Stew bit me this morning...

[Jess & Stewart]

He'd grabbed a sock from my laundry hamper, ran around the room with it when he saw me walking towards him. He then laid down and was chewing on it. I grabbed a toy, thinking I could entice him to drop it, while say "drop". He snarled and growled as I got near the sock, so I was trying to keep my hands away from his mouth. He loosened his grip on the sock-I thought to take the toy. I grabbed the sock and he whipped around snarling, nipping, growling and bit my hand. He usually gives everything up without growling, so I was shocked.

I'm not sure he meant to bite my hand, but it was close to him and he came in contact with it. I showed him my hand and yelled no bite in a firm but gentle voice. Then ignored him as I went to get a bandaid. It isn't a deep bite, but he definitely drew some blood, it looks like I nicked the side of my hand. When I was putting on the bandaid, he came over to me, laid next to me, put his head of my knee and fell asleep about 2 minutes later. Not sure he was "remorseful" or knew what he did though.

He growled over the weekend while chewing on old t-shirts of my Dad's. I just acted like nothing and took them away from him, saying drop and no bite, even though he was growling.

I'm not sure if should act like it's nothing when he has something & just take it away (basically saying "that's not yours, you give it), or if I'm acting too much like "the boss".

When we went on a walk later, I made him sit and wait until I said "ok!" while I opened all my doors and before we went down the steps, as he'd recently being charging before me.

Otherwise, he's a great dog aside from nipping while teething. He sits, goes down, gives paw, does "watch me", and does rolls over about 50% of the time. He also sits before I feed him, open doors, to put on and take off his leash. He's adorably cute too and getting BIG (at least I think so!) We're working on come and wait. I'll post a video later...we made great progress on those two this week.

Any advice is appreciated! I don't want him to start guarding things!

[Jennifer & Truffle]

We've been dealing with the same issue with our 21-week old Australian labradoodle, Truffle.  He's been doing so well in almost every way except for resource guarding - a trait he just recently developed.  After subjecting my hand to a nasty bite because I did everything you're not supposed to do, I read what others have done on this fantastic forum (!) and started to use the high value treat method Karen mentioned (in Truffle's case, it's little hot dog bits, which while not the healthiest food on the planet, are super smelly and therefore yummy).  When I give Truffle something he loves, like a bone, we get to work.  Every 10-20 minutes, I'll take a tiny piece of hot dog, put it my fist, approach him and do the drop command.  When I first tried this, he continued to growl quite a bit, but I just repeated it several times on a daily basis until he let me get closer, stopped growling and dropped the bone.  I'd then pick up the bone, do the sit command, give him the treat and return the bone to him.  And repeat.  We're now at the point where I can sometimes brush him while he chews on his special something.  If it's a brand new treasure, he's still at the stage where the growling starts again, so I just do some remedial work.  He now knows what to expect and he may protest with a bark, but after a couple of seconds, he'll give me his bone/toy because his tummy tells him to!  And I'm no longer as nervous about approaching him.  Good luck with Stew!

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

This is perfect! 

[BG and Gavin]

Hot dogs are the ticket here too - I use chicken wieners - way less fatty - and slice them up and microwave til rubbery.  It is his after work reward snack.

[Jess & Stewart]

Jennifer- I was thinking of doing training along those same lines, it's nice to have it written out and explained! I did a long training session with Stew this evening. I gave him a bone, then told him to drop it and he did. I repeated this a few times, however he caught on and would drop his bone as soon as he saw me with a treat, rather than when I'd say drop it. I just need to catch him when he's chewing on a bone or toy. Then I'll be able to get to work and train the command.

However, he grabbed a piece of paper in my hallway when we were returning for a walk, and dropped it into my hand when I said drop it. I figure I'll take it as a success! I treated ASAP as I had treats with me. I'm going to start treating for a lot of good things ASAP rather than just during training session so he knows he gets a lot of attention and treats for that good behavior.

Overall, he's doing amazingly well for almost 15 weeks!

[Jennifer & Truffle]

That's great, Jess.  Truffle catches on too, and sometimes releases his things before I even give him a command.  Our trainer told us to celebrate those instances of passive obedience as well, which I do sometimes.  I'll say something like "good drop it!" and treat him immediately if I catch him anticipating the command.  I actually bought a cheap treat bag off of Amazon, which I keep handy on the kitchen counter (where he spends most of his time) and take it with me whenever we go outside to play in the backyard or on a walk. The reinforcement is incredibly important - and now that he's older, I've started to give the treats slightly less frequently, with the idea that he'll understand he needs to obey commands all the time if he doesn't know when he'll hit the jackpot!

[BG and Gavin]

Sorry he bit you.  I am happy you have a training plan and are sticking to your guns.  If he has a sock and growls next time and will not drop it - try to use your foot to step on the sock and pause (claiming it for your own) instead of pulling it out of his mouth with your hand.  Just hold your ground and see if he lets go and backs off.  One command though, then wait.