Serious biting and growing

My dog has serious biting problems and she had bit me once whenever she has some food around her she protects it and if she is sleeping and we make a single sound she barks and growps at is. Help.

A couple of things come to mind. The saying "let sleeping dogs lie" exists for good reason. When dogs waken suddenly, they sometimes react instinctively and go into a fight or flight response which is a very deep set reaction that they just can't help. Make sure she has a safe quiet place to sleep - if she is crate trained that would be ideal.

Regarding the food, if you were in a restaurant enjoying a favourite meal and you believed (rightly or wrongly) that someone was going to take it away from you, you would probably grumble a bit too. So make sure she is allowed to eat without anyone approaching.

If you do want to do more work on this, put a small amount of food in one bowl. Before she finishes it, put something of higher value in a second bowl. When she leaves the first bowl for the better stuff, lift it and if you can, repeat with something better still. You will need to do this over many days or weeks to make a behavioural change.

Finally, never ignore a growl. It is your dog's way of communicating that she is unhappy or uncomfortable and it is important to listen to that. Dogs give a series of signals that they are unhappy, but unfortunately most people don't recognise them because they can be quite subtle. To begin with there is often wide eyes, lip licking and yawning. There is also muscular tension in the body. Then the ones we sometimes do see - growl, snarl, nip then bite. If the early signals are not seen (or, in the dog's view, ignored) she won't bother with them because us stupid humans pay no attention anyway; so she may go straight to the bite. So it's important never to ignore a growl.

For serious aggression issues, you should always consult a behaviourist who can see exactly what is happening and may pick up on triggers. But anyone can call themselves a behaviourist, so you have to choose carefully. A behaviourist registered with the APDT should be reliable. Anyone who uses punishment, or says talks about pack hierarchy and status and that you have to be 'boss' or 'alpha', you need to avoid like the plague.

Having said that, we may be able to help a little - how long have you had the dog, and what do you know of her background before that? What breed/type is she and how old is she? How much exercise does she get a day - could you give a run-down of her daily routine - and what do you feed her?

The key to making her safe around food is to make her feel safe around food. So when you've given her her food, leave the room and leave her to it. Never try to take food off her, even if it's something she shouldn't have - so you need to be careful not to leave food around that she can steal. Later, when she's less stressed around food, you can do things like take a step towards her from the far side of the room, throw her a high-value treat, and leave her again, so she sees your approach when she has food as a good thing. You might get to the stage where you can walk right up to her, hand her a treat and walk away again, but then again you might not - you need to work at her pace and only go as far as she is happy with.

When she growls at you for making a noise, where does she sleep? It might help if her bed could be further away from you, in a quiet place, and maybe even in a crate which you can cover with blankets to help her feel more safe and secure. You would need to crate-train her to be happy in the crate, particularly if you wanted to close the door, but it could be well worth it so that everyone in the household can feel more relaxed and not just her.

Cross-posted with @JoanneF !