If your Akita is growling and biting at 8 months of age, look out. It will only get worse if you don't take matters into hand right now. You need to get in touch with a behaviorist -- not an ordinary trainer unfamiliar with DOMINANCE AGGRESSION. If there are no reputable dog behaviorists near you, you can contact Tufts University School of Veterinary Medicine. They do consultation (for a fee, of course) by fax/email, and I highly recommend you speak with them. You can look them up on the web at www.tufts.edu, and from there page to the veterinary school.
As you've no doubt noticed by now, Akitas have the potential to be aggressive. You can't risk your children or other people, so you need to get this dog in line pronto. And, you definitely cannot do it through physical punishment (which will only make matters worse). You CAN get a handle on his behavior through non-physical dominance exercises, what the behaviorists at Tufts refer to as making them "earn their living." I recommend, too, that you check out Dr. Dodman's book entitled "The Dog Who Loved Too Much." In it, he describes different types of aggression and ways to resolve them. Still, I recommend the Tufts "Petfax" program.
The food/toy possessiveness can be almost impossible to break in some dogs. Solution: do NOT give the dog bones, rawhides, or other things he'd hurt someone to protect. He can also be desensitized to people walking near his dinner while he's eating, but you will need to work with a behaviorist to develop a program for doing that. He has to learn deference to all members of your household, including your children, or he will hurt someone badly, eventually.
