Now What?

Well the food protection turned into food aggression this morning, and in a repeat of yesterday, he not only growled at me, but snapped as well when I touched him on the top of his head while he was eating.  I know that there are those who would say, "then don't touch him when he's eating."  However, he is already a very dominant oriented dog, and needs to learn that *I* am alpha, not him. What that means in doggie terms is that I have first claim to all of the food in our "pack". He is just under 14 weeks and there is already far too much testosterone floating around in him.  

I've had dogs all my life, and have never had one that was food aggressive, so I am somewhat at a loss as to how to deal with this.  He eats three cups of food a day, but eats like he is starving to death, inhaling it like a vacuum without even chewing.  Because of the way he eats I worry about bloat, so his food gets soaked with water before I give it to him.  He has been wormed three times and eats separately from my other dog, so there is no issue of her stealing his food.  Quite the contrary, he would wolf his own food down and then bully her out of the way so he could eat hers as well.  This behavior is very recent - he did not do this when I got him, and I cannot figure out why this has happened.  

But after speaking to a professional dog behaviorist, I will try something a little different. First of all his meals will be taken back to three times per day.  Instead of giving him his entire meal at once, I will sit on the floor with his bowl in front of me, but the food in another bowl out of his reach.  He will have to sit and "wait" while I put only seven or eight pieces of kibble in his bowl at a time, leaving my hand next to the bowl.  When I give him the ok, then he can eat the food. When he has eaten it, he has to sit and wait again until I say ok.  Interspersed with the kibble, I'll give him a small bit of cheese to see if I can draw his attention away from his bowl. It will take some time, and I'm well prepared to be snapped at again, but something has to be done to modify this behavior.  If we don't do something about it now, it will cause problems when he's full grown.