Resource Guarding

[Porcheesy]

I know this is natural for all dogs!! Is there anybody who has had experience in training this behavior? Thanks

 

[Nik]

We worked on resource guarding from the second we brought each puppy home. Our dogs don't ever resource guard against us. That said I don't think Diesel ever had the inclination to do so anyways. Kahlua wants to resource guard from other dogs (like diesel). So there are several things we always do.

Each meal time they have to earn their meal. I pour the food and put it down but they aren't allowed to touch it until I tell them okay. I trained this from day 1 by picking up the bowl every time they took a step towards without saying anything until they learned to sit there and wait. I only allowed them to eat without removing the bowl once I gave the release word.

Once they got the concept I started turning it always into a training session and making them do various tricks to earn the food. Then I incorporated a stop command mid-meal. Now if I tell them to stop while they are eating they have to stop.

If I remove the food I add something better and higher value to it so they know that having it taken is a good thing and always okay.

We also started the drop it and leave it commands early on. Whenever we made them drop or leave something we would reward them with a higher value item. Slowly you phase out the constant rewards so that you become a slot machine instead of a vending machine.

With resource guarding between the dogs whenever kahlua tries to resource guard she gets scolded and if she doesn't stop the behavior instantly she loses the item she is guarding. If she immediately self-corrects she gets a reward and the dog who tried to steal gets scolded. I don't allow them to steal from one another but I also don't allow resource guarding. Both dogs know the rules and anyone who disobeys gets in trouble. Sometimes this means that whatever they both want they both lose. Sometimes it means the one behaving gets the high value item and the one breaking the rules gets nothing and has to watch. They totally understand the concept and know the rules at this point. It doesn't mean they don't try to test the rules occasionally but we are pretty on top of enforcing the rules vigilantly so most of the testing is half hearted at best and it is pretty clear (usually) they know they are doing wrong and are going to lose.

My dogs are super attuned to "ah ah" and of course "no" means theyve' been really bad. "uh uh" is the mild correction word and they hear that and usually the know to immediately stop before they actually get in trouble. Kahlua is super sensitive to verbal correction so I almost never have to move beyond the mild "uh uh" with her. Diesel is far more stubborn. We do sometimes move onto "no" "bad dog" "time out now" "no toy" etc. He's a smarty pants. He knows threats "Do you want to lose your toy?" He knows what that means. "Do you want timeout?" "Do you need alone time?" He knows what that means too... Sometimes he actually does need and want timeout and alone time and in those cases he calmly walks to his crate and I realize he was just wound up and needed the correction.

 

[Porcheesy]

We worked on resource guarding from the second we brought each puppy home. Our dogs don't ever resource guard against us. That said I don't think Diesel ever had the inclination to do so anyways. Kahlua wants to resource guard from other dogs (like diesel). So there are several things we always do.

Each meal time they have to earn their meal. I pour the food and put it down but they aren't allowed to touch it until I tell them okay. I trained this from day 1 by picking up the bowl every time they took a step towards without saying anything until they learned to sit there and wait. I only allowed them to eat without removing the bowl once I gave the release word.

Once they got the concept I started turning it always into a training session and making them do various tricks to earn the food. Then I incorporated a stop command mid-meal. Now if I tell them to stop while they are eating they have to stop.

If I remove the food I add something better and higher value to it so they know that having it taken is a good thing and always okay.

We also started the drop it and leave it commands early on. Whenever we made them drop or leave something we would reward them with a higher value item. Slowly you phase out the constant rewards so that you become a slot machine instead of a vending machine.

With resource guarding between the dogs whenever kahlua tries to resource guard she gets scolded and if she doesn't stop the behavior instantly she loses the item she is guarding. If she immediately self-corrects she gets a reward and the dog who tried to steal gets scolded. I don't allow them to steal from one another but I also don't allow resource guarding. Both dogs know the rules and anyone who disobeys gets in trouble. Sometimes this means that whatever they both want they both lose. Sometimes it means the one behaving gets the high value item and the one breaking the rules gets nothing and has to watch. They totally understand the concept and know the rules at this point. It doesn't mean they don't try to test the rules occasionally but we are pretty on top of enforcing the rules vigilantly so most of the testing is half hearted at best and it is pretty clear (usually) they know they are doing wrong and are going to lose.

My dogs are super attuned to "ah ah" and of course "no" means theyve' been really bad. "uh uh" is the mild correction word and they hear that and usually the know to immediately stop before they actually get in trouble. Kahlua is super sensitive to verbal correction so I almost never have to move beyond the mild "uh uh" with her. Diesel is far more stubborn. We do sometimes move onto "no" "bad dog" "time out now" "no toy" etc. He's a smarty pants. He knows threats "Do you want to lose your toy?" He knows what that means. "Do you want timeout?" "Do you need alone time?" He knows what that means too... Sometimes he actually does need and want timeout and alone time and in those cases he calmly walks to his crate and I realize he was just wound up and needed the correction.

Ok... so she has a bunch of toys that she eventually rip to shreds and I constantly take them away for her safety! She might have a feat of losing the items.... I keep replacing the broken ones with new ones... you said you take it away when she exhibits guarding behavior... isn' that just proving her right?!

 

[DennasMom]

We practice "trading up".

Denna also is often asked to 'sit & wait' for her dinner.
And, randomly during dinner, I'll ask Denna to sit... which means she has to stop eating... and then ADD some yummy scraps to her dish and release her again to eat.
It's to the point that if I walk by her dish when she's eating, she'll stop to look and see what I've brought for her.
You can add in taking the dish away to add the scraps if you need to make it more challenging, too... but I always give it back to her. Then I leave her alone to eat in peace.

For toys that are destroyed, I'll take them, then give her a treat to chew instead.

Or... I take the dead toy, and grab another favorite from her toy box and PLAY with her, so she quickly forgets to be upset about the dead toy going away. This is a double-bonus to train against resource guarding the toy... not only is guarding the toy bad, so toy goes away, but SHARING a different toy with me is FUN!!!!

You can practice this in another way by asking the pup to bring you the toy... take it... sniff it... look it over... act like you're going to keep it, but then make it squeak and dance for the pup and make it EXCITING before you give it back (and/or play tug with it)... we've basically taught all our dogs to bring us their toys so we can play WITH them this way... which has pros and cons at times. LOL.

 

[Cher]

My trainer said to always give back when you take something away from the puppy, so they won't learn to become possessive of things.