Resource Guarding
WHAT IS RESOURCE GUARDING?
Guarding anything of perceived value, often with aggression.
Most commonly, dogs will guard their food bowl, toys, and edible items such as rawhides or bones. But dogs can also resource guard space (also called territorial aggression), such as their dog bed, their space on the sofa or floor, or even your bed. Dogs can also resource guard their owners, which is often misconstrued by the owner as being protective. Some dogs will always find something to resource guard, such as a stick, pinecone, or piece of garbage. The more items the dog guards, the harder the problem is to treat, but it's still doable if you're willing to put in the work.
IT’S NORMAL (to an extent)
Resource guarding is essential to the survival of all animals. Animals who protect their food are the animals who survive, and we guard our resources as well. If someone was breaking into our car, we’d chase them off. If someone reached for a piece of my pizza, I’d smack their hand away.
Dogs often guard their belongings from other dogs, and to a certain extent this is okay. Dogs know the rules around possession (if I have it, it’s mine), and only a very foolish dog will try to take something of value from another dog. Dogs are great at spotting the body language that says, “Hey! Back off and don’t even THINK about touching my ball! It’s MINE.” Socially savvy dogs will respect that. Even young puppies learn this from a very young age. It becomes a problem if things escalate beyond a growl or snap, however. When dogs are attacking and causing injury over resources, that’s a problem.
Guarding against other dogs is pretty normal, but dogs should never guard against people.
Aggression or guarding toward people is never okay and should be addressed immediately.
CAUSE
There are many reasons a dog may resource guard. Insecure dogs may resource guard. Sometimes it’s an anxiety-based problem. Sometimes it’s a lack of respect or confusion around the rules.
Sometimes it’s genetic - what a dog was bred for. Guardian breeds, unsurprisingly, are more likely to have issues guarding things - Newfoundlands, Great Pyrenees, Rottweilers, mastiffs, Dobermans, Maremmas, Anatolians, etc. Interestingly, golden retrievers have a higher than average propensity toward resource guarding, and this is also believed to be genetic.
Sometimes owners create resource guarding in their dogs by constantly grabbing things away from them, especially as puppies. This can often be escalated further when the owners do bizarre and aggressive things, like get on all fours and growl in their dog’s face while the dog is eating.
A lot of resource guarding is a dog who has a slight propensity for it for whatever reason combined with an owner inadvertently making it worse by not setting clear rules. Things like trading the dog for something better often makes it worse.
TRAINING
There are many training methods for resource guarding, including teaching the dog to leave it, teaching rules around possession with games, or simply punishing the aggressive behavior.
WHAT MAKES IT WORSE
Lots of people will inadvertently do things that make the guarding behavior worse:
teaching the dog to trade or bribing them to let go. This does not teach them they HAVE to give it up and leads them to believe THEY are in charge and can ultimately say no and make you back off. A person or dog in authority doesn’t use bribes or trades - they simply take it. There will also come a time when you don’t have anything better to trade.
trying to assert authority by brute force rather than good training. I’ve seen this backfire tremendously because it teaches the dog that you are willing to fight, and if the dog is ALSO willing to fight this is where unsuspecting people get bitten.
Counterconditioning by doing things like sticking your hand in your dog’s food bowl or annoying them while they eat. Just leave them alone! No one wants to be bothered while eating.
IF YOU’RE IN SPOKANE
And want help with your dog’s resource guarding, I offer Private Training, In-Home Training, and Homeschool.