Pet puppy person said a 9 month old male pup just growled at him when he came near his food bowl. Never had any behavior like this before. Has been a sweetie pie up till this. He corrected him, and started to hand feed him. The pup has not growled since, but acts skitzy when eating, looking around suspiciously. The only change was a bit of diarrhea, and cut back on food because of that. Pup is better, and back to normal diet. No more growling, but pup is still unsettled when he eats. Human baby due in a couple of months, so want to figure him out fast! Any suggestions on how to handle it, and get the pup to not act so skitzy when eating?

My first thought is the correction was harsh - hence the sketchy eating. The guarding wasn't worked on, just the reaction to guarding.
Plenty of time to fix this.
When eating, walk up to the bowl talking high voiced friendly 'Oh what a good puppy, yea!' and drop a piece of chicken/cheese/beef - something VERY special in the bowl. Drop it far enough away so the dog doesn't feel a need to worry the bowl will be leaving. Walk on. Repeat this until the dog is now actually starting to look forward to him walking up to the bowl. Then continue, but add a back stroke/pet - 'what a good dog'. Once tail is wagging and this is accepted, drop the food in closer to the dogs bowl. Keep everything else the same. Once this is all accepted well (no sketchy, growly, worried looks) start picking up the bowl, shake some parmesan on it, do ANYTHING to make the bowl better, put it back down. 'Such a good dog!'. Ideally this won't take more than a couple of weeks and you end up with a dog looking forward to you walking up to the bowl.
Correction does not fix guarding, just tells the dog he needs to do a better job of not getting caught. I would also start a lot of 'thank you' games. Dog has a toy, take the toy 'Can I have that, oh thank you!', then GIVE the toy back! Do this a lot, what you are trying to extinguish is the feeling that the dog will lose it's possession. The best way to do that is to have the dog feel nothing is ever taken away for long, and it comes back either better or just the same.
It works - but takes some patience and some time. Good luck.

Thank you. This makes a lot of sense . I will forward the info to the pet owner. They really love this pup, and will do anything that needs to be done. But, with a baby on the way, it is time to deal with it now! Thanks Again!

Your welcome, this should take care of any issues. Just remind them, it can't be rushed. We Americans - we want everything now! It won't take long, but if it is rushed it will take a lot longer!

If the dog is a guarder, then I would work on some priority items after this initial de-sensitizing. I sat outside, gave my girl a pigs ear, had a can of Kraft squirt cheese beside me and started weeding. Every so often I would lean over and say 'what you got, can I see that, thank you' all sweetsy like, then squirt some cheese on it and give it back. By the end of the session she was dropping it immediately when I looked over at her. 'Please Mom, please come squirt some of that cheese on it!' LOL I did this AFTER working up to just petting her while she had the ear and dropping treats on the ground. Starting with less priority items, working up to higher items and starting those with less threatening approaches. Guarding is not unique, some dogs just do it more. A toddler will be taking all sorts of things away, so I would work on everything and anything - taking it slow - so there are no surprises. It isn't about making the dog give it up (or share it's bed, etc.) it's about the dog never feeling threatened that it will be taken away for good. (And yes, sometimes things do get taken away for good - but it should be the exception not the rule. Even dogs will forgive the exception )

Metro SPCA Behavior & Training Department
Food Bowl Exercises

Standard Prevention Exercises for All Non-Guarding Dogs and Puppies

Resource guarding is a natural behaviour in dogs. Dogs in the wild go to a lot of trouble to find food, and it is no wonder that guarding is built into them. This behaviour is hard wired into your dog, and we must do a few exercises to teach him that it’s OK for us to touch his dinner or possessions.
A dog that guards his food or toys is not a dominant dog. One of the rules of dogdom is that possession is 9/10ths of the law. Any dog, regardless of rank, is entitled to an object until he is done with it…then it is up for grabs. This is the principle your dog will work on unless you teach him otherwise. Here is a simple program for teaching your dog that sharing is cool!
This exercise is also a maintenance spot check for former guarders.

Signs of Guarding

• Accelerated eating
• Cessation of eating/”freezing up”
• Glassy or hard eyes
• Growling
• Lip lifting
• Snapping
• Biting

Rehab Exercise 1

1) At mealtime, put down empty food dish
2) Approach dog and empty dish and add a few pieces of kibble
3) Withdraw and repeat until entire meal fed in this manner
4) If dog guards, end mealtime: “too bad”
5) Feed 2-3 meals this way
6) On 4th meal, gradually begin to reduce the time between approaches and increase the amount of kibble per installment so that overlap develops: dog is eating while you re-fill
7) When you have reached the point that you are giving meal in 2-3 installments without any guarding, switch to bonus-addition, as per prevention instructions above (adding bonus while eating and removing bowl to add bonus)

Rehab Exercise 2

1) Approach dog while eating to “safety distance” (pre-guarding distance) and flip bonus at bowl (don’t worry about accuracy), repeating several times in a row
2) Do this for 2-3 meals
3) On 4th meal, decrease distance slightly after first flip
4) If successful (no guarding), continue gradually decreasing distance until you can approach bowl and drop bonus in
5) Switch to prevention exercises

Thank you! Info forwarded!

We don't have any guarding issues here but I'd be interested in the "prevention" exercises mentioned.