All dogs resource guard to some degree. Resource guarding is displayed behavior, in order to ward off another dog, human or other animal from something that a dog finds to be high value. This behavior can range from raised hackles, to barks, to nips. Sometimes it is a problem, sometimes it's not. To name a few subjects of resource guarding it can be: people, toys, food, or spaces.
I think we inherently resource guarding as a negative thing because the bad cases of it are so bad. Sometimes it is beneficial. It can be a good way for dog's to teach each-other their boundaries. Dogs have boundaries and deserve to have them respected, just like human's. What amount of resource guarding we allow for our dog's is a personal choice, but I think we can all agree on limits that are unacceptable such as nipping, barking or other forms of aggression rather than communication. Probably the most common subject is food, one of which I see very often with rescues. Another quite common one is toys. Interestingly enough, I find people to be a subject of resource guarding with pandemic puppies and dog's who have an owner/s who are retired or one parent who works out of the home!
Of course we want to remedy resource guarding, especially if it is day to day issues. With most behavioral characteristics we view as undesirable there are a few ways to deal with it. The first of course is avoidance, which can be impractical at times. Avoidance can be not leaving toys or bones out when two dogs are together which is something we do at Varro all the time. We learn each dog's sensitives and behaviors so we can anticipate potential issues.
Avoidance can also look like respecting your dog's space with their food while they're eating. There is a pervasive belief that in order to quell resource guarding around food that one should mess with the dog while it is eating. That's incorrect, and can make resource guarding issues worse. Imagine if someone came up to you and stuck their fingers in your food while you were eating. It would put you on high alert all the time and increase your likelihood you would get perturbed while eating. Teaching a dog that your presence is a positive thing around food is different and can help with resource guarding quite a lot, but that's true for all resource guarding instances. A more practical approach is teaching your
First we should determine what our dog guards. Is it food, their primary owner, a child, a toy or a spot on the couch? Each of these has to be approached individually. Remember dog's have very poor generalization skills, they do not transfer what they learned in one instance to another very well. This is true for all training.
Secondly, we should determine how close gets a reaction and how far do they feel safe. The process of creating positive associations around resource guarding is the process of decreasing that distance. Say for example a dog starts to bark at 5 feet from their owner and at 3 feet they start to nip. We wouldn't start teaching the dog at 5 or 3 feet.
So we finally get to start making our dog feel confident around their resource. We start from a distance where they feel comfortable and then maybe a little extra further away for good measure. For our example, let's say 10 feet. I would take a fair amount of high value treats, something they hold in a higher value than the object of their guarding, and have their owner hold the pup on a leash, go to 10 feet away and start tossing the high value treats on the ground right in front of them. Repeat this process as many times as you can. I would say 50 is a good start. The next day try again at the same distance. If they start to feel more comfortable move one foot closer (not a full step) and repeat the 50 times. If they start showing any signs of negative behavior you have progressed too quickly and need to go back to 10 feet. Move one step closer every day until you can shake the owner's hand. This process is the same for a toy, or food, or anything - for toys and food a final success would be too be able to pick it up. Essentially you are creating a positive association with you coming near their prized possession.
Since dog's learn in pictures this process needs to be repeated with each and every item that they guard. With owner's it gets a little more tricky because you have taught them that you specifically mean treats and positivity when you approach, not anyone else. So you have to repeat this process with multiple people. The same goes for jumping behavior, but that is an article for another time!
