Pet InfoRx^®
Resource Guarding in Dogs

Topic Highlights

• Guarding resources is a normal dog behavior. It becomes a serious problem when a dog is willing to move from "ritualized aggression" (conflict avoidant communication) to actual aggression, whether directed toward other pets in the home or toward people.
  
  
• It is important to create a relationship of trust and clear communication between you and your dog to reduce tension around resources.
  
  
• Resource guarding treatment relies on management, basic training skills that promote safety, and using a technique called counterconditioning to help a dog feel better about people or other animals approaching their resources.

Step 1: Manage the Environment

Make a list of all of the things your dog has guarded. Then think about how you can change the environment to remove access to these things or reduce the likelihood your dog will feel the need to guard when they have possession of it.

Examples of Management for Dogs Who Resource Guard

• Don't leave items (toys, chews, etc.) lying around that your dog might find valuable enough to guard.
• Keep your shoes and laundry basket up high or hidden to prevent "stealing" of clothing items.
• Close doors or install baby gates to block access to rooms that you cannot "dogproof" or where valuable items are stored.
• Pick up your dog's food bowls between meals after they've finished eating and have walked away.
• Don't give your dog certain toys or high-value edible chews that they have shown a tendency to guard in the past.
• Don't allow your dog on your bed or other furniture if they tend to guard that space.
• Don't free-feed your dog.

Step 2: Provide Low-Stress Resource Access (If Appropriate)

You can't simply not give your dog a variety of things that they may guard, such as food or edible chews (dogs need to chew). So, use a gate to block off your dog's feeding area during mealtimes or chew time so that no one can approach and make your dog feel the need to react.

This is imperative if you have young children, guests, or elderly parents in the home who might not understand that they can't pet your dog during mealtimes or when they have a chew. Blocking off separate feeding/chewing areas is also important if you have more than one dog and one shows inappropriate resource guarding behavior.

Let your dog enjoy the resource in peace. Ensure that everyone in your home knows that if the dog is eating or enjoying a chew, they are to leave them alone. If it's difficult to confine your dog to a safe area while they enjoy their chew, or you are worried about a choking risk, then simply stop giving chews to them or only give them lower-value chews that they are less likely to guard.

Step 3: Teach Your Dog Helpful Training Cues

Drop It and Leave It

Both the drop it and leave it cues are important skills for all dogs to learn, but especially those that struggle with resource guarding. Drop it means to let go of something that's already in their mouth or possession, and leave it means to turn away from something.

Click here to learn how to teach your dog to drop it. If your dog guards food items, start practicing drop it with toys and then move on to practicing food trades. If they drop a low-value chew, they get a high-value treat. Make sure you're rewarding with something equal or better.

Click here to learn how to teach your dog to leave it. Using a reward of equal or higher value to your dog will help speed up the training practice and increase your success with the leave it cue.

Call Away

Training a reliable recall (coming when called) with your dog is useful for preventing resource guarding behavior. You can call them away from something that they have rather than approaching them and trying to grab it. Click here to learn how to teach your dog to come when called.

Go to Place

If your dog guards a particular person or place, such as a spot on the couch or your bed, creating a go to place cue means you can ask them to move to another designated spot where they will not be disturbed. This is often termed "stationing" by trainers. Having a behavior like this on cue means you do not need to physically guide your dog to a different space – keeping you safe and helping to prevent your dog from practicing unwanted guarding behaviors. Click here to learn how to teach your dog to go to place.

Step 4a: Begin Counterconditioning Training — For Dogs Who Resource Guard Against Humans

For safety, it's best to connect with a certified canine behavior consultant or veterinary behaviorist before starting behavior modification. You may need to implement safety measures, such as working from behind a baby gate or ex-pen, depending on your dog's case severity and bite risk. Remember, counterconditioning training for resource guarding takes time and repetition!

1. Find a high-value treat that your dog loves more than the thing they are guarding. Usually fresh, moist, and smelly works best, such as small pieces of chicken or turkey hotdog (plain with no extra ingredients like onion or garlic, as these are toxic to dogs).
   
   
2. Know the distance at which your dog begins to resource guard. This is called the "distance threshold." Some dogs don't get possessive of their item or food until you're a few feet away. Others get tense if you're even in the same room while they eat. The goal here is to find the distance at which they know you are there but aren't becoming tense or reacting with guarding behavior.
   
   For example, if your dog begins eating faster when you're three feet away, start this exercise from four feet away. You're determining what their distance threshold is for guarding a resource.
   
   
3. Give your dog their meal or chew as usual, then walk away.
   
   
4. Approach your dog, but stop a short distance beyond their distance threshold. Toss the high-value treat to them. Once they eat it, toss another. Do this a two to three times, then turn and leave.
   
   
5. Continue this exercise any time your dog has something they guard.
   
   
6. After a few sessions, begin to add one more step toward your dog before tossing the treat, and then step back. This is where you're decreasing their distance threshold. Don't rush this step.
   
   
7. If your dog gets tense or shows other signs of resource guarding, take the training back a step.

Think about working in small "slices" when treating your dog's resource guarding. Don't rush through the process by just reaching for their bowl — that's setting them up to fail, and you might get bitten.

With practice and consistency, your dog will learn to anticipate good things when you approach them. In many cases, these dogs choose to leave their food bowl or chew to happily approach you. When before they might stiffen or growl at your approach, with treatment, they instead show loose bodies and happy soft faces in anticipation of something good. This change in body language is the gauge by which behavior consultants know if the treatment is progressing as expected.

Watch this video to see an example of what counterconditioning for human-directed resource guarding looks like:

Step 4b: Begin Counterconditioning Training — For Dogs That Resource Guards Against Other Dogs

Addressing food aggression or other resource guarding behaviors between dogs follows a similar plan as the human-directed resource guarding treatment explained above. It can be more difficult, as the treatment plan requires managing multiple variables within the training setup.

Management is crucial! Dogs who exhibit food aggression towards another household dog (or even the household cat!) should always be fed in separate and secure areas. If a dog becomes aggressive towards another dog over toys, it's important to make sure that these toys are not just sitting willy-nilly around your home. For dogs who guard space from each other, blocking access to these areas outside of training and close supervision is a must!

If your dog is food aggressive towards your other dog or pets, or guards toys, space, or even you, connect with a certified behavior consultant or veterinary behaviorist to start working on changing this behavior and creating a more positive emotional response in these scenarios.

Watch this video to see an example of what counter conditioning for dog-directed resource guarding looks like:

Step 5: Get Professional Support

Working one-on-one with a certified dog trainer, behavior consultant, or veterinary behaviorist is incredibly beneficial and will increase your chances of success. A behavior professional will make sure you stay safe and that your dog gets the force-free training they need to learn that there's no need to growl and guard certain items and help you with management techniques.

Identifying subtle signs of increasing tension can be difficult for many dog owners, and having the eyes of an experienced professional will make each training session more effective.

Not only will your certified professional build a relationship with you and your dog, but they'll also be able to help you through the specific steps of counterconditioning, all of which are unique to your dog and the resource they are guarding. Due to the potentially dangerous situations that resource guarding can create, it's important to keep safety first — both for you and your dog.

Punishing a Growl or Other Warning Signs

Never punish a growling dog. You can punish away a growl, sure, but all you've done is make a dog bite more likely. If your dog learns that growling to express their discomfort at your approach results in an aversive (such as yelling, hitting, or a "tap" from a shock collar), and the loss of the item they were guarding, the next time you reach for it, they're more likely to skip the growl and go straight for a bite.

Ignoring warnings will escalate behavioral responses, in both humans and dogs. You don't want to take away important warning signs that your dog needs to communicate with you and others.

A dog growl is not a challenge to you, or your dog being mean or bad. They are trying to communicate with you without escalating to a bite. Always listen to a growl by stopping your approach, taking a step back, and evaluating the situation so you can avoid it in the future and start treating the issue.

'Playing' With or Taking Away Your Dog's Food and Chews

In an effort to "show who's boss" or "get a dog used to people touching their things," many dog owners will put their hands into food bowls or arbitrarily take things away from their puppy or dog. Not only is this rude from your dog's perspective, but it often backfires and increases resource guarding behavior. 

Without taking the necessary proactive and preventive steps, sticking your hand in your dog's food bowl while they're eating, or just taking away their chew toy will not work as either preventive training or to fix guarding issues. All you're doing is annoying your dog and teaching them that when you reach for something, they'll lose it. It's not the association you want them to have.

Leaving Out Items That Your Dog Might Guard

Lack of management can exacerbate guarding behavior and puts people or other pets at risk. If you know your dog is likely to guard something, then you must manage the environment to prevent their access to this resource or carefully manage when and where they get this resource.

If your dog loves to grab socks from the laundry basket and then growls or tries to bite when you try to take them away, set yourself up for success by removing the opportunity. Keep the laundry basket up high where your dog cannot access it, or keep the door to the laundry room closed.

If your dog is likely to guard an edible chew from another pet in the home, only give them that chew when they are in a safe place, like a crate, playpen, or other gated-off room that the other pet cannot access. It's best to always feed your pets in separate spaces so that they can relax and enjoy their meals without any tension between them.