarding? The little lad gets himself in such a stupid state sometimes. We popped into town for a couple of hours and left him in his crate with an antler and a Kong (the Stuff a Ball type with kibble slotted in). When we got back he was guarding the Kong and wouldn't leave his crate... Come bed time we had to close his crate and go upstairs. Today is going to be interesting.