Lucian has a tendency to guard his food and toys when my 3 yr old daughter is around him. I noticed about a week after having him he snapped at her when she went near his food. He also growled at me when I pet him. Ever since then I have hand fed him every meal. I've done this for about a month. I've now gotten to the point of holding his bowl, and petting him while he's eating. He still shies away a bit if you get near the side of his face, but no growling or snapping. I'm now going to start having my daughter give him food. Not by hand, since I'm not comfortable with her doing that, but rather put it in a cup and have her pour a little at a time in his dish. Hopefully he will then understand she is above him in the scale of things, and stops the food guarding.
On to the toy guarding. He only does this with my daughter. My husband and I can walk up and take whatever he's playing with, and have no problem. Today my daughter was trying to play fetch with him, and she went to get the ball. Lucian snapped at her hand. I quickly scooped him up, and put him in the kitchen for time out. I'm just wondering if these methods I'm using are going to work. I'm worried, cause pretty soon he is going to be bigger than her, and could possibly do some real damage. I can't have that happening. I think it's happening because Lucian doesn't see my daughter as being above him. So I'm wondering if I should just keep at what I've been doing or if there are any other tricks that you guys may know for dealing with this type of thing. Keep in mind my daughter is only 3, and is easily excited. She goes crazy laughing, and jumping up and down when playing with Lucian. I can't seem to get her to understand she needs to be the calm boss of him. Thanks for any input!

To be honest, if my dog was doing that to my child I would hire a trainer or behaviorist ASAP. That's something that needs to be addressed immediately.