New puppy, aggressive w/ bones and

Question
Hello, 5 days ago I brought home a puppy that is mostly lab with maybe 1/4 blue heeler, and a little bit of Australian Shepard. He turned 9 weeks old today. So far no complaints until today when I noticed a behavior that startled me. He was aggressive over a bone. It was his first time getting a bone. I have spent the past few days teaching him "sit", which I made him do just before giving him the bone. When I tested taking it away, he gave me a nice feisty little growl and snipped without biting me. So I immediately took it away. Then I tried again.  I made him sit, pet him gently praises him for being good, then slowly grabbed the bone away. He growled and snapped again, so I took it away.

Is this normal puppy stuff, or do i have a potentially possessive and toy aggressive dog?  What do you recommend I do? ( he has been good with food, treats, sqeeky toys etc. only had this issue with the bone)

Other behaviors I noticed about him which I feel might be connected to this: He is CRAZY about food as if he is starving. He eats like a hog. I figured he is coming down from being in a large litter that are all anxious to eat, and fighting to be first in line. I understand he is still due get several more rounds if vaccines and deworming, but I haven't noticed worms in his poop.

Also, if he "scores" something from the ground he runs and hides from me. Over the last few days he found pieces of old cat fieces in the dirt, he'd grab a piece then run and hide behind a chair. I was able to catch him and open his mouth to get him to drop it. By me doing that, is he associating my hands now as "bad" for taking away his "goodies"?

I try to have the mist gentle hand with him, other than prying his mouth open to get stuff. I feel I am pretty good at training dogs, I always have labs or lab mixes but haven't had one with an Aussie breed in it. I hope this isn't too much info but I wanted to describe the situation and environment as best as possible. Thank you.

Answer
To answer the primary question, yes, you are dealing with food aggression. It's great that he's been good with food and treats; this just means he really, really favors that bone. I give props that you knew to take the bone away, that is exactly what I would have done. But don't get discouraged with the fact that he's developed this, he's still very young and has plenty of room to grow. I'm not sure how you introduced the bone, but first allow him to just sniff it and lick while you're still holding onto it and the first instant you move it a little bit away and he does nothing, PRAISE HIM. I have a rotteweiler who is 10 yrs old now and when I first got her at 8 weeks, she had a food aggression issue going on. One time of me growling a "no!", combo-ed with a stomp/clamp...that was all it took for her to never do that again. Haha

For kind of a rundown, it does sound like he's going through what may have happended with his litter mates and having to fight for food. That is exactly how food aggression begins. Are you thinking about training classes with him in the near future? You're doing awesome thus far, but there are tricks of the trade that go awesome with classes.

On the note of prying things out of his mouth- he should definitely allow you to do that, and that just strengthens that what he's chewing on is not allowed. But to go beyond that, make sure you're replacing it with something that he is allowed to chew on. Right now, all he's thinking is PLAYTIME!! And it's the first crucial months that he needs to realize his place in the household and what is expected of him.

One thing to start teaching him is "leave it" if you haven't begun to do so already. That will instantly let him know what is or isn't supposed to be picking up or paying attention to.

Let me know how things go and you have any more questions.