Hank the Boerboel just turned 1 year old. He is in tact, 65kg and we have had him since he was 9 weeks old. We have always worked hard to keep him from having food aggression issues. We make him wait for us to give him the OK to eat his food. We can take his food bowl away from him, no problem. He listens when we put down treats and tell him to "leave it". All that is just fine.
The problem recently is that when we give him very high value treats, like meaty bones, he is extremely defensive of his food. I can feed him the bone from my hand and tell him to leave it and he will listen. I can put it down, let him chew a few seconds and take it from him. No problem. However, if I let him really get into the food, he will growl at me if I come anywhere close. He will snap at me if I try to reach down and take it. I can't even walk by him while he has the bone without him growling and getting in a very tense aggressive stance.
We have a 5 month old baby, so we are of course worried about when she is up and walking around, besides our own safety since a bit from him would be really terrible. We want to be responsible dog owners so any advice would be really great. TIA!
The problem recently is that when we give him very high value treats, like meaty bones, he is extremely defensive of his food. I can feed him the bone from my hand and tell him to leave it and he will listen. I can put it down, let him chew a few seconds and take it from him. No problem. However, if I let him really get into the food, he will growl at me if I come anywhere close. He will snap at me if I try to reach down and take it. I can't even walk by him while he has the bone without him growling and getting in a very tense aggressive stance.
We have a 5 month old baby, so we are of course worried about when she is up and walking around, besides our own safety since a bit from him would be really terrible. We want to be responsible dog owners so any advice would be really great. TIA!