I have recently inherited a 2½ year old Golden Retriever when my boyfriend moved in with me. I have learnt to get along with him just fine but there are a couple of things I am having trouble with. The first is guarding of items such as food (especially chocolate!!), bones, my handbag etc I am unable to get them off him even though he is usually not chewing them. He just barks and growls and shows his teeth, I'm sure he will bite if you try to get them off him. The second problem is that he snatches food from the work surfaces or bins and then will not let you take it off him and runs off with it and guards it till he has eaten it. Is there anyone out there who can help try to rectify the problems. We are going to training and this is helping in lots of ways as he no longer tries to dominate me as much and my confidence with him is growing as I am no longer wary of him unless he is doing one the above.
Please Help Thanks

Dont know if he is guarding his bowl of food either but I read something recently that said place 4 bowls on the ground a few feet apart and place one biscuit in a bowl then move onto the next while he is eating the biscuit. keep doing this for a few days/weeks and your dog should then associate your hand with the giving of food rather than taking it away. Sorry I cant be of more help Im sure that others will have more advice for you.
Dogs can be scary when they are growling (even Sydney my doberman pup 11 weeks can look meanacing) just try not to show your fear to him and keep up the training. Good luck and hope you have success with training him out of this bad habit.

Hi Nicola,
First of all, don't let him eat (human) chocolate! It's poisonous for dogs.

It's hard to advise on what's best to do without seeing the dog, but what I would try is to start to convince him that you aren't the meany who takes away all the nice things - you're the goodie who gives them to him! To do this I would start at his mealtimes, by measuring out his ration, holding his bowl empty, and put a small handful of his food into it, and let him eat that. Then add another small handful, and another, until his ration is finished. After a week or two of this, especially if he is fed more than once a day, he will be seeing you as less of a threat.

Regarding stealing from the worktop - I've had to learn not to leave things out! (Not meaning to be flippant!)

When you want to take something from him, offer him a swop. Sound happy and cheerful and confident, and say "Look what I've got! Come see? D'you want it?" Overact, ham it up something rotten - dogs like this and it relaxes them. The more anxious you get about it, the more important he'll think the item is and be even more possessive of it.

Good luck. :)

Thanks for the advice, I am really trying to remember to put things away. He doesn't actually guard his food bowls he will let you take them away from you, but he is very partial to my handbag at the moment even though there is nothing food wise in it??? Will the food bowl thing help with this as well??

If he's good regards his food bowls, that's a good sign! It won't do any harm for him to see you as a bearer of good things - because if I've read it right, you're the new person in his life and he's probably a bit unsettled regarding the status quo. He may not be sure where you fit in the extended pack. Make sure that when you do get things from him he gets a reward and praise - it's got to be made worth his while. As he's a retriever he should be able to learn to "bring it here" rather than run away with something - the better he becomes at retrieves the more you can use this training to get him to give up the things he's taken! Practice lots with all sorts of things - give him something and say "Take it", then say "Give" and take it from his mouth. If it's something boring he'll give it more readily. Make it a game, though - they learn much quicker.

Good luck. :)