What Is Resource Guarding?

Resource guarding is another issue that a lot of people have and come to us to help solve with their dogs. Resource guarding can be learned very early on in a dog's life.

Dogs can guard almost anything they find valuable, including:

• Food or treats
• Toys or bones
• Items dropped on the floor (like food or household objects)
• Space on furniture
• A person’s attention or affection

Resource guarding usually develops because there's really no structure in the home and there's really no rules about what is allowed and what isn't allowed in terms of what the dog can have or can't have.

How to Prevent and Manage Resource Guarding

Teaching your dog to trust and focus on you

Teach your dog about items on the ground, whether it's something that maybe fell off the counter, fell off the table etc. How many times has that happened to you? Or you're sitting down to eat or you're cooking a meal and something falls on the ground and your dog should not have it. It could be dangerous for them to have.

Simulating those environments and getting your dog to focus on you first is very important. You need to teach them to stop in their tracks and focus on you first, and then they'll get another item in place of that. Maybe it's food that they should have, a treat or a toy.

Why Chasing or Yelling Makes It Worse

Dogs also use resource guarding as a way to influence other people, and they almost turn it into a game, so they'll grab an item knowing that you're going to have a reaction to it and freak out.

But of course, when you're out of control with your body and your voice and chasing your dog around, it's only going to create more of that reactivity in your dog.

Building Trust Through Consistency

A calm leader creates a calm dog

I recommend and teach dog owners the drop it and leave it exercises. When done properly and consistently, you can manage resource guarding and keep your dog in a calm and trainable mindset. This limits growling, snapping and biting around items they perceive as theirs.

Get Professional Help for Resource Guarding

For help with solving your dog's resource guardian behaviors, give us a call. You can also contact us by submitting a form. You can fill out a free behavioral quiz and that will give us more insight into the other behaviors that might even be affecting or leading into resource guarding. Thank you so much.