Not long ago I re-posted a blog about Resource Guarding (RG), but focused treatment options on dogs who direct their threats toward people. Many of you asked about RG between dogs, and I promised I’d address that this summer. Here we go…
There’s no doubt that RG between dogs is a bit trickier than when it occurs toward a person, perhaps because it is simply easier to control the behavior of a member of our species than it is a dog. But there is a lot one can do to prevent or treat RG between dogs. Can it solve all problems between all dogs? Do I have a bridge to sell you? No, but here are some ideas that I’ve found helpful in the past.
PREVENTION I know this isn’t helpful once the problem has begun, but don’t miss the chance to prevent RG before it rears its jealous head. Say you have a new dog, we’ll call her Dog A, and a resident male dog, Dog B. You can teach Dog A that a treat to Dog B leads to a treat to her, Dog A. How fun is that, hey? (Hey? Wait, am I barking now? Only if you read last week’s blog post!)
It’s easy to do: Just pop a treat in one dog’s mouth and immediately give the other dog a treat, too. Then reverse the order. I’m doing this right now with new dog Maggie. Every night after dinner all the dogs get a snack, often something off of our plate or licked off of a spoon. I’ll walk into the kitchen and the dogs will cluster around. First, I’ll say “What do good dogs do?” They all know that they are supposed to sit when I say that. Then I’ll say the name of one dog, perhaps “Tootsie” and let her lick gravy off a spoon. Willie knows to wait his turn, but if Maggie moves forward I merely move forward a step to block her. I might quietly say “Ah ah” to her, too. Assuming she backs off, I’ll then say her name and let her lick the spoon, then quickly say Willie’s name and let him do the same. Then back to Tootsie, and all around about 3 or 4 times so that all the dogs learn that being patient and polite pays off.
Here’s a selfie of me feeding the dogs one at a time. I don’t put them on a sit/stay, they just learn that if they wait for the other dog to get a treat, they’ll get theirs soon enough. Well, soon, anyway.
I would never suggest doing this if you already have tension between your dogs. This is prevention, not treatment. Think of this exercise as either the first steps to prevent trouble when none yet exists, or the end game if you already have problems. Another caveat: Pay attention to the level of arousal. If the dogs begin to get excited and pushy, ask them to sit and calm down. You want the dog to learn that being polite and patient gets the treat, not pushy and demanding. I also teach all new dogs “Leave It” so that I can eventually say “Dogs, Leave It” and then call out each dog by name for a treat. The bottom line here is that the dogs learn that being calm and controlled gets them wonderful things, and that it’s great news when the other dog gets something, because then they will too. You can see some examples of this in the DVD Feeling Outnumbered.
What if you have a full-blown problem already? Here are some steps that can help:
WRITE IT OUT First, I would sit down and write out exactly what’s going on. What is being guarded? Toys? Food that falls on the floor? Mom’s lap? Second, what context? Outside in the yard over the wading pool? Inside in the living room over the chew toy, or in the kitchen over the dinner bowl? State exactly what the guarder does, being as detailed as you can. Does she go stiff and close her mouth before beginning to growl? Or bark and lunge with little warning? What does the other dog do? What do YOU do? This process can be tedious, but I can’t emphasize enough the importance of writing out as many details as you can. I don’t know how many times I’ve written out an issue with one of my own dogs and learned something important in the process.
MANAGE MANAGE MANAGE Every time a dog growls or lunges at another dog it learns something. She might learn to be more nervous the next time, or conversely, that the behavior worked. Or that their owner is going to be really, really mad so that every time another dog walks into the room when they have their chew toy they are even more upset than before. That is why, if you want to turn things around, you need to prevent as many incidents as you can. (And another reason why “Write it Out” is so important.) It’s hard to prevent something if you don’t know that it is going to happen. If one dog growls over the dinner bowl, feed them in separate rooms. Hide the chew toys. Don’t let either dog on your lap. I know… this isn’t always possible, but think long and hard about how you can prevent the reactions you are trying to change while you work on treatment.
TEACH IMPULSE CONTROL This is yet another indirect way of handling the problem, but it’s important. RG in dogs is often exacerbated by dogs who simply are unable to handle not getting what they want when they want it. We all can relate, but we all have to learn to wait our turn, right? Next I’ll talk about teaching patience specifically around the objects being guarded, but it is a good idea to help dogs learn to self regulate in many different contexts. I’d suggest teaching Wait (at the door, or pause on a walk), Lie Down and Stay, and Leave It. You can read about all of these exercises in my book Family Friendly Dog Training, although lots of other trainers have good descriptions of how to teach them, too. You can’t ever lose by teaching dogs that it is to their advantage to be patient and polite.
COUNTER CONDITIONING is the exercise that focuses on changing your dog’s emotional response to another dog approaching her “treasure.” I’ll use the example of food, but you can substitute anything that one dog guards from another. The basics are simple: You simply teach Problem Dog A to love it when Dog B gets the food, so that instead of feeling protective, Dog A is hoping against all hope that Dog B will come over closer to his bone or dinner bowl. You’ll note this is what I described in the Prevention section, but in this case you’ll have to start differently. Your job is to prevent Dog A from stiffening or growling as the other dog approaches by managing the distance between them. If two people can work on this at a time, both dogs could be on leash, and a good fifteen feet apart. Dog B gets a treat, and Dog A gets one immediately after. Rinse and repeat, until you notice that Dog A is anticipating a treat when Dog B gets one. That’s the response you want.
If you don’t see that in the first session, don’t worry. Just keep it up, being sure that the dogs are far enough apart to not elicit RG in Dog A. Once you do get a look of happy anticipation, you can begin to move the dogs closer together. You can do this without a helper if the dogs have a good sit-stay, you can keep gates between them, or you can tether one dog.
Exactly how you handle this next depends on many factors–from how serious the RG is, to how many different types of things the dog guards, to the personality of the dogs, etc etc. In general, your job is to create situations in which the RG’g dog learns that the appearance or approach of the other dog always leads to something wonderful for him. Rather than “Oh no! I might lose my bone, go away!”, you want a dog who is thinking “Yo! Come a little closer, would you? I just love it when you do because then I get CHICKEN!!!” I highly recommend two resources on the subject. My favorite is a great article in Whole Dog Journal by Pat Miller that is clear and well organized. Jean Donaldson wrote an extremely thorough book on RG, Mine! It is not specific to dog-dog RG, but it describes, in great detail, how to use classical conditioning to change a dog’s emotional response from “Oh No!” to “Oh Boy!”
RESPONDING TO RG Life being what it is, no matter how hard you try it is often impossible to eliminate all instances of RG while you are treating it. Here’s how I suggest responding (once you have decided that the behavior was inappropriate, which is of course, a complicated issue all by itself): Look at the RG’er, and say something like “What was that?” in a low voice. I’d avoid raising your voice if you can, stay quiet and low-voiced and focused. Move forward toward the dog and back him or her up in space or step or two. Try to stay calm and quiet yourself but make it clear that you are directing your attention toward the RG’er. Tell him to sit and stay, again in a low, flat voice. I like to indulge myself here, and talk for a moment about how “we don’t do that here” or “what did you think you were doing?” or “your mother eats kitty litter.” It well might have no effect on the dog, but it’s quite satisfying. Keeping the offender on a stay, I’ll then go over and pet or feed the other dog for a moment. If the RG’er stays in place and is polite, I’ll go back and treat or pet him, again teaching him that good things happen to him if the other dog gets food/attention/toys etc. Exactly how this is done depends very much on you, the dog and exactly what the dog did.
CALL IN THE VILLAGE It’s often a good idea to have someone else act as either a coach or a support group. Make sure that person 1) reads dogs well and 2) understands how to use positive reinforcement and classical conditioning to influence behavior. Granted, that’s not going to be just anyone off the street, but then, you wouldn’t get medical advice from a guy selling gum on the corner, would you?
TWO MORE RESOURCES for you are the booklet that Karen London and I co-authored, called Feeling Outnumbered?, which emphasizes teaching dogs in a multi-dog home to be patient and polite, and the DVD Feeling Outnumbered that illustrates many of the exercises.
WHAT ABOUT YOU? Have you had to deal with a dog who is a dog-dog resource guarder? If so, how have you handled it? What has worked, what hasn’t? Any more great resources out there that I’ve missed?
MEANWHILE, BACK ON THE FARM: We are JUST back on the farm, having just finished a nine hour drive from upper Michigan. We stayed in a a stunningly beautiful cottage, owned by dear friends, on Lake Walloon. We weren’t there long, but savored a few lazy hours reading under a white pine tree looking over the lake and watching Titmice bathe in the bird bath, swimming, kayaking, ping pong and yeah, well, you know me… eating. A lot. Yum. A highlight was a trip to Lavender Hill Farms, now one of my favorite places in the Midwest. It turns out the property is the perfect environment for lavender. They don’t water, till or fertilize, and the lavender loves the sandy, sloping soil. We were lucky enough to be there when it was in full bloom. If you can visit, don’t miss it, especially in July when the air is so scented you feel like Dorothy in the poppies…
You can walk around the farm for free, which is exquisite, and visit their lavender-themed gift shop. If you do, fair warning: get out your credit card. I think the scent of lavender makes me crazy and it might you, too.
But of course, as wonderful as it was, did we love coming home to three dogs who acted like we hung the moon? Circle wags all around!
shelley says
Hi, I have a resource guarding dog and I think it might be becoming worse, or my paranoia might be deepening. 🙂
She has NEVER resource guarded with a human but does with other dogs. I have seen reactivity to sticks , leaves, orange peel, rubbish, discarded items of clothing e.g. lost glove, socks etc all in the local parks, obviously toys/balls, dropped food, bedding, food bowls are major items – my dog will resource guard any item in our house against a dog (she doesn’t like them looking in the garden bushes, going up the stairs or walking around the house) and we have only successfully had 3 dogs (all her friends) in the house but feel we will need to restrict it to this as they need to constantly monitored when together.
When other dogs are over in the house every item is removed from the floor and all toys, bones and belongings are put away (except water bowls… she shares water bowls??).
We manage it as much as we can and she is not able to play with other dogs who have items (balls, Frisbees etc) and we do not take any items anywhere with us for her to RG. I found that restricting her ‘items/toys’ when we are out and about helped initially and her reactivity improved/reduced.
She is allowed to play chasing games with items on the condition that she does not drop the item from her mouth in case another dog looks at it and it only allowed to run with it. When it is rest time the item is immediately removed (usually needs to be completely put away in a backpack or thrown away.
I do wonder if allowing her to have access to many things of ‘hers’ at home where they are safe and no one will take them from her, makes her RG worse? For example she will generally have a beef bone, a raw hide chew bone or two hanging around the house to chew when she feels like it and she also has a variety of toys (albeit most of them are chewed to bits, de-stuffed with no eyeballs and I rotate them every now and then – she does play with them when she is alone on the odd occasion).
My dog is a rescue dog who is clinical diagnosed with separation anxiety and is currently on medication to help her through this and I was blessed to have her in my life when she was around 6-8 months of age. My next trial would be to remove all her belongings at home, limit her access to them and only hand them to her when people are around – but I am unsure this will have any positive effects and due to her anxiety issues I tend to be reluctant to make significant changes as it unsettles her. Any suggestions on whether limiting her ‘stuff’ would help would be appreciated!?!
Laceyh says
Just a side note: I once met a German Shepherd who only guarded water bowls from other dogs. He was at a Rat Terrier meeting, since he lived with Rats. The owner said that the problem never generalized to food or toys or people, and was handled by management: multiple water bowls, set as much out of sight of each other as possible.
Kat says
When we first adopted Finna she had so many issues from hypervigilance to submissive peeing needing to be addressed that I didn’t realize dog/dog RG was one of them. It wasn’t until we started getting a handle on many of her issues that I realized she did have some dog/dog RG and by then Ranger had already begun to address the issue. I was impressed and entertained when I realized what was happening. Any time Finna would guard an item from him he would wait until she was distracted and then take the item and bury it in the yard. If she didn’t guard it he left it in the house. Any chew or toy that she guarded vanished but if she didn’t guard it it remained where she could access it easily. By the time I realized it had been an issue it was largely resolved. Today we play a lot of the treat for Ranger treat for Finna games but more because impulse control remains one of Finna’s weak points. Still, it does reinforce the sharing of resources idea. The only time we see the resource guarding behavior against Ranger or The Great Catsby now is when Finna is sleeping across the room from a favorite chew and Ranger or Catsby enters the room. If that happens about half the time she’ll charge them and when they back up she’ll grab her chew and retire to her safe place. The other half of the time she acts like she would if she were awake all along. It doesn’t seem to be a problem since both Ranger and Catsby have fabulous social skills and it isn’t escalating so we live with it. It doesn’t happen when she’s awake, if she’s awake laying on the other side of the room from the chew Ranger can take it and chew on it and Finna, at most will come hover next to him waiting for him to release it. More often she’ll just continue laying where she is and watch. She is quick to reclaim it when he’s done but that’s not unreasonable. She’s the one with a serious need to chew so most chews are hers. Ranger enjoys a good chew but Finna needs them.
Frances says
Thanks to reading your excellent advice before bringing Poppy (dog number two) home, we started naming and treating very early on. It has helped enormously, as has Sophy’s immediate indication that she preferred to have her meals in a separate room from Poppy, so that she could eat slowly without being hassled! I am rather proud that the dogs even share this turn taking game with the cats, so that all four will sit in a row waiting their turn for a treat or a lick!
I do permit a certain amount of food and toy guarding by grumbling, managing it by making sure there is plenty for everyone, although inevitably the highest value thing is whichever the other dog has. I intervene with the maternal words “I don’t care who started it, I am stopping it!”, and reposition both dogs with their own item. A bit more concerning is Poppy’s wish to guard my lap – she had got very good at moving over and sharing, but then Sophy hurt her back and could not jump up for many months. Now that Sophy is better I am back to asking Poppy to move over and praising and caressing her when she does, but it still comes under Poppy’s rather long list of hings that are Not Fair. It is definitely a case of possession being all the law – if Sophy gets there first there is no problem.
Martina Bruland says
This post put me through an entire set of emotions from “wow, that’s a post I would have needed four years ago” to “ouff, I’m not as stupid as I thought” 🙂
So yes, resource guarding dog to dog was a major topic and though it still happens from time to time that Robby doesn’t move the entire day and growls when one of the other dogs try to pass in front of him just because my partner doesn’t realize that he is guarding a treat that is inaccessible (e.g. stuck in the door frame or fallen under the fridge) we’re managing pretty good.
I’ve been doing some of the things you mentioned for a long time, perhaps I simple forgot that I once read ‘Feeling outnumbered’.
They regularly get to lick the yoghurt cups and with the youngest (2 year old Cavalier Mailo) having the shortest nose he always comes first while the older two sometimes even need to be called when it’s their turn.
Today Mailo and Robby (four, Golden) can switch with their toys as if it had always been that way. Robby had always been difficult around toys and Gina (six, Lab) left him everything he wanted – except for food. It took a lot of time and lots of managing and though there is always room for improvement, especially when one of them is tired, I’m happy with the current situation.
Several years ago we vacationed in the French region called ‘Provence’, right during Lavender bloom. Simply thinking of it brings back memories of the scent. Guess I’ll be looking for cottages to rent and accepting three dogs 🙂
Unbecca says
My three month old puppy was aggressively snapping at my one year old over toys. Whenever i saw it happen i would immediately get on the floor with him, “in his face,” if you will and i would take the toy, give it back, take the toy, give it back – all the while dispensing treats. I was trying to teach him that “I” am in charge and that all toys are mine. He’s still a bit of a bully, he’ll try to take whatever my one year old has, but he doesn’t react as aggressively and most the time my one year old will just give up whatever bone or antler she’s enjoying and go off to find something else (if he tries to take the second toy/chew she’ll go jump up on the bed with it where he can’t reach her)
As he ages I know he’s going to continue to test boundaries with both the one year old and myself – so this article will really come in handy! thank you for sharing.
sandy says
Please write about owner guarding when out on a leash. My dog lunged at other dogs coming toward him. We live in a city and often it is impossible to cross the street to create more distance. Sometimes he barks and lunged at fogs that are on thee other wide of the street. If he has a chance to sniff the other dogs it is better, but many times that is not possible. The minute he sees another dog he drops his head and gets ready to attack. I have him in an easy walk harness and whiten the retractible leash. I have tried making him fit and giving treats, but he is so focused on the other dog that he ignores the treats, even though he is normally treat focused.
Meg Hoffmann says
I have 2 neutered male English Setters. Jake, 3 and Duke, 2. Jake is usually fine with Duke and they will play and sleep together. Eating next to each other is ok, too. Duke joined our family as an adult and Jake went with me to get him. I treated and praised Jake every time Duke was near him and soon he liked having him near. Trouble usually arises in the evening. Jake gets stiff and eyes get glassy and the growling starts quickly followed by charging teeth and ferocious barking. I make him sit/stay and then tell Duke we don’t know what Jakes problem is but we are trying to fix him and please keep being patient and good. When Jake has settled I’ll talk calmly to him and pet him. He goes to Duke butt wiggling and licks Duke’s face all over. Is Jake confused about where he is on the totem pole? He is being treated for Lyme and Ehrlichia. Having Lyme myself I know the rage that can surface. Also awaiting thyroid panel from Dr Jean Dodds lab. Any thoughts or suggestions?
Susanne VetteMoseley says
We have a fab Aussie… She is amazing with people, great with dogs (goes to doggie daycare etc), but is not great with RG with food ( even treats on my hip), nor does she like to share us with strange dogs. The food RG is due to an error we made when she was a puppy, I am afraid. I kick myself now for not seeing it. We had an old man Aussie at the time and he was not the best at puppy rearing and I think he stole her chew treats etc. We always replaced them or tried to correct it, but the damage was done and I didn’t realize what we were allowing to be created at the time… it seemed innocuous. So, folks out there with puppies… all those little moments count big time later. I really have accepted the prevention is the best cure…
Kelly Finn says
I’m wondering if a dog that RG water, both from people and other dogs, is dealt with any differently, especially since water is around all the time for a dog to drink? Is it just a much higher level of management while working on the problem? Would love an success stories on this too. Thanks.
Trisha says
To shelley: What a great dog lover you are to have rescued this lucky dog! I agree with you that major changes, especially taking away her access to stress-relievers like chew toys, might not be the best thing for her right now. And I don’t think that restricting access at home will make that much difference anyway. If anything, it might make it worse. If anyone has direct experience with restricting access of a single dog in a household as a way of treating RG for visiting dogs, let me know. I’d suggest that you ask the owners of the dog ‘friends’ to help you with this. Follow the protocol I described (details are excellent in Pat Miller’s article in Whole Dog Journal) with one dog at a time. I would suggest going very, very slowly and not expecting significant results for a long time, depending upon how often you can CC with another dog and your dog’s background and personality.
Trisha says
To Kat: You do realize that you could rent out Ranger and pay for your retirement in just a year or two, right? What an amazing story!
To sandy re ‘owner guarding’: The booklet Fiesty Fido is all about dogs who are reactive-rude-bark/growly on leash. The goal is the same as treating RG’g: Teach the dog that great things happen when another dog begins to approach. You can look at the book at http://www.patriciamcconnell.com/store/Feisty-Fido.html.
Brenda Gummeson says
My female border collie cattle dog mix had moderate resource guarding toward the two other dogs (her male littermate and her mama – we adopted a pregnant dog!). She guarded food when we were handing out treats in a group situation (they were always crated for meals) and guarded me when we were cuddling on the couch. I would say her symptoms were mild or moderate, not severe. It was tough for us to implement counter-conditioning but I solved the problem very quickly after attending a behavior analysis seminar and putting my head to the problem. I taught her to back up and rewarded the heck out of it. When we were handing out group treats, her default behavior was to back up. Within days her snapping was gone and there was no evidence of tension among the dogs in that situation. If she growled or snapped when we were cuddling on the sofa, I used negative punishment. I simply got up and left without saying a word. The first couple of times she looked bewildered, ‘whaaaat????’. Again, it was a very quick resolution. If her resource guarding were moderate to severe I would have modified my approach, but this was very effective her level of behavior, and it has not returned.
Trisha says
To Meg about Jake going “glassy-eyed” in the evening. I wouldn’t be surprised at all if his Lyme disease is an important factor. If the dogs are fine earlier in the day, then it is either context (the time they chew on bones? the time they had a fight a long time ago?) or the fact that Jake is feeling poorly. Many diseases manifest differently depending on the time of day. I know that a virus tends to affect me most early and later in the day, I tend to get a ‘second wind’ mid morning and then pay for it later on. Is it possible that Jake is just feeling lousy and that makes him grumpy? I would suggest keeping the dogs separate during the time of day that Jake gets snappy. Try that for a week or so and see if Jake gets less so as he improves. Any chance you could also work with a alternative medicine vet? Chinese medicine perhaps, or herbal supplements? I do love that you are handling things so well, but staying calm and quiet and reinforcing good behavior. Overall, I’d argue that this has nothing to do with social status, but more likely is related to a physical issue. Good luck!
Trish K says
http://youtu.be/0hYSoV6FGMo
This is my Bella RG the dog food closet. My dogs were both around 7 mos. old at that time , this past January. I use to feed her in this back room away from my boy dog Simon because they both seemed nervous and ate very fast when I fed them near each other when I first brought Bell home. When I noticed Bella claiming that room and area I moved her back into the kitchen but 10 ft. Away from Simon and out of eyesight from one another. Bella quickly stopped guarding that room and food closet. She will occasionally try to claim the kitchen from Simon while we are cooking so I ban them both from the area while we are cooking. Bella’s guarding episodes went from a level 9 on a scale of 1 to 10 to a level 1. 🙂 It seems that time and becoming more familiar with Simon and our whole family and maybe just her getting older and more secure has made the situation almost non existent …during those weeks and months I was training them to be patient and wait for treats or when taking turns fetching . I appreciate the tips on dealing with RG if the situation arises again. It’s so interesting and wonderful watching them grow in size and personality. I really lucked out with my little fur faces! I’m missing them a bit because they are spending a few days at the lake with “the cook” aka my boyfriend of 20 yrs. I’m getting too old to have a boyfriend so I’ve decided to call him The Cook. http://youtu.be/YfzUmq5O6O4. <<< Simon and Bell at the lake
Trish K says
P.S. I live in Michigan but haven’t been to Lavender Hill Farms, it looks beautiful. Could be a little road trip in my future. Love the picture of the dogs, it reminds me of a video you took of your dogs while trying to see the difference in their wagging tails? I laugh with happiness every time I watch it. Oxytocin overload for sure…. and your toe nail polish is fun/Awesome 🙂
em says
@Trish K,
Holy moly! I just tried to play your first video (excellent job capturing RG behavior, btw, at least as much as I saw), and Otis went into full-fledged protector dog Defcon 5. He never reacts like that to dogs barking on TV or even real dogs in the distance. The most reaction I have ever seen before in similar circumstance is a head tilt or a glance out the window.
He set Sandy off, of course, so between him WOOF, WOOF, WOOFing and her bark-crying (she whines loudly in anxiety when Otis is barking but she doesn’t know why) it was a crazy few minutes here at Chez em. I had to open all the window blinds and let them out back to investigate before they’d calm down.
I can’t be absolutely sure, but I think this extraordinary display had to do with the fact that my brother visited yesterday with his brand-new (10wk) BC mix pup. Sandy and Otis were charmingly patient with the pup (but glad to see the back side of her when she went home after an hour). I wonder if her play-frustration yips were close enough to Simon’s (she has a similar sounding bark, though obviously a more puppyish timbre) that Otis assumed it was her, getting into a confrontation with some unknown stranger outside. I couldn’t hear over the cacophony on my end whether Bella was growling or not, but that may have been a factor if so.
Whatever Otis thought, wow, that was quite a reaction. Congratulations on handling the issue between Bella and Simon so well, as well as making such and evocative video. 🙂
Trisha says
Trish K: Great video! I love that both dogs appear to want to avoid physical conflict and do their best to do so. And you just violated the “McConnell Principle”! (The best way to solve a behavior problem is to try to get it on video. As soon as you get the camera out the dogs will NOT engage it the behavior. Unless the batteries are dead….)
em says
p.s. not too be too shameless, especially since low evening light and a quick puppy means that most of my pictures came out blurry, but here’s Otis, (calmly) watching out for his puppy guest.
https://flic.kr/p/osw9GF
Elaine Fairhurst says
Interesting stuff thank you. Have you sny advice for dog that resource guards its owner? My 2.5 yr olf gsd is so possessive of me. He doesn’t like people or dogs to comr into our space. He’s nit aggressive with people or dogs at any other time.
LisaW says
Trisha and Kat, I’m laughing because when I read Kat’s comment, that is EXACTLY what I thought, “Boy, I wish I could rent Ranger for a while. He’s amazing.”
Tamlyn says
Hi Trish,
You may have already heard about our recent adoption of Wyatt. He is a 10 yr. old smooth coated border collie with many problems of his own (which we are working on); exceptionally severe thunder phobia being one of them. However, one of our biggest concerns right now is the RG that our long-time 10 yr. old dog, Breezy, is exhibiting toward Wyatt.
We have removed many of the triggers to prevent RG, but the biggest one that we can’t remove is us. That’s right! Breezy exhibits her most extreme attacks (no blood is drawn but scary to witness) on Wyatt when she is RG me or my husband (especially my husband). I hired the help of a behaviorist who recommended the counter conditioning you mentioned of treating the dogs in proximity to each other (Belle of the Ball). I started with a gate between them but soon removed it because the gate obstructed him from her view, defeating the purpose. Since I’ve removed the gate, it seems to be going better.
Now there are fewer instances of RG with me. But instances of it are still occurring more frequently when my husband is involved. My husband was petting Breezy recently when Wyatt came up to them and she turned on Wyatt immediately. Another trigger seems to be doorways and archways – anyplace there is a narrow passage. I have two questions for you. One is, do you think it would help if my husband did the “Belle of the Ball” exercises with Breezy directly? The second is, can you recommend an exercise that will help with those passageways?
Thanks – Tamlyn
PS. I look forward to seeing you soon and I can’t wait to meet Maggie!
karen says
having read your blog on RG, I’ve just realised that I’ve managed to counter condition my reactive girlie to ‘dog approaches or barks near crate, I get a treat yeay’ in her first 6 weeks of group agility lessons. have used loads of DS/CC ,under the guidance of a reward based methods behaviourist, to tackle Spryte’s reactivity (and resource guarding of me) on lead, and apparently I’ve trained myself to default to CC in new situations!! I did wonder how she’d relaxed quite so quickly in the new, noisy environment and reading this blog it clicked!! Spryte was even having a little flat out snooze in her crate earlier today mid class, very proud of her.
Barb K says
I have an 8 y/o SFT who is a dangerous resource guarder. The problem manifested on day 1 when we first got her but I was too dense to realize it. She almost killed 3 female Min Pins in the household and has attacked one of the male Rat Terriers who were fine with her until recently. Sadly, our options became euth or muzzling and she is muzzled for the safety of the other dogs. Her behavior was erratic and unpredictable enough that we can’t take the chance…. It’s interesting that while muzzled she NEVER in any way growls, lunges, “guards”, or reacts to the presence of the other dogs. Take off the muzzle and it’s all out war IF she decides something is “hers”. It’s not ideal but it’s liveable. We did do many of the exercises that we were taught but it only slightly mitigated the situation.
Mel says
Really great blog, thank you. I struggled to find info on this when we introduced our puppy to the home.
Trisha says
To Tamlyn: Definitely have your husband do the exercises if he is the one being guarded. The narrow passageways are trickier, I would have to know more about exactly what is going on. Best for sure would be having someone come in and do an in-home eval, but so glad that what you are doing is helping with RG around you. That’s a good sign!
Jo says
Couldn’t have read this at a more opportune time! My dog reactive dog, Spud, has recently started resource guarding with one of my other two dogs, to the point that today Spud flew at Mossy, pinned him to the ground and was biting at his neck. It was scary, though Spud has great bite inhibition and apart from some missing fur no physical damage was done (the mental damage to Mossy and myself on the other hand was pretty big.) He has lived with Mossy and Jess for 3 years but within the last year has been RG with Mossy. Thinking about it he has always done it a bit, if they each have a bone Spud will wait til the others leave theirs (usually for a drink) then collect and passively guard all 3 bones. But now it is fully fledged launching and “attacking”. At first the “attacks” were on walks after another dog had passed (very stressful for Spud) and would always be over food, but a couple of times now, including today, it has been over toys or even just proximity to me (never my husband as he takes neither tots nor treats on walks!) We have ALWAYS done name/treat games and at mealtimes all dogs sit and wait quietly until told in turn to eat. I don’t understand why this has started. And I am not sure how to react calmly when I have to literally lift Spud off Mossy! Though I suppose I am usually reasonably calm (I admit to raising my voice and growling “DOWN, STAY” at Spud before going to check over and treat Mossy). It seems to be worsening, today I muzzled a Spud for the rest of the walk, but I can’t walk him without treats or toys as I use these if we encounter other dogs because he is reactive (though we are making headway with his training in that regard). I’m even considering rehoming Mossy 🙁
Trish K says
To em: Otis is one BIG beautiful boy! The picture is adorable and the puppy looks like a tiny version of Otis . Interesting reaction your dogs gave to my video. Bella was growling a bit but mostly it was Simons barking and whining that was the loudest. Wish I knew why Simon reacted like that, it’s not like she had him cornered, he chose to go over there by her. You’d never know by their behavior in the video but at least 14 hrs. A day was spent playing with each other having non stop puppy fun.
To Trisha: it was so easy for me to capture this on video because it happened almost every day for a few months at feeding time or around food she thought she might be getting. I think Simon, Bella and I all played a part in stopping that behavior. I distracted them immediately after they ate by having them sit in front of me and practice WATCH ME, so Bell didn’t have a chance to think about getting Moody. And there came a point when I think Simon was tired of Bella acting that way and snapped back at her. He didn’t bite or hurt her at all (he’s a good sweet dog) but when his attitude changed I noticed hers did too.
Rebecca Owens says
Our rescue dog, Magi, RG against our black lab, True, and has since first coming to our home 3 and a half years ago. She basically leaves the older, larger yellow lab, Lark, alone. It’s interesting. I’ve taught her (as well as the other two) to have a strong wait at doors, we do counter-conditioning on walks (fear reactive), they line up in a row to get treats after walks or that last fork of dinner and after taking their “meds” without incident at all. But let one stray crumb fall that wasn’t planned and if True is anywhere near, Magi will charge. True has become anxious and licks one leg now where prior to Magi we never had a single issue with licking. I’ve spent $$ on dermatology and now recognize it’s behavioral. True gets acupuncture for anxiety. Magi has strong basic obedience skills, has come light years with her reaction to dogs she doesn’t know through hard work on both our parts, but I cannot figure out the flare ups with RG. True is 10 going on 3 and Magi just turned 4 (we think). Magi is a beagle, collie, shepherd mix.
Lynn says
My personal dog I.V. RG’s food, toys and me with the current foster dog. He is an older (8-10) blind German Shepherd mix who was heart worm positive. He comes in the door on his tether and she growls, he tried to take a toy with a chew in it and she went into attack mode. She was no where near it at the time. Twice I have slacked and left him out of the crate and in the kitchen when fixing their dinner bowls and a fight started. The bowls didn’t even have food in them yet the process was just started. She doesn’t care about the water bowls at all. She doesn’t care about the stuffed toys at all. However the foster dog is a little protective of his favorite. If she gets to near (that he can sense) he will growl. She for the most part is a great foster sister. She has taught all of them except this one how to play. (I really had to limit his play time due to his heart worm status and maybe that’s where the “problem” started? Although the last two had extensive injuries that needed to heal, One from a fight protecting her puppies and one that had been hit by a car and they played just fine.) The first few days she lets the new foster dog know this is her house and she is the second in line in the pecking order (I am first and she knows that.) then the cat, (if you ask the cat she is the top dog) then the new dog. After that is established she is fine with them. Endless playing. One for you, one for me treat thing with no issues at all. I have always fed the foster dog in the crate. They usually get more because they are in the healing phase and need the calories. She will wait until they are let back out to go in and see if anything is left. (I always take the food bowl out and replace it with the water bowl so there is no food fight and the dog has water when placed back in there. Following the two food fights my dog figured out to leave the room when the prep starts, she will go under the bed in my room. When she hears me close and latch the crate door she comes out for hers. (Pretty smart to have figured that out on her own.) I know her tells, I see/feel her stiffen, see the hackles rise, the set of her ears and her lips start to twitch. I do my best to distract her but sometimes I am not quite quick enough. A good loud “no” brings it to an end. It’s like a wake up call for her to stop and again she goes under the bed. (Her safe place.)
Nic1 says
http://www.plos.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/pone-9-7-harris.pdf
Oh my!
Nic1 says
Trisha – would be really interested in your thoughts on the study I just posted. Is jealousy really as complex as we thought given that dogs resource guard?
HFR says
I read about that report and it’s only 36 dogs, but it is very interesting especially since she used the same experiment as that used on infants to prove the same thing.
I wonder, does the definition of jealousy require some sort of sign of aggression or agitation? I’m very fortunate to not have RG dogs (although one of them loves to growl at the other when he comes near her whatever, but she is full of it and he knows it, it’s almost like an RG game for her which is a whole other discussion I guess) but if I am petting one the other will come over and push the other out of the way with his body. It looks more to me like “hey, give me some of that too” rather than “hey, stop taking that from me, I want it!”
em says
@Trish K,
Thanks, Otis certainly is a big fella. Happily, he’s usually very mellow and great with puppies. Interestingly enough, the one and only time I have ever seen him correct a small puppy was for resource guarding. In that case, it was a 16-20wk aussie who had quite a bossy streak. Otis calmly and patiently tolerated puppy bouncing, ignored the heel nipping, and rewarded the non-contact play (by engaging in play with the pup, but stopping instantly when he got too mouthy). But when the aussie started showing some pretty serious (and rather shocking, given his age and size) resource guarding over a toy, snapping and snarling at another adult dog who came too near, Otis confronted him immediately, moving in fast, with hard eye contact. When the puppy gave ground, Otis body blocked him away from the toy, maintaining intense eye contact and growling. The puppy flattened his ears and lowered his head, looking honestly frightened, and that was the end of it. Otis lifted his gaze, the toy was collected by a human and the pup went back to his usual bouncy, playful self. The whole episode took seconds.
Though he never avoided or seemed generally afraid of Otis afterwards, on another few occasions when the pup had a toy and had just barely begun to posture over it, a hard eye from Otis was enough to back him down before he had a chance to escalate. After a couple of instances, the pup stopped tensing altogether and RG never became a problem for him for the year and a half or so that he was with our group. Unfortunately, however, some sad circumstances in the pup’s owner’s life meant that he stopped coming to the park regularly, and when we saw him again after several months spent focusing on the ChuckIt without social play, the pup (now adult) had slipped into moderate/serious RG over toys -no blood, as far as I know, but scary confrontations with both strange and known dogs (but never Otis, who was the one dog who could still stand right beside him when the ball was in play without setting him off).
I wonder if Simon’s barking and deliberate engagement of Bella was motivated by frustration at (in his view) Bella’s inappropriate behavior. If Otis responded to RG behavior that did not threaten or involve him at all, even breaking with his normal behavior toward puppies to do it, and Ranger took steps to not just avoid but cleverly curb Finna’s RG behavior, maybe a ‘peer pressure’ behavioral check by non-RG dogs on RG dogs is not all that unusual.
I wonder how common it is for RG’ers to be confronted or ‘corrected’ by other dogs, and whether it does more harm or good.
Nic1 says
Jealousy is like a spectrum though isn’t it? Different people react differently.
Sister Antonia says
Thank you for this great article. I’ve been putting some work into RG with our current two pups and this is timely and helpful information. My Pip is a 10 month old female Pyr x Aussie mix and Tyro is a 9 month old male Kangal. Pip has RG when it comes to toys (furry toys and balls being about the worst) and morphs into “the evil Pippy” when they are around… My initial management has been to never leave the precious toys around where they will precipitate puppy battles. A lot of work with positive reinforcement in close quarters has pretty much eliminated Tyro’s mild food RG and I am seeing some progress with Pip and her toys too. I’ve been wanting to let you know that your book For the Love of a Dog was a real comfort to me this past January. Mother bought it for me just after we had to have our 4 year old male Kangal euthanized due to severe cancer. This incredible boy was my “heart dog” and I was pretty much in terrible shock and grief over the suddenness of this painful loss. He was very young and this was totally unexpected. I used to tell him that he needed to live a long time because I would miss him too much if he was gone. I still miss him every day and find myself listening for his bark at night but your book helped me process my grief and initially was what helped me to be able to cry. May the Lord bless your work!
Sue Davies says
I created a game I call ‘Whoever does not have a toy in their mouth gets a treat’. I have a ball crazy lab/chessie (Ruby) that I’ve had since she was 9 weeks. When she was 4, I brought home a 2 yr old German Shorthair rescue (Earl) who at first was afraid of everything. After a couple of months, he warmed up a bit and started standing over the lab’s balls and toys even though he seemed to have no idea what to do with them and shut down when I tried to engage him in play. They had a couple of scary fights before I came up with the game that taught Ruby it was great to let Earl take her things. The game started out as ‘Whoever has a ball in their mouth does not get a treat’ but turned into ‘whoever has something of value near them does not get a treat’. I would sit between the 2 dogs and give the ball to Ruby, who would take it in her mouth. Then I would give Earl a couple of treats, one after another. After Earl received a couple of treats, Ruby would put the ball down. I would pick it up and give it to Earl who at first would take it in his mouth and I would give Ruby one treat after another until Earl put the ball down. Then I would hold the ball out to Ruby, who of course, no longer wanted it, she wanted the treats, but since proximity is possession to a dog, I would put it on the floor in front of her and give Earl a couple of treats. Then move the ball so it was in front of Earl on the floor and give Ruby a couple of treats. I would repeat 5 or 6 times each session moving the ball back and forth with the opposite dog getting the treats. I also played this with bones and other toys as the object moved between dogs and played the game outside a few times as well for the change of context and because Ruby loves to chase balls so that was sometimes where problems occurred. For a while I was careful to always make sure I had treats with me when I took the dogs outside because Earl would try to take the ball from Ruby’s mouth, which she didn’t care for. It was one thing to let him have it when she wasn’t using it but she did not like him to take it from her, well, not really, she didn’t like him having it ever :o). Any time Ruby had a ball in her mouth and Earl got close, I’d tell her what good girl she was, go to her and give her a treat. Of course she had to drop the ball to take the treat. If Earl picked up the ball, Ruby would get another treat. If he didn’t, they would both get treats. It wasn’t long before she would allow him to take the ball from her mouth and come running to me for her treat. And the best part for her was Earl didn’t really want the ball and would put it down after just a few seconds and go sniff something so she would also get her ball back! I no longer have a problem with Ruby sharing with my other dogs and Earl has learned he really doesn’t care about balls. Although, Earl will still (after 2 years) occasionally freeze and hover if one of my other 3 dogs come close to an object near him but I tell him ‘if he wants it he should just take it’, then pick it up and hand it to him. The other dog is almost never interested in what ever it is any way and he’s learning to relax when I tell him to ‘just take it’. When I’ve shared the game with others, they sometimes think it’s not working because the dogs don’t take the toy in their mouth after a time or 2, until I point out that proximity is possession and it’s not the dog with the toy in front of it that’s learning to share. It’s the dog getting the treat. I suppose it seems sort of backwards from a human perspective since the toy or thing they’re guarding seems like the thing with the value but it very quickly changes when the other dog is getting treats!
Sue Davies says
I keep getting a duplicate comment error. Testing to see if this will post
Mireille says
I have two siblings, male Siberian Husky’s and having read about “sibling rivalry” I was very keen on preventing any fighting. The very first evening I fed them, Shadow growled at me as I inadvertently moved his food bowl. He was also one of the fattest pups in the litter, so I decided to be very alert on resource guarding there.
At first, the dogs would start fighting after food at night, so I started feeding them in their benches, separating them afterwards for at least 10 min. That helped.
When they were little, they showed remarkable restraint and Spot was the one “in charge” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uGhNWfBWLZ4&feature=youtu.be&list=UUQEmzeDxsESyybZ9W2K9oVw
When Janouk, the older dog in the family died, when they were 9 months old, they had their fist real fight. IN retrospect, I think Janouk was a calming factor, he would intervene sometimes just bij looking, sometimes by getting up an taking the kong or toy away.
After the fight Shad considered himself top dog and he started intimidating Spot.
I think that that is one of the more difficult aspect of resource guarding: picking up the subtle signs. For months I thought that Spot was not interested in balls to play with, Shad loved it. Ok, fine with me. Until I wanted to make two short films about my retrieving and non-retrieving sibes. I put Shad in his crate in the garage and shut the door and suddenly Spot did want to play with the ball and retrieved perfectly.
I have another movie where I am playing with both dogs in a big garden of a house we rented. I would throw one ball for Shad an one for Spot in the opposite direction. But I am a very poor thrower, so I make a mistake and throw Spot’s ball in Shad’s direction…. Shad intimidates Spot so he won’t come an take his and then is not able to carry both balls… http://youtu.be/YOdaA2WUu74?list=UUQEmzeDxsESyybZ9W2K9oVw
So we started working on this:
– sharing the yoghurt cup .http://youtu.be/9iy5gptURec (and the moment Spot backed up, the fun ends, even if I detected no communication from Shad to Spot)
– I would give Shad and puzzel and put Spot behind me and feed him goodies, then reverse the proces; “If I give your brother something. good stuff happens to you”
– prevention: on very high resource stuff, we separate them (like fresh bones etc)
Nowadays, I can give both dogs a stuffed kong and leave home safely, they can play with their Kong Wobbler in the garden together without Shad trying to claim both, they can search for hidden balls or cookies together and I can play with two balls and both dogs. Last week Spot snatched Shads ball from under his nose as it bounced away and NOTHING HAPPENED.
So yes we sometimes have moments that we think, UHm… better take that away or better separate them but they can safely eat together in a small room, I can give goodies to them AND other dogs without problems and I am pretty happy about how things are going.
So thanks Trish, because a lot of the things we did came from your books 😉
Jenny Ruth Yasi says
I never punish resource guarding, not with a look or a word or anything. I understand that resource guarding is just another type of insecurity, so I build the dogs’ sense of resource security. One way, is to have plenty of resources! Dogs might fight over one ball, but if there are thirty balls, no problem. So I give dogs practice (on opposite sides of a wire fence at first) “grazing,” which just means, throw out 30,000 pieces of low-value kibble. Plenty for everyone.
If I get a client dog with resource guarding issues, I make sure that dog there are tons of balls and bones, more bones than he could ever chew, and that way, no dog is going to be bothering him for his pile of bones. Sure, yes, I manage it so that I have gates between dogs where necessary, and I might feed a dog his breakfast in his own private area, but I want them to get used to seeing other dogs eating and enjoying toys in an environment where there are more than enough low-value toys and treats for everyone.
deb thom says
My 7mo. puppy has definitely got RG issues with toys around other dogs. The problem is she is an only dog, so we only run into this issue at the dog park. She will play fine with the other dogs until she finds a stick or ball. If another dog comes near her she’ll turn her head and walk away. If they persist she will growl. She once lunged at another puppy that she had been playing with earlier because it kept trying to play with her when she had a call in her mouth. Whenever she acts like this I take the object away, but she’ll stay fixated on it and won’t play with the other dogs. She’s getting to the point when I take her to the dog park she’d rather play ball than play with the other dogs. How do I stop these behaviors and get her to be more social?
Patricia Brock says
I am at my wit’s end with my 2 year old BC female. She was raised with two labradoodles that she adored and played with until she was about 7 months old. She then started attacking the female doodle viciously and soon after, the male. Each attack was unprovoked, and the doodles responded with subservient behavior and allowed her to attack without retaliation. As a result, the dogs are always separated from each other. We worked with a behaviorist for 4 months to no avail. Nothing worked. I even put her on Clomacalm for a few months with no improvement. Several months later, she started to attack my husband (he has dementia and some physical limitations). He loves her, and does not understand why he cannot let her out, feed her, etc. She “goes off” without warning. She tried it with me at first, but I have controlled her and she does not attack me anymore. She will growl, but stops when I admonish her. Her breeder says her brother guards his food. She is very unpredictable especially around her crate. She is crated at night and at times when the doodles are out in the house. I don’t know what to do, any suggestions?
Trisha says
To Patricia: First, I’m so sorry you are going through this. It sounds like you have enough to deal with, given your husband’s struggles. Second, you know I can’t say much without having met the dog, you, etc., but I will say that my guess is that something physical is indeed going on. I’m especially suspicious about the “around 7 months” aspect of the dog’s history. I’d look into when she was spayed, whether there was even a tiny chance that a small amount of ovarian tissue remained after the surgery. Or has she been spayed? I’d also look into the possibility of pain. If you were my client I would want to work closely with a veterinarian especially a veterinary behaviorist. Look at the AVMA site (if you are in the U.S.) and look up vet behaviorists and see if you can set up a phone consultation together with your own vet. Best of luck, but honestly, I would bet that this is not just about temperament or learning, but also about something physical that is going on.
Kim wright says
Hi Patricia , I need some advise please! I have a 17 month old springer. Very nice pup, but she has decide to guard me when we are in a house, ours or the other’s dog house. It is only dog’s , not people. What is confusing for me is at dog parks , beaches there is no problem at all. No aggression at all with sharing treats, or my attention to other dogs. She goes to a dog sitter who has three dogs, no problem, even shares a bed with the other dogs with the dog sitter. But when a dog come to our house, she attacks the dog with our warning, no damage to any dog yet. She starts licking her lips, body freezes and as dog comes close to me she lunges. How can I help her stop this behaviour in a positive way? Thank you!
Heidi Evans says
Thanks for this article. I am going to see if I can try this with my dog Doli, but she reacts so swiftly and strongly at times I am not sure quite what to do about it, especially since I just don’t have anyone available to help me and as you said this may be much easier with two people. She spent most of her first year-and-a-half as a feral rez dog( so I suspect it may be a kind of PTSD-like situation. She had ribs and backbone visible when she came to me) and while 99% of the time she is the sweetest, most perfect dog and will let me do just about anything with her including pull things out of her mouth without protest, she suddenly turns into a raging monster—like any horror-movie interpretation of a rabid demon dog—if she sees me trying to feed the new puppy, or if she gets ahold of a ball at the dog park and another dog comes near her( I’m always asking people to please not give them to her but they look at me like I’m crazy and ignore me because she seems so sweet until there’s a ball in her mouth, and of course there are times when she just grabs an abandoned one I didn’t see in time and runs off with it).
She was making considerable improvement on the latter situation until I added a second dog to the house, now she’s backsliding outside the house with other dogs, and if the puppy didn’t happen to be almost as big as she is I don’t doubt we’d have had an ER vet bill over feeding him—even though she absolutely loves him any time he’s not eating, and is okay other than a little half-hearted jockeying for position when treats are handed out. Apparently it’s just kibble/canned food, and toys, particularly balls, that she is crazy defensive over.
The only way I can get him any food is to distract her with her puzzle feeder( her favorite thing) and get him to finish his food very quickly before she sees he is eating—which is harder than it sounds, especially since he wants to investigate the puzzle feeder too, and she won’t let him. I’ve tried getting him one of his own, and also feeding them both in bowls without the feeder but she will flip out much worse on him in both of those situations. Do you have any additional suggestions in this case?
Deb Marchington says
We have 4 dogs, all rescue in some form. Giz, the RGer is just 6 and just began guarding couple months ago. She guards anything that is mine. Noticed it first with my shoes, then my jacket. And it seems directed mostly at a dog she has known most of her life. This week it suddenly got worse after she spent half a day at the vet office to fix a wound ( not done by another dog) Now she is not eating much and guarding her bowl. Two of the dogs get what she is doing and give her a wide berth. The other new one…always have had our shoe rack at the backdown that has the dog door in it. Dogs now bark from outside because she will not let them in, so I moved the shoe rack. Will not be able to keep jackets there like last winter because I think she will do the same thing. Something strange has happened to her. Does this happen to many dogs at this stage in their life?
Jessica says
I have an 8 yr old doberman, Raven, and a 2 yr old cattle dog, Artemis. I’ve had Raven since she was 6 mos old and the cattle dog I kind of rescued almost a year ago. My neighbors moved abruptly and abandoned 3 dogs. So I took her and the other two found homes as well. Raven has been raised with other dogs, loves them, never really had any problems. When we brought in Artemis, they were both so much happier to have companions again. They play nicely together and sleep together. In the last few months I have noticed Raven guarding food. But it’s peculiar. They have separate food and water bowls. Raven doesn’t necessarily just guard her own food, she doesn’t allow Artemis to eat either. She will place a toy in her bowl, to mark it and then eat Artemis’ food. There is never any aggression. But that could be due to the fact that Artemis never challenges her. what do I do in this situation?
Alex says
I have two beagles and they are always getting treats round the table and always get to clean the plates (only gross if you worry about it) They will guard appropriately from each other when they have bones etc but will share a plate happily. Once, and only once, about 4 years ago, there was a slight stiffening & freezing of one plate licker so the plate immediately went into the washing up bowl. It has never happened since. I just love single event learning. Incidentally it happened in exactly the same way about 15 years ago with different dogs so I was prepared! As I say, I just love……
Tiffiny says
Hi!
Thank you for the great information. I have 6 dogs and I have recently started helping our high kill shelter by volunteering to foster. A couple of days ago I brought home a 4 month old puppy that was going to be euthanized if we didn’t get him out of there. He is very unsocialized, had no idea what a television was, a vacuum, a broom, etc. He does love people and gets so excited when anyone pays him any attention. I immediately noticed he has severe RG just hours after he got here. He started by RG’ing me. He immediately growls and lunges at any of the dogs that come near me whether he is on the couch with me or laying by my feet. He also guards his toys, his food and anything that falls on the floor that he has any interest in. I have no idea how to deal with this. Especially with my other dogs who already aren’t sure they like him here. I’m afraid if I can’t correct this behavior he will have to go back to the shelter. I am going to try the information you provided but because he is a foster and our shelter does not have the resources for a behavior specialist, I was wondering if there was any other suggestions you might have for me. Thanks! Tiffiny
Lucy says
Great post! Like others here, I have a dog who RGs me (amongst other things). She is a 2.5yo BC, Jessie. I definitely need to work more with her on impulse control and confidence building. I have started clicker training with her recently and also have been working with a behaviourist for the last 6 months to help her feel more comfortable around other dogs. I feel that since we have been doing all this work, she has become even more possessive of me. She is making really good progress in being more comfortable around other dogs and has had an increasing number of nice greetings recently. However, if the dog she is greeting tries to approach me, she will herd them away, snarling, growling and sometimes barking. I usually turn my back on the dog who is approaching me and walk away from it if I can – trying to do as little as possible to encourage it. Mainly because I don’t want it to be harassed by my Jessie!
We also have another dog – 4yo lurcher, Charlie. Jessie will RG space and attention from Charlie when we are inside. She is okay while we are outside. She has been an attention hog from the day we got her – at 8 weeks old. At that time I didn’t even know what RG’g was – so we definitely let her practice this behaviour for far too long. Most of the time Charlie and Jessie get on fairly well and will play fight together, though, so I’m not really worried that they will hurt each other – the worst that seems to happen is a noisy telling off and a bit of a scuffle, maybe some air snapping. I would like Jessie to feel less worried that she is somehow going to lose me as her precious resource! I love that I am precious to her but I don’t want to be the cause of her anxiety. Any specific advice on handler RG’g would be much appreciated.
Kathy says
I have a Chug that was 6. She was the sweetest dog. Never hurt anything or anyone, although she did bark a lot. This past February I brought home another Chug (1/2 Chihuahua 1/2 Pug) that was a rescue. She is also a very sweet girl but much, much smaller. My first dog is very food driven seems to take this Resource Guarding to the extreme. She would viciously attack the little one when I would try to feed them. She never had a problem with anyone around her before or even if another dog was around. It’s only when it has to do with food. I actually have to feed the new dog on the counter and stand there with her while the other eats in her normal place. I am in complete shock at how vicious my dog becomes over this. I’m afraid of what she could do next.
Trisha says
Kathy: You are wise to prevent trouble as much as you can. Keep feeding the dogs seperately. (But perhaps in another room rather than on a kitchen counter? That could lead to trouble unto itself.) Meanwhile, find a copy of the book “Mine” by Jean Donaldson and follow it carefully. Good luck! Paws crossed….
Lili says
Having only had my adopted dog Rosie for a year and a half(she is 4), I still am very much a beginner. I soak up every bit of reading and youtube video I can, and we also started fostering dogs recently, on and off. We took a break from fostering for a while until the past month when we got Buzz.
I can honestly say I have never seen Rosie show an ounce of aggression until tonight when she lunged and bit Buzz as he approached her bowl while she ate. No skin was broken and I was able to break it up, thankfully, but I am soooo scared now, stumbling upon this blog as I search for what I should do next. We are thinking of adopting this dog as a second dog but now I’m frightened. Since it has happened once, do you consider this to be a full on problem? Or am I safe to still try some of the “preventative” methods?
Trisha says
Lili: Well, I guess it depends on how you define a “full on” problem. I would take what happened seriously, and not live in hope that it was a ‘glitch’ that happened once and only once. It’s common for dogs to become more assertive about guarding their treasures, so Rosie’s age could be a factor. Also, the fact that Buzz is relatively new, but starting to settle in (and perhaps make Rose nervous?) is also a potential factor. Either way, I would absolutely categorize it as something that needs work asap. The question you need to ask yourself is: Do we want to have a serious behavior problem to work through right now? I would absolutely feed the dogs in different rooms (doors shut) for now, until you’ve decided if you want to adopt Buzz or not. If you decide to keep him you’ll want to begin conditioning Rose to love it when Buzz approaches her dinner bowl. I briefly describe how to do that in Feeling Outnumbered, but the detailed book was written by Jean Donaldson, title Mine! and has a great step-by-step description of how to treat resource guarding.
Stephen M says
I’m so glad I found this page. I have two GSD’s, one is a WGSD neutered rescue of about three years and the other is a black and tan saddle female og 1 1.5 years. The WGSD “Max” sometimes gets a little jealous of me petting Axsel, the female and will attempt to play nibble her or for her entire muzzle into his mouth which most of the time she remains passive. They haven’t fought over food but sometimes she will RG his food bowl which I intervene by directing him to her food, which she then returns to to eat and he goes back to his own bowl. The both love to cuddle but sometimes Axsel gets a bit testy with Max and sometimes heads him off, especially when she is around my pregnant wife. She is extremely hostile over toys to the point that we have removed all toys and only keep rubber balls for use at the park. She is unaltered and we intend it to stay this way until she is four or five years of age unless pyro happens first since other research suggests that early spaying carries more risks, especially in GSD’s. They need their organs for growth, just like a human teen needs them to mature.
Recently they got into a scuffle and given the circumstance I had to intervene, this time I took a bite to my left hand with moderate bleeding from a slice wound and a puncture wound. Treated with peroxide, antibiotic creme and Cephalexin pill antibiotics which I have on hand for them. After the bite I ended up giving her a good wakeup call that biting a human is violating a sacred rule. It took my wife every bit of two hours to convince me not to end the female gsds life with a .556 round. I grew up in the country and this was the one all solution to a biting dog. Usually as an immediate remedy when they do something extremely bad I leash them and crate them which in the end I ended up doing with her while my wife and I discussed judgement over her future.
I got her for Max to help him deal with his depression and separation anxiety and the two usually share everything, even toys (she likes to run up to Max with a huge rubber football and holds it out to him to play tug o war.) but recently she’s been a real b#### towards him. Max has an extremely high tolerance and tries to avoid confrontation, often retreating or I call him and give him attention and none to Axsel or I praise both with petting and good voice speak. They both love their butts to be scratched, they both love to terrorize cats. My first step is no toys out period with a shock collar on her for warning if she’s being too mean followed up with crate time. I hope you have some advice as to what I can do better. Both are very loved by me and my wife and I mean this. I witnessed both be hit by a pickup, if it wasnt for Max, Axsel would have gone under the truck and ended up dead. This event is still traumatizing to me, I do admit I even went through a mental collapse after the whole ordeal. Max required emergency surgery which involved braces and three teeth removed, 900$ in vet bills. Axsel 150$ for being put under for Xrays which the vet was kind enough to not charge me for. They have been through alot and i really dont want to give up on Axsel but the bite almost did it for me. One reason why she is still with us after that was partially because when i sitting on the floor with my hand bleeding out she did the crawling shuffle she does when she knows she did something bad and shuffled her way all the way into my lap almost and curled into a ball.
Elo says
Chiming in quite awhile after this was written, but resource guarding is so stressful to deal with and I don’t think I’d wish it on my worst enemy. I’ve always had dogs that have resource guarded towards other dogs in one way or another, but all within the realm of typical dog behavior. I brought home my girl at nine weeks from the (and to this day I’ll stand by my thoughts that she’s a genetic fluke since I am very familiar with her breeder/lines) breeder and it didn’t take long at all to realize there was a problem on our hands. We had two resident dogs at the time whose adult size was roughly the same as the my dog’s puppy size and, given that I’d never experienced such extreme RG before in my life, toys were just left out. Little baby puppy was napping over on the side of the room when one of the other dogs approached a toy left out in the middle of the room, previously disinterested puppy opened her eyes, went cold the moment she saw, and rushed over to attack. No, not just a scuffle to claim the toy and be done– puppy meant business. Situation repeated a couple of days later when I was cooking and a grain of rice (ONE grain!) dropped onto the floor, the adult dog leaned in towards it, and pup grabbed hold and shook. “Crate and Rotate”, or more like just keeping them in separate rooms at all times, was pretty much the solution for us especially because my RGer was going to be 4x the size of the others once full grown and could do serious damage in the blink of an eye. Not a desirable living situation in any way and I’m don’t think I’d ever be willing to do it again.
I’ve worked with her extensively to get her to a manageable point when it comes to being around other dogs in general, but I know a “manageable point” is where our progress will end. I’ve worked with her to not go off when she sees another dog approach a toy/food/whatever else when we’re out or at the training club, but even then she lapses sometimes. No full-on lunging and barking since the beginning of our journey, but I see her stare grow cold and that lip of hers start to curl and just think to myself “If she wasn’t on-leash right now and I wasn’t here to immediately redirect her, there would be hell” and all of my feelings towards extremely limited and heavily supervised interactions with other dogs are just reconfirmed. The risk of her having a lapse in impulse control and injuring or traumatizing another dog no matter how good she is the majority of the time isn’t worth it.
I’m always interested to read information on resource guarding, whether it’s a special case or the nature vs nurture of it all. I’ve never been all that successful in finding in-depth information about aggression in young puppies and I do wonder if it’s because it’s simply uncommon or just not a whole lot is known. For her, the strangest part about it all to me is how offensive in nature it is in comparison to the more defensive RG I’m used to seeing and hearing about. You know, the dog snarling when a dog or person approaches while they’re chewing a bone. She’s never guarded something that was already in her possession and it has never limited itself to one type of thing (food, toys, super special valuable, etc), which I guess is why I feel she’s particularly unreliable.
Nicole W says
we have two dogs, Bear, who is a 13 year old lab-chow mix, and a 3 year old pittie-mastiff, Sparky. We have had both since they were puppies. When Sparky moved in when my brother moved back home, Bear was the dominant dog, and Sparky was still very small. Now, however, Sparky is over 100 pounds, full grown, and Bear has slowed down as he has aged. The fighting over food has escalated, and more damage results. Both dogs are lovely on their own, and both are great with people- adults and children. However, both become aggressive with each other over food. We try to keep them separate when they eat, and we also try to make sure no human food is within reach, but now there are more folks in the house, and possibly more food around as a result. Anyway, last night, the dogs got into a terrible fight. Bear had to have ten staples in his head. He is recuperating at another brother’s house while we figure out what to do. Any advice would be most welcome. we are broken hearted.
Trisha says
I’m so sorry Nicole. It’s just awful when dogs fight that badly. I can’t help you from here, except to say 1) Keep the dogs separate until you find a progressive trainer or behaviorist to come help and you and 2) Do due diligence and find just the right trainer or behaviorist to help you. They should understand and use operant and classical conditioning, not talk to you about “dominance,” and be someone that you feel comfortable working with. Good luck, I’m so sorry that you are going through this.
Elizabeth W says
I am not sure if you have addressed the issues I am having in a previous post or one of your books. I tried looking through them but was not finding what I think I need, which might just be a point in the right direction or that I need to relax and they will be okay. I came to this article last week because I was concerned that I was dealing with a dog with resource guarding issues and so that is why I am posting here. I don’t think that is the case now.
Rosie is my year old Catahoula mix that we have had since Aug. She is a sweet heart and I am probably a bit over attached. We have never taken her for any formal training but I have taught her basic commands and continue to work with her every day. She is well socialized and enjoys our daily trips to the dog park. As inaccurate of a connotation that the words “dominant”, “submissive”, “aggressive” and the like have they are probably the easiest to use to convey my meanings throughout this. Rosie has never really shown any dominant or assertive traits that I have seen. She is not really submissive either with the exceptions of two different very assertive GSPs at the park. She is happy-go-lucky, full of energy, loves to wrestle with other dogs, has never been in a fight, dig, fetch and just be a dog. I enjoy watching her have fun and prance.
Last week the hubby and I went to the pound and met Hanna a year old Spaniel mix and he fell in love with her. It takes me a little longer to bond with them but once I do I’m hooked. Hanna had been returned to the pound twice before with reports of being aggressive and mean. The pound had sent her to obedience training that the local Kennel Club runs. She was sweet and cuddly and starved for love, affection, and attention.
In retrospect, we introduced them all wrong. We took Rosie to the pound to meet Hanna in the play yard they have (it is an amazing pound!). Rosie was excited to play at first and Hanna was full of energy and probably overwhelming. Hanna snapped at Rosie a few times over toys but for the most part after Hanna calmed down they just ignored each other and walked around. The lady that worked there said that we should expect some possible resource guarding and that Hanna might even try to guard us and not let Rosie near. They let us take her home to see how the girls would do before officially adopting Hanna.
She was a different dog at our place. Hubby went in first, then Rosie with myself and Hanna following. I have been feeding them at the same time on opposite sides of the room and there have been no issues. The first two days she would growl and snap at Rosie if there was a toy or chew involved. Now, one will be chewing on a ball and it rolls just out of reach and the other will get it and repeat the same process back and forth. But Hanna will also go over and take toys away from Rosie. No growls, snarls, snaps or lip curls.
Rosie would sleep either with us or in her crate. We continued that after Hanna came for a few days but then the Hubby wanted Hanna to join us too. Hanna tried to take Rosie’s spot but I didn’t like that so I made him move her. Sitting on the couch the first few days it was the 3 of us and Hanna on the floor. We let her join after a few days and usually made sure Rosie got up first and was between us with Hanna on the outside. I quickly tiered of that and they both sleep in crates in their own room.
Hanna will be pushy with attention also and try to come between whomever is giving Rosie attention. I try to ignore her and continue with petting Rosie or move Hanna out of the way. We try to make sure to give Hanna plenty of attention also. Rosie tries to get Hanna to wrestle but she would rather be my shadow around the house or just lay around. She will occasionally kind of humor Rosie though. Neither is vocal when they are and Rosie’s tale is waging away while Hanna is relaxed or slightly waging.
The problem/my concern is Rosie’s is starting to act differently. If she was a human I would say she is sad, mopping, depressed, upset. She goes of by herself to the overstuffed chair in her room and will just lay there for hours. She isn’t happily prancing through the house waging her tail and she walks around with her ears down a lot and she gives me the saddest faces when Hanna takes a toy she found to play with. The only time she seams like herself is first thing in the morning or at the dog park playing with her “friends”.
I feel like I don’t know what I am doing or what I should be doing or how to fix the poor start we gave the girls. One site said they will work out their pack hierarchy on their on but I don’t want Rosie to loose her sweet carefree spirit in the process. I also know it was just last week when they met and they need time to adjust, hence my comment that maybe I just need to be told it will all be okay. I just want to do what is best for them both and do it the right way. Any advice from anyone is welcome
By thy way, Patricia, I have enjoyed reading the different articles you have writen. I really like your writing style!
Irena Dogsa says
I am so glad I found this site addressing exactly the problems we have with our two dogs. After reading everything written here I still have a question for which I could not find an answer. We have a 12 year old dachsund terrier mix Nika who has been living all her life with another dachsund who died in the age of 16. After a period of mourning we decided to adopt a dog from a local shelter – 2 year old terrier mix Toto. Both dogs are spayed / neutered.
He was not socialized at all and we are spending enourmous amount of time training him, playing with him, cuddling, attending doggy classes etc. He has shown a lot of improvement in all areas but only a little progress in one – he is RG from Nika: not only his food (this is quite easy to solve), but also our food, food possibly dropped on the floor (if he notices her sniffing she gets scared away or attacked), he guards insects found in our yard, water – not only from the bowl but even the water from creeks and ponds in the woods. Occassionally he guards me, some good places in the house, some rooms (attacking her when she wants to come in or even when she wants to leave).
We try to manage the problem by counterconditioning and are successful with systematic desensitaziation – can feed them now from our hands on the small distance if both are tethered. We were using the advice found in the books writen by you, Patricia, also Pat Miller and Jean Donaldson as well as getting personal advice by a dog trainer (advice was more or less the same as written in these books). Toto has been with us for good four months and the counterconditioning has been going on for two months twice a day. In spite of all our efforts, every day we experience at least one attack. They are not severe (no blood), but Nika is stressed and so are we when we try to separate them (she is just defending herself by growling, not attacking back). We try to do eeverything that his aggressive behavior is not reinforced – he ferquently does not achieve anything by his threats and attacks.
Sometimes we get desperate and start losing hope that he will ever get better, even though after each attack after calming down he behaves as if he were appologizing – licking her around her mouth. When going for a walk both dogs are fine (unless there is water around).
He could be a nice dog if he were not RG. My question is: How long should we keep doing the counterconditioning to change his emotional response to her? Response has changed during feeding time, but has not generalized to other situations. He can be OK with her in many situations we control, but he is unpredictable and suddenly he can attack her when we could not expect it.
Sometimes we think that it could be better to find another home for him (painful, we cry when we talk about this), which could be difficult here nowadays (we live in Slovenia) or put him back to the shelter, but we want to make sure that we really did everything we could to make lives of both dogs pleasurable. How much time should we wait or, better, keep working before giving up? What are the prospects?
I would really like to hear that things might settle down after certain amount of time has passed by and that some dog owners have experienced similar problems that turned out OK after some time, so there is still hope for our Toto. Have many repetitions of conterconditioning should we do – for how long? Any advice or answers are highly appreciated.
Antonia says
Curious to know if a dog with RG is guarding resources against all other dogs or if it is common for dogs to have RG behavior towards a specific dog in a multi-dog household. One of my dogs has RG behaviors but only directed at one of our other two dogs. The other one he never resource guards with…
Sam says
I have a three year old beagle/ doxen mix who has just started to guard one toy in particular. He was fine with sharing the toys that my resdient dog had already played with but this toy has been the only toy that he has played with without the resident dog touching it. I am wondering if the fact that this toy has only his scent on it has triggered his RG behavior and if so how could I go about teaching him that sharing with our resident pup is okay? I have been doing the treat exercise without realizing it and am going to try to do it more actively to see if that helps him to think that being around our resident pup will help. I have seen some improvement since I have blocked off the place that my 3yo beagle used to go to to guard but now if the resident pup gets too close he gets stiff growls and has even gone after him. The resident pup seems unaware of the discomfort of the 3yo which may be because of his advanced age, loss of hearing and increasing loss of sight. The problem I am facing with asking him to give up the toy for a treat is that as soon as I walk to the treat jar or take out a treat and set it aside he is disinterested in the toy and only has eyes for the treat so asking him to give the toy in exchange for a treat does not seem to be an effective strategy. Any suggestions are welcome
Cathy Halloran Faulkner says
Interesting article many thanks. I’ve recently fostered a 5 month old pup who is guarding me from my other dogs when we are in the house. I would appreciate some advice. She has had a tough time this little pup and I don’t want to crush her spirit. I am hatching a plan which I would really appreciate your comments upon. With positive training I think I need to prevent her from sitting next to me on the sofa/chair etc and from following me everywhere (not easy as she has been abandoned 3 times in 5 months). I’m currently crate training. I’ve had success with night times but day times are not so good – she gets very stressed when she can’t see me. I’m following a tried and tested method: feeding in the crate, treating in the crate, short periods in the crate without me, longer periods with me in view (which are much less stressful for her of course)…I’m confident I’ll get there but the guarding me from my own 3 dogs is causing tension and as its a new one on me, I’d really appreciate some input. Very many thanks in advance.
Sherri says
Hi Trisha,
I have read through the bulk of comments/examples, along with your responses, following your article on dog to dog RG. I also read your 2013 article on RG. I have found all of these helpful, and refreshing (sadly, I’m aware) in a sense that I’m not the only one out there facing this problem, but have a couple of questions. The problem…
I have an otherwise lovely three year old Golden Retriever, Sadie, who is the stereotypical goofball of a Golden around adults and children. While out walking, she interacts well with dogs–both known and those met along the trails and park. I am easily able to take away and return food, toys, and treats at home. “Treats” acquired along our walks (ranging from much desired dirty tissue to dead animals), however, aren’t as easily parted with and require a sit/trade-for-treat exercise. I am okay working away at that as she hasn’t been aggressive about it, just stubborn, but my concern is her RG in response to dogs and food or toys.
I live alone and she’s my only dog, (plus an old cat, that she gets along with). Our issues with food and toy guarding have occured at the parks, at a friends’ home with his Boston Terrier, and at my parents’ home with a Maltese. She no longer comes along when visiting friends, but at my parents’ house we keep all toys and food up. The parks, however, are an issue. British Columbia is almost too dog friendly in that even the on-leash areas are treated as off-leash–MUCH different from my hometown in Ontario where dogs off leash in unzoned areas were slapped with $90 fines. So while walking Sadie, although I don’t bring balls or toys with us, other dogs are often playing with them in the parks or on the trails, and if dropped anywhere near us, Sadie will quickly lunge to grab them. Upon walking up to sniff her, Sadie will snarl and has twice now, snapped at the other dog. In an off-leash area, an owner came up and threw a ball, and before I could get Sadie back, she was rolling around flashing teeth with a Collie. No skin was broken, but it was awful. My approach has been to now keep her on-leash, to give other owners (those approaching on a walk) a heads up that she’s a jerk about balls if their dogs are carrying them, and the food up/toys up approach while at my parents house. There are still, however, times where other off-leash dogs run up with their balls and I’m at a loss of how to prevent this. While trying to stay calm, I honestly feel so frustrated when she’s walking nicely on a leash and another dog comes over with a ball or stick, unknowingly prompting her RG behaviour. I’m sure this sounds improbable, but it happens a lot here on the trails and in even on-leash parks. She has also RG’ed treats and other dogs, which happened at a friends house when she found a rawhide hidden in the couch cushions, and scared the bejesus out of my friends Boston Terrier when he approached her to sniff at his rawhide, in his own home. After the Collie incident I booked to see a dog trainer, but would be open to any other advice that I can start working on in the interim. I’m struggling as its difficult practicing the prevention piece as she’s my only dog.
Thank you and my apologies for the length of this!
nawfel09 says
I honestly feel so frustrated when she’s walking nicely on a leash and another dog comes over with a ball or stick, unknowingly prompting her RG behaviour. I’m sure this sounds improbable, but it happens a lot here on the trails and in even on-leash parks. She has also RG’ed treats and other dogs, which happened at a friends house when she found a rawhide hidden in the couch cushions,see more dogs breed in
Brenda says
My cousin and I came apron this info well she did and forwarded to me my dog is a resource guarding dog and her dog is a old push over and my dog pins her when she wants something, so we are going to put into practice what it suggests here . My dog could hurt her dog and it’s better than other ideas to handle the situation
Maryanne Lane says
Hi
I have a foster lab mix that has to have a barrier between him and the person he is meeting. My handyman was on property and I saw him and quickly leashed the dog. He turned into Cujo. Growling, lunging, barking. I had handyman go on other side of gate and just talk for a few minutes so he could see I knew him etc. When he came back in, old friends, kicking, running playing. This is the issue that landed him in foster care because he did this in owners neighborhood and people complained when he was being walked. Owner is disabled navy vet and wants to make him a service dog but we need to resolve this barrier issue. Thanks! Maryanne
Aundrea says
I have 2 fixed males, 5 and 7. My 5 year old omly recently started guarding things. They have been in a few fights since Christmas. This is new behavior. They always loved eachother and played well and cuddles. They still do, but my 5 year old is bullying my 7 year old. I bought video cameras and just learned my 7 year old won’t go in the dog house they share anymore. I believe my 5 year old won’t let him in, even though I didn’t see any aggression on film today. They are in the house when I am home. They have fought over food and toys and a dog bed, but never outside in their kennel. I work long shifts so I need them to be happy and healthy out there. What do I need to do to get them to live in harmony again? I’m working on the inside stuff my much as suggested above. I need help with the doghouse.
Jessica Woldow says
I have 2 male dogs. 1 is a mixed (I think with papillon, chiuahuah, and possible jack russel) who is 6 years old. My other dog just turned 1 and is a full bred Australian Shepard. The Aussie is not yet fixed but planning on getting him fixed this month and hoping it helps a little bit.
My 6 year old as a puppy was great and loved with other dogs, then we moved to another place and he was an only dog until last year. He showed some signs of resource guarding in the past with socks mainly. Then my boyfriend and I got the Aussie puppy and it seemed to get worse and unfortunately transfer to the puppy as well. Now they both resource guard socks and food (dog food, treats, crumbs on the ground, kitchen while I’m cooking). It actually seems like the Aussie is now worse then my 6 year old and I’m not sure if it’s cause he’s not fixed yet or because he’s bigger he’s teying to assert his dominance. They play great together but then they have these moments where they act like they don’t know each other. They growl and then lunge at each other. I have actually gotten bitten trying to break it up but it seems like they never actually have bite marks on them. The problem is that when 1 dog starts growling, the other dog growls back. Neither dog will back down.
I have done the one dog gets a great the other dog gets a treat and I think it has improved a little. I also feed them in different rooms and pick up the food bowls when they are done. They don’t resource guard water (thankfully).
Now my boyfriend and I broke up and they went from a 2 person home to a single person home and it recently seems like it’s gotten worse. They are in cages when I’m not home because my Aussie is quite destructive and I don’t want any fights. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. I am losing my mind because I’ve never in a million years would think my own dog would bite me (it’s just a reaction to me trying to break it up).
Jaci says
I have a 17 month old Ridgeback x shar pei called Harvey and a bull arab x staffy named bane. Harvey is a serious resource guarder and I’ve had to break up many fights. The problem is Harvey doesn’t warn before he attacks. His posture changes a millisecond before he attacks Bane. It’s mostly over food that I’m eating and its not all the time. I’ve been training Harvey since I adopted him at 3 months and last night we had another episode but for the first time I didn’t have to break up the fight! He attacked but stopped almost as quickly as he started. They then sat on opposite sides of the room but then harveys posture changed again and he started barking and growling at Bane, he didn’t try and attack though which I’m counting as a win. My problem is that I worry about the affect it is having on my poor Bane. I don’t want Bane to become aggressive from being attacked by Harvey. I try to avoid any situations that I know will set Harvey off and I watch him like a hawk but sometimes its unavoidable. My question is…. how do I stop this when it is already a serious problem? I feel like the only way is to split up with my partner and have him take Bane (bane is his dog) and I stay with Harvey so he is the only dog in the home. We are sort of nervous wrecks by this stage. I know Harvey is improving but its so scary when it happens and I’m worried he will guard against humans soon. HELP
Demi says
Hello,
I have an 18 month old mixed breed named Brobeans and a 9 month old staffi x dachshund called Nonu. They are both males. They generally get on well with each other, I dont think they resource guard with each other, its more that Nonu will try and take something that Brobeans has and he will growl to say “back off it’s mine” and Nonu will not try again… But as soon as I take them to the dog park Nonu gets very possessive of his ball with other, strange dogs, and has attacked two dogs on two separate occasions.
My question is: How do I handle this if he is fine with Brobeans but reactive to other dogs that he doesn’t know?
John Porter says
Have a dog that Resource Guards to the point we can’t give his pups chew toys ( which they need badly) He has even bitten my wife once. (Took my wife 45 min to calm me down and not put two in his head for that one. How can I stop this.
Cristin says
What an awesome write-up! And also awesome that you mentioned Walloon Lake! I grew up about 10 minutes from Walloon! And the lavender farm is a place that my children and I love to visit! ❤️
Barbara D says
I’m not sure if RG of people and particularly children fits in here. I have a 1 1/2 year old English shepherd. She has become seriously dog to dog aggressive 4 times. always guarding her “people” Recently our neighbors dog wandered into the yard where family including a 1 year old toddler were playing. She has played with this dog in the past but not often. She met and circled the neighbor dog, and when it proceeded to come in toward the house with the family, she attacked in a flash. And went back in and attacked again when the person who pulled her off lost control of her. Help!
Barbara D says
Cont..
she has done this when another dog was in the lap of the prized human..(the other dog snarled) my dog pulled her off the lap and proceeded to bite and puncture the skin in several places.
Melissa McCue-McGrath says
Hi Barbara!
I’m a CCPDT and don’t have the qualifications of Trisha, but in case she can’t get back to you soon enough, for now I’d highly recommend talking with a qualified professional in your home to address this issue. They will ask many, many questions and help you see how to navigate this situation, and more importantly, prevent it from occurring again.
For cases with a bite injury, my professional suggestion would be to reach out to a CAAB or Certified Behavior Consultant to help you figure out a plan forward and give you personalized help.
Trisha has perhaps the best writing on this already: https://www.patriciamcconnell.com/theotherendoftheleash/when-to-intervene-in-dog-dog-interactions, specifically this bit:
“Potential for Harm: As must be clear by now, I’m conservative when it comes to dog interactions. If I don’t know if a dog is going to hurt or traumatize another I’ll intervene to prevent that possibility. If I do know that one dog is probably going to cause serious trouble I’ll do more than intervene, I’ll do all I can to PREVENT it in the first place. (I’m not sure that it is possible to overemphasize the importance of prevention, but does it help if I put it in caps?)”
Start with preventing this from happening again, reach out to qualified professionals in your area, and keep us posted! Good luck!
Ashkie says
Hello,
I have a 6-month old puppy (not neutered since he is too young for now) who will attack my 10-year old (neutered) when they are around food or when he even sees him sniff the floor! They are both male French bulldogs. We live in a small condo so it’s hard to keep them apart given the limited space.
Margie Hillenbrand says
Dr. McConnell, what about dogs resource guarding from their own tail? I recently saw a video where dog reacted to his own leg.
Rosie says
I know this post is eight years old, but we have an issue that hasn’t been addressed with our 20mo male. He generally has a wonderful temperament and doesn’t RG anything, not toys or treats or us. BUT, there are a few friends or favorite dogs at the park that he guards when other dogs want to play with them. It’s so situational that I’m not really sure how to train or work on it. I usually know which dogs he guards but sometimes he’s just fine. If anyone sees this, I’d love some insight!