Does your dog ever growl at you when you approach his food/toy/chew bone? This behavior is called Resource Guarding. Resource guarding is caused by your dog’s fear that your approach will somehow result in him losing the food or item to you. This is actually a normal behavior in dogs. If dogs did not have this trait, they would starve in a non-domesticated situation. However, Resource Guarding should never be tolerated by humans as it can lead to very dangerous incidents of aggression. A dog that is resource guarding will often display tell tale signals that he is nervous about losing the item. Be aware of your dogs body language when he is in possession of food or coveted items.
Things to Look for:
- Dog with item/food stiffens or freezes at your approach.
- Dog hides item from your view.
- Dog re-positions body so that item is far away from you.
- Dog eats food/chew item incredibly fast.
- Dog stops and stares at you upon your approach.
Do NOT scold or punish your dog for displays of resource guarding. Scolding or punishing for this behavior will only increase your dog’s fear of losing his resource or food. While scolding can sometimes appear to stop the behavior, you are really teaching your dog to not give any vocal warnings. This results in a dog that can bite without warning.
THE FIX: Change your dog’s associations of what happens when humans approach a coveted item. The appearance of a human near the dog’s food item=good things happen. This fix takes a bit of time but is the most successful method.
How to:
- Feed your dog as usual.
- Let him eat for a bit so that he is really focused on it.
- Determine the distance that you need to be from your dog when you would see the guarding behavior begin.
- Just outside of that distance threshold, walk past your dog and drop an extremely yummy treat on the floor next to the food dish. This treat should be something really special and something that he only gets when doing this exercise-cooked chicken or steak…
- Do not say anything.
- Repeat this exercise every time that your dog is eating.
- Over the span of a few weeks or months, get your body closer and closer to the dog while you are feeding the treat. Also begin to feed it to him from your hand.
- As your begins to get less and less covetous of his food bowl and starts to look at you enthusiastically as if he is thinking, “hey, what do you have for me there?”, “trade” him the food dish for a few yummy treats. Immediately put the dish back. Do NOT attempt this if your dog looks at all tense!
- Practice the above with all food/chew/toy items that your dog appears to guard.
- If you dog reacts negatively in any way, go back a few steps in the protocol and work from there.
