[fostermom]

Unfortunately, old school dog training did tell people to put their hands in the dog's food bowl, which actually created food aggression in some dogs. Last year I fostered a 10 mo. old rotti...he was a great pup with no "issues". I even made a point of taking the couple interested in adopting him to a trainer who went through with them how to work with the dog...one of the things he showed the couple was the "trading up" training. The trainer took a chew bone and held it in one hand and let the dog chew on the other end...then with his free hand he took a can of velveeta cheese wiz, put the nozzle in the side of Zach's muzzle and started squirting cheese into Zach's mouth. At that point (when Zach was interested in the cheese wiz) he took away the bone. Then he reversed the process and offered Zach the bone back. Pretty soon, Zach was happily allowing the bone to be removed.
The husband, however, felt that he had been successful in training his prior rott so decided to "do things his way"...soon I was hearing about how scary Zach was around his food...I was trying to figure out what they were talking about as he was fine at my home. The wife then told me her husband had been putting his hand in Zach's food, also taking away his food and then giving it back...unfortunately, what hubby taught Zach was that he needed to guard his food.
Also, what I do with new fosters (that I don't know how they would react) when I want to remove something from them is to either call them away from what they have, or place something yummy on the floor a short distance away from them...they inevitably leave the item I want to retrieve on the floor and walk over to get the treat...I then walk over and remove the item while the dog is happily eating the treat...it's a lot less confrontational (and safer). Best of luck with your pup.