Help I Think My Dog Is Resource Guarding

👉Does your dog show signs of guarding sometimes known as Resource Guarding (anything of high value clothes toys food sofa people or space)- it could just be play OR it could be a slippery slope into defensive growling and eventually a bite (the fear of having its coveted thing taken away at all costs)

👉So here’s my “QUICK ADVICE” for someone who’s worried enough to ask for help but hasn’t been assessed by a dog behaviourist yet – Disclaimer – your scenario might not be as bad as you think but always er on the side of caution especially where growling & biting & CHILDREN are concerned

This is my online response so I’m trying to generalise massively for someone I don’t know but can make SOME assumptions based upon my own experience …….here goes👇👇(this was for a 8 month old goldendoodle pup)

⭐️Potential Resource Guarding⭐️

🛑First port of call is to manage your dogs triggers – ie: make every attempt to prevent him from practicing the unwanted behaviour so if you know he grabs socks and books and anything that rolls on the floor (my dog guarded a piece of pasta once 😅) you need to make the things inaccessible – I don’t have anything loose downstairs and those things are upstairs behind a baby gate

🛑You need to set your puppy up to not fail as this breed of dog is highly sensitive to guarding behaviour as they enjoy having things in their mouth (golden retrievers actually have a high incendence of guarding behaviour issues) and it’s OUR response to the guarding that starts to create the problem
If we quickly go to grab and manhandle a puppy with something in its mouth it will probably do one of two things:

1- Get defensive because he always gets manhandled or scolded therefore growling and running away will become the default- if this happens too much and pressure is constantly put on the pup and growls are not listened too it will become a bite and then habitually after many repetitions biting = normal for this dog

2- Or it becomes a game of “keep away” depending on the behaviour presented – to your dog it’s much more fun to get so and so to chase them around so he’s much more likely to steal that thing again next time because ANY attention is good attention for puppies sometimes

🛑So after management of the environment start “Yes” training – think of this as the first building block to create a new behaviour chain for your dog -do something completely different in a different room and if your dog knows “What’s This” you are already onto a winner too.

💚What you are trying to do is create distance between yourself and the guarded item – it’s the close proximity that’s is causing true resource guarding – there will be a distance at which you see the body language of your dog go stiff and growling starts – this is your boundary when you see it move away quickly to diffuse the situation- keep your body language light and airy even if you don’t feel it & reassure them by actually following through each time and moving away.

👉Say puppy “ What’s this” and go into another room and start putting HIGH value treats on the floor or scatter feed in the garden and say “Yes” every time they “find” a treat but make sure “What’s this” and following you into the other room is ALWAYS followed by this high value game to begin with as your pup is learning something very difficult (undoing the previous learned behaviours) whilst in the other room a secondary person can retrieve the guarded item and once it’s picked up have a puppy party so that coming to you = treats on the floor and eventually a game of tug for example – you can start to train a solid – DROP once you’ve established this first thing (getting two of the same high value things like two squeaky balls for example) and timing your “Yes” = treat the moment the first item leaves their mouth – This is Step 2 in your new behaviour chain.

👉Step 3 is training a solid “Drop”- To encourage the drop don’t put your hand in their mouth or grab (this triggers resource guarders) WAIT for the moment THEY drop and mark “Yes” and treat after
You can make a massive fuss of the second item as puppies get FOMO and will drop to play with whatever you have – keep it up until the DROP (you don’t even need to say drop to begin with just pairing the word “YES” with a treat becomes the predictor.

👉Yes Training is basically clicker training with your voice – a consistent word in the place where you would “Click” this is what I mean by start “Yes” training- I mention how to do this in the link below to my previous blog post👇

My Blog Post Mentions Yes Training Here

‼️Notes: On Food Bowl Guarding ‼️

🔴If you are finding that your dog has begun guarding snarling showing stiff body language and eating faster in the presence of other people or your other pets – PLEASE DO NOT ATTEMPT to force your dog to give you their bowl mid meal (I know SOME uneducated dog trainers on the internet will tell you that you NEED to do this) but you DONT need to do this AT ALL – it’s usually BECAUSE there is this forced bowl retrieval mid meal that resource guarding has started. to occur.

🔴What your dog actually needs is to feel SAFE & SECURE so he doesn’t have to resort to getting tense and fearful every time someone comes close so in the first instance 👉 create a separate place where only the dog is allowed to eat (this could be behind a baby gate or in a separate room and do not bother your dog until they have finished – just this for several days to give your dog more confidence – then do the steps previously mentioned above to create a willing response to coming away from the food bowl naturally.

👉Then you can get a second person to pick up the bowl whilst your dog is being rewarded for an alternative thing in a separate room

👉This step might be easier said than done as I had a very smart spaniel who would only come away from the bowl for a VERY HIGH reward (I used chorizo and also I found he was only doing this behaviour INSIDE the house in confined spaces) so I found it useful to train an “outside” straight after eating to encourage a game outside in the garden to create natural distance from the bowl with a game of catch ALWAYS after his meal (nothing to strenuous I didn’t want him getting bloat) but he loved catching or “counting kibbles” or “finding chorizo” in the garden – these were all little tricks I could use if I ever failed at previous management steps and he got a tea towel for example – I could get him to at least come outside and swap for a game of ball instead of the object or “Swap” for the “catching kibble” 😅

❤️All of these things then become your toolkit for dealing with and managing a resource guarder humanely and without fear of escalation whilst you wait for behaviourist to assess the severity of your dogs guarding behaviour

👍My dog lived a happy 7 years in a home with three other dogs as quite a severe food & toy guarder because we managed him well helped him become more confident with his choices by doing fun confidence building training games. By having these little training protocols up our sleeves whenever the proverbial s**t got real made us much less nervous about managing him & made us realise it was our fault for not managing him properly or it was us who needed to dial down our response to the “stealing or guarding behaviour” as it’s was this overreaction that was fuelling the “ANY attention is good attention aspect of his behaviour. You learn quickly when you have a dog steal your mobile phone or the remote because you left it unattended on the sofa🙈🙈)

I hope this article helps someone with pointers and tips on how to be a more confident owner of a dog with resource guarding behaviour- because this is just a small aspect of their personality the other 75 percent is a loving happy active smart fun dog who just needs to be understood to thrive ❤️🐕❤️🐕

For an in depth look at the issues and training protocol I recommend this book 📕

Sara @ About Town Pet Care🐶

Ps – if this has helped you and you would like further help please contact me here👇