I have Bentley, who is an 18 week old Viz and is an absolute treasure to own and very bright. We have worked through any issues with him and managed to overcome them all so far, including his nipping, which has thankfully nearly gone thanks to the hints from Gunnr about the muzzle holding and no teeth. The only one we are struggling with and has only just started doing in the last 10 days or so, is that he scoffs his food if we move near his bowl while he is eating and covers it if we try and go near it. Our routine for feeding him is that we try and eat first if it fits in to our routine, then make him sit and stay about 4 feet away while I pretend to eat from his bowl. I then put it on the ground and he continues to wait until I tell him to take it and stroke him and praise him for waiting. This procedure always worked for my Lab so am surprised it is causing issues with Bentley. He is fine with his chews or bones andlets us take them from him without growling. I have tried sitting on the floor with the bowl on my lap, holding the bowl while he eats and also adding more food while he is eating, but this appears to make no difference. I want to stop this before it escalates as it is easier to stop a puppy than it is a large dog! Any ideas would be greatly received. I wondered if it had anything to do with the feeding problems I have had with him, as I am having trouble finding a dry food that does not give him diarrhoea. We are currently on our 3rd sort, which does look promising but are still in the transition period from Chicken and Rice. I thought he may be hungrier than he would normally be maybe??