Resource Guarding in Dogs
What is Resource Guarding?
Resource guarding is a behavior where a dog becomes defensive over an object or space they consider valuable, like food, toys, a particular human, or access to any of those things. The dog will act aggressively in defense of that resource, often snapping, growling or even attacking a perceived threat.
How Does Resource Guarding Develop?
Resource guarding behavior can be seen in a litter of puppies almost immediately after birth as they jostle each other for the preferred spot at the milk bar. As soon as they are able to crawl around, they are competing for the best resources; the warmest spot, the best producing teats, access to the most or best of everything.
What people don’t like to hear is that resource guarding in dogs is 100% natural. They also don’t understand that they (humans) are also 100% responsible for making it worse.
When I talk about this behavior in dogs, I emphasize that when dogs are resource guarding, it’s a survival tactic, and is usually exacerbated by inappropriate responses from humans.
When that cute puppy comes home and grabs some non-play thing, the human generally responds with much shouting and chasing to retrieve the item. At first, folks think this is a game, when in reality, people don’t understand that they are conditioning their predator animal to defend itself against opposition. The dog doesn’t know that it’s not ‘in the wild’, all ot knows is that a larger predator (the human) is trying to take its prize away.
People think the dog is playing keep-away. They think the dog enjoys it. What the dog is doing is responding to a million-year-old evolutionary selection process that says “run, and when you can’t run any more, fight”. Throughout evolution in the wild, if a predator can successfully defend it’s kill, den, mate and offspring, it assures its survival.
Are There Dog Breeds That Are Prone To Resource Guarding?
All dogs have the potential to resource guard. It is possible there are breeds with a genetic predisposition, but not surprisingly, the behavior has been identified in every breed or combination of breeds since dogs have become domesticated. By degree, some breeds of dogs can display more pronounced tendencies, but I have seen it in every breed, and surprised by the volume I have detected in breeds where you would not expect it at all. It has been my finding that if handled correctly, there isn’t a dog out there that can’t learn how to cooperate around high value resources.
Dogs are not designed to ‘turn the other cheek’, but that doesn’t mean that they are incapable of learning not to become defensive around perceived resources. In the dog’s world, it is socially unacceptable to ‘share’, outside of raising the next generation, and even that is short-lived once the young are capable of fending for themselves. Even as the litter grows, litter members are constantly competing for resources with their littermates.
What Shouldn’t You Do To A Dog That Resource Guards?
My first piece of advice is to ignore the crap you see on the internet. As I was preparing to start this post, I watched some neckbeard wannabe with his large ‘guardian’ breed of dog, sticking his hand in the bowl while the dog was eating, driving the dog off the bowl, and mansplaining why this is how he does things.
Yeah. nah. I’ll pass. That’s the result perhaps, but that’s not how things are done. I am glad that his dog trusts him enough to permit that, but based on the dog’s expression, he wasn’t really happy about it.
I’m gonna wager that the average person that watched that reel will try that on their own dog and end up in the Emergency room.
I’m also gonna wager that if someone were to attempt that on any reader here while they were eating, someone would get a face-full of fork.
The first thing you don’t do to a dog, any dog, is make an issue over anything the dog perceives as a resource. Never approach a dog that has something it shouldn’t have. If you have made the mistake of allowing access to something and the dog has managed to spirit it away, practice better management and learn from your mistake.
Harsh? You betcha. That isn’t a dog issue. Dogs dog. Dogs choose behaviors based on how they may benefit. Humans should know better. We preach leash and collar management and crate confinement for a reason. In over 50 years of dog handling, I have yet to have a dog of mine, or a client’s dog access objects it shouldn’t have.
How Do You Train A Dog That Resource Guards?
It’s easy, really. Don’t let them do that. As you are establishing a relationship with a puppy or an adult dog, simply remove the ability to resource guard. How do you do that? As I mentioned above, leash and collar management, crate confinement when you cannot supervise directly, and then carefully articulate scenarios where learning to trust and cooperate can occur.
If my puppy is on a leash, she doesn’t get the opportunity to access things or places I don’t want her to access. Owners the world over struggle with this concept. I have given access to videos for subscribers on exactly how we introduce, train and proof this behavior with puppies on the LK9 University Facebook page. I add to it frequently. Resource guarding is such an easy problem to prevent, but once it gets started, it can be a difficult behavior to control. It’s not impossible, but definitely harder than preventing it.
The second thing I do, in advance of my need to control access to resources, is to teach the dog to retreat from a resource on command, so I can control the resource without triggering defensive behavior. This takes guidance because there are a lot of moving parts. You have to coordinate a few things that require more space and explanation than a blog article. Folks that need help can reach out to me a variety of ways. I offer online coaching as well as in-person services for folks that are struggling with dogs that resource guard.
The process is much the same with an adult dog new to the home, or having already established a behavioral history of resource guarding behavior in the home it already occupies. What one critical factor that most humans cannot control adequately is their inability to remain emotionally neutral throughout the reprogramming process. Humans struggle with controlling their levels of frustration with what they perceive as a lack of progress when things move glacially slow, or don’t show the improvement they expect to see without a lot of time or effort.
Humans created that problem, it’s going to take a bit of unraveling to 1) create a line of mutual communication that leads to 2) trust, and help to 3) diminish the dog’s defense responses.
Tossing cookies at it when it’s growling at you isn’t going to help. Running hysterically at it as it grabs the tea towel and chasing it into a corner isn’t either. Sticking your person near a defensible resource is asking for a bite.
There are many many things that have to occur to redirect and resolve resource guarding behavior. It takes time to nurture that level of trust in an animal that feels it has been forced to defend itself over and over and over again.
I do not own a dog that I can’t control over high value resources. I have handled thousands of dogs that thought every human they saw was a potential threat around resources, and the fastest way I had to disarm their predilection for violence over these things, I simply ignored them.
And therein lies the problem. Folks don’t understand how to merge the act of teaching the retreat with their desire to hold dominion over dog behavior. There is a balance. I guarantee, if you perceive a behavior as being unjust when it is directed towards you, I can assure you, your dog will as well.
There are a variety of training tactics for every resource guarding scenario, whether it involves space, objects, food or even people, demanding the dog acquiesce requires neither brutality, or subjecting the dog to anything that would be considered controvertible to its emotional well-being.
Keep your hands to yourself and out of your dog’s food bowl.
