One of my pups last night gave me a huge fright, I heard him snap/growl/bark,
I know the one, its usually to tell my bitch to back off, except it was my daughter
who had been in the kitchen with my wife, and she came too close to his food,
I never thought of it before, well I guess I did but didn't look at it in this way,
but for an hour or so before every meal he always lies down near the food,
now it seems he's guarding it, and once before I heard him snap/growl/bark at
my bitch when she passed him rather innocently,
he warns her off in the same way when she's getting on his nerves
with her energy and he wants to sleep, or when she walks past him while he's eating,
he's never done that to my kids though, although I've always told them to give the dogs room
when they're eating, so he hasn't really had the opportunity.

anyway, what can I do to prevent this ever happening again,
I ran over and told him off, and later on got one of my daughters to hand feed him just
before his meal, he seemed reluctant to eat it and kept looking at me and the food I held,
I put it down and eventually he ate from her hand, I gave her little bits at a time,
I really need him to grow up knowing my kids are not his litter mates, he's going to weigh
around 75kg's.
he really is a great guy, plays gently with them most of the time, mouths once in a while
but not much at all, runs to greet them when they get home, etc etc etc,
food aside he's awesome, this was a surprise, and I just
want to prevent it in future

Hi Taariq, good idea to prevent resource guarding issues; they can be potentially very serious..

Resource guarding is omnipresent in dogs; years of carefully selective breeding have failed to eradicate it. Dogs are hardwired to guard their food.  I don't view resource guarding between dogs as a particular problem as I always "manage" feed times so that dogs are separated.  Feeding, especially raw feeding, is a highly "exciting" and competitive activity; after all one of the ways many reluctant eaters are encouraged to eat is by the presence of competition :D

However resource guarding in the canine/human interface is just not acceptable at any time with any dog; after all who knows when you may need to remove a potentially lethal item from the dog's jaws eg antifreeze bottle etc.  It is therefore essential that ALL dogs are taught right from day one to be comfortable with humans around food.

The first thing I would look at is the presence of other dogs and humans whilst eating.  Having other dogs around during meal times will increase the reactivity of the dog not only to dogs but other "competition" and so the first thing I would do is feed the dogs in separate rooms/areas etc to reduce the anxiety level. You will have to do this for a while anyway whilst you implement a programme of counter conditioning with your resource guarding dog.

The exercises shoud be carried out by you, then your wife and then your children in that order and ONLY when the dog is completely comfortable with you should you move on to your wife and children.  You mention that your dog has not had the opportunity of reacting in this way before; this is why you MUST put the work in, for those "unexpected" moments!

It is much easier and safer to start this with a puppy than firefight with a fully grown dog!

USe several empty bowls and then put some food in one bowl, then move on to another etc etc so that the dog does not have ONE bowl to guard.  Then with one bowl, throw some delicious food in whilst eating, then move closer and put food in; always get the dog to associate the presence of people with ADDING food not taking it away.  Also make the additions super tasty :D  Eventually you should be able to pick up the dogs bowl while it is eating to add something and replace it and stop the dog mid meal etc etc.

All of this will take some considerable time and must NOT be rushed; do not lull yourself into a false sense of security; the longer it takes the more ingrained the dogs counter conditioning will become and welcome the presence of people rather than feel threatened by them.  Think of weeks not days!  Also be sure to start quite far away from the dog in order to gradually raise his "approach" tolerance level.

It would also be a good idea to teach your dog to give up items for something of a higher reward utnil your dog should give you back a bone when asked and feel perfectly comfortable doing it.

I do stress that this must be done gradually but if done correctly you should have dogs that are totally at ease with human traffic around their feeding station.  Please do not expect the same level of tolerance to be extended in the presence of other dogs it is unreasonable.

An excellent book which has detailed instructions on this and other resource guarding issues is Mine! A practical guide to resource guarding in dogs by Jean Donaldson.

HTH