Resource Guarding 12 week Golden Retriever

[nini_noo]

Hi,

We have a 12 week old male pure bred Golden Retriever (not neutered yet). He's an Australian bred dog, with an English 'father'. We've had him for 3 weeks now. He's very clever - knows his name, comes when called, sits & lies down on command and walks nicely on the lead. We are asserting our dominance by not letting him walk through doors or upstairs first, but sitting and waiting, eating food before feeding him, making him sit for his food, hand feeding him treats to reward good behaviour etc...

We are taking him to puppy preschool, where each week he receives a dried pig's ear. This is the first place where we noticed his growling/possessive resource guarding behaviour. He has exhibited the same behaviour at home now with bones. We are trying to do the "Nothing in Life is for Free" routine - taking the bone from him, making him sit give it back etc. Having said this though, I have no problems at all taking his food bowl away while he is eating, nor patting him or touching his food while he is eating - no growling or aggressive behaviour at all. It's only over bones and pig's ears.

The vet who runs the preschool course says that we have an aggressive dog and that we need to neuter him early at 4 and half months, instead of 6 months. The trainers at the dog club we are taking him to say that we should let him go until he is 9 months to mature more. I'm not sure what to do. My reading so far has indicated that neutering him will only reduce sexually orientated aggression, not resource guarding.

Basically, I really need another opinion.

• Should I neuter him early at 4 and half months, or wait until 9 months?
• What other training method can I use to reduce resource guarding?