Resource Guarding
Hello. How was your week? You guys I hope it was great. Today we're going to talk about resource guarding. Now it's kind of a scientific term a little bit. What is it and why do we want to talk about it?
Basically, resource guarding is your puppy’s effort to protect the things that are most important to him. And puppies have lots of things they think are important. Things like their toys or bones. It could be you or another person. It might be your bed or their bed or their food bowl. Anything they feel like is theirs, and they need to protect it. Then they tend to do what we call resource guarding.
It can be a fairly dangerous thing. It's really important that we're aware of this behavior, and then when we have a brand new puppy, the beauty is you can prevent this. You can train them to be excited when we are around and help them see there is no need to feel tense when they have something.
Also it is very important to learn about dog body language as that is the first way a dog will communicate with us. If I can see my dog getting tense, I can give him space and then set up practice sessions around the specific scenario to help my dog feel comfortable in that circumstance. Without recognizing what my dog is telling me at the body language level, they may growl, snap at the air or even bite. We don’t want that.
If you have an older dog who already resource guards, you're welcome to reach out to me, and we can formulate a plan for you because this is a serious business. We want to make sure you're protected and safe. We also want to help your dog learn a new emotional response when they have something they really like.
If you are starting out with a brand new puppy, recognize we must teach our puppy how to share. They don't come naturally knowing how to share. Puppies get something that's theirs. Maybe they have a toy and they take it to their corner and start chewing it. They let everyone know around them that that's their toy.
If you ever watch a litter of puppies play, they have these little behaviors where they'll maybe play tug for a minute and somebody wins the toy. Then they take the toy and they go over to the corner to lay down, and then somebody comes over and tries to take it from them. They might snarl at them or growl at them and just basically tell them in doggie language, hey go away, this is mine.
That can be a problem, though, when they come live with us in our homes. If we have a child, especially, and that child is walking by them while they are chewing a toy and the dog feels like that toy is theirs or may get taken away – the dog may snarl, growl or snap and we don’t want any family member to be in danger of a bite.
Now that we know what this behavior is, let's talk about what we can do about it and what this looks like in puppy training. The main key to preventing resource guarding is adding to what your dog has on a regular basis. Many times we take away things from the dog and if we don’t add or exchange with something better, the dog learns to protect what they have.
Meal time is something we want to be careful around. Once we ask our puppies for a wait and set the bowl down, do not pester or bother them. Instead, practice walking by your puppy’s bowl and drop an extra bonus treat in the food bowl while he's eating, then walk away. We want the puppy to get used to the idea that people around his food bowl is okay and good things get added to the food bowl when people are around. We're classically conditioning this puppy to like people being around even if he's eating. He knows good things happen, and these little yummy surprises come along when he's eating from his food bowl.
Please be careful NOT TO ANNOY your dog while they are eating. Simply add to what they have and walk away. Let them eat in peace. If needed, walk by from several feet away so your puppy’s body language stays relaxed and happy. If you notice he tenses up or starts to hover over his bowl you are too close. You need to back up and give your puppy space. For dogs sensitive to this, feed them in their crates or pens so there is zero chance of them being bothered around meal time, especially if you have an older dog who already exhibits some guarding behavior.
How do you teach a puppy to share? If your puppy has a bone or a toy and maybe it's his favorite toy, let's say that it's a tennis ball he absolutely loves. What I like to do first is walk by, toss him a treat then leave. I repeat this several times until my puppy starts to look up in excitement that I’m approaching even when he has his favorite toy. I work up from there by getting another ball and a really yummy food reward. When my puppy has the ball in his mouth, I'll walk over. Show him the yummy food reward I have as well as a second ball. When he releases his ball, he gets the food reward or the new ball – or both! Some puppies love to chase the ball so that chasing of the ball is a good reward for them. Tossing the ball away from him is an extra treat. As a recap, start by walking by, adding to what your puppy has and leaving. Do this enough you can see the excitement in your puppy when you approach. Then work on trading up – adding to what your dog currently has with something new, better or give the item they had right back. We always want your dog to feel like they are winning in these scenarios.
Essentially, if you have a puppy that's maybe chewing a bully stick or a bone he really likes repeat the process we just discussed with the ball. Then build up to giving your puppy a food reward for dropping his first bone then give the first bone right back. He's learning it's a win-win situation. This person is going to come over. They might ask me to release whatever is in my mouth, but by doing that, I'm going to get something yummy in return, and then I'm most likely going to get my item right back, or I'm going to get a better item.
That's a really key point when we talk about resource guarding is that we always trade up, whatever your puppy has, you have to find something better to give him or to replace it with.
But what if my puppy takes something I don’t want them to have? I get asked this a lot. A classic example, I guess, would be dirty laundry. Many puppies love finding the most stinky smelly sock in your house and they think it's a prize possession. They steal the sock and run from you. The worst thing you could do would be to chase your puppy down. By chasing your puppy down they think this is a super fun game. He's going to pick up that sock and run every time and you're going to be exhausted.
What I like to do instead is the following. Let's say my puppy steals the sock. I don't want him to have the sock. Pretend like you don’t care about the sock. I promise. Stick with me here. Give the sock zero attention. Go straight to the fridge. Don't bother chasing your puppy down. Go straight to the fridge. Find a yummy piece of steak from last night's dinner, it doesn't even have to be big. You guys a small piece of steak will do the trick, and then go find maybe his favorite squeaky toy. I promise he'll be able to smell that steak from a room or two away.
Walk past your puppy and create a diversion elsewhere away from your dog and the sock. Make sure he knows you have something great. The grass is always greener right? The puppy comes running over to check out what you have, then readily feed him the steak and toss his toy as you (or someone else if needed) collects the sock. To the dog, we care nothing about the sock. The more attention we give the sock the more valuable it becomes to the dog. Be creative with how you trade up. But the most important point is that you do trade up. You want to make it worth it to your puppy to give up whatever he has, or feels like is his prized possession. We want him to make this choice on his own, without force or fear.
Remember you guys dogs only do things that work for them. If it's not serving them or it's not working for them, they're not going to keep doing it. So, stealing a smelly sock is super rewarding, but we want to make it more rewarding to release that smelly sock and get something awesome in return.
Okay, another trick you can do to help your puppy share is hold the bones while your puppy chews on them. In fact, daily, while I'm grooming my puppy, I hold a nice long bone, like a 12-inch bully stick that you can hold on to one end and your puppy can chew on the other end.
Essentially, you're teaching your puppy to share because you're holding one end of the bone and they're chewing on the other end of the bone, and then you can get grooming done at the same time. It works great. You can brush them. I even wipe out their ears. You can take scissors and trim their eyes.
I know I have a lot of clients who have doodles, and so those hairs grow in their face and then they can't see. And I know a lot of people struggle with how do I trim the hair around my puppies eyes? How do I get him to hold still? Get him used to sharing a bone. You hold the bone, he chews. A licki mat with plain yogurt or pumpkin puree smeared on it works well too.
Finally, if you have an older dog or even a puppy who's already exhibiting resource guarding behaviors and now you're needing to undo those resource guardian behaviors, please contact us so we can put a plan in place for you to work through this with your puppy.
Also make sure your dog's getting enough physical and mental exercise. Those are both important. Make sure he's getting walks or training sessions, games like fetch, tug, hide and seek. They're all good activities to engage in together daily with your dog, and it gives him exercise both mentally and physically, which is important.
I want to make sure you are getting the help you need with training. That is my ultimate goal. Please contact us if you have questions.
That's all I have for you today. Go have some fun with your dog. Happy training, and I'll talk to you next week.