A Positive Way to Stop Resource Guarding in Puppies or Dogs

For this Omaha puppy training session we worked with Noko, an 11 month old Australian Shepherd puppy who resource guards bones from one of her guardians.

After chating with the guardians for a bit about her daily routine, I came to the conclusion that the dog was under exercised. She needed more mental stimulation, structure to develop motivation so she wants to listen to and respect her guardians. But before the session, anytime Noko demanded attention from her guardians, she got it.

I recommended the guardians add in some rules, use premacks to create some motivation as well as pet with a purpose and reward desired behaviors when Noko offers them on her own. We touched on the basics of modern force free puppy training and how it can help create motivation as well as deepen a dog’s respect for its guardians.

The main problem the family wanted help with is Noko’s habit of guarding bones and hgh value item from the family’s daughter. When you want to stop a dog from resource guarding, helping them feel comfortable is an often overlooked factor. The rules and structure we covered early in the session will help with that.

My preferred way of stopping resource guarding in dogs is to help it understand that no one is a threat to take their things. In fact, we want the dog to think that when it has high value items and the person comes into the room, its a signal that even better things are about to happen. You can learn an easy way to stop a dog from resource guarding by watching the free positive dog training video below.

It will be important for the family to practice this secret to stop a dog from resource guarding every time Noko displays this behavior. A trick that will help the guardians achieve this is to tether her before giving her a bone or high value item. This way the family can feel confident that everyone can stay safe if Noko shows some aggressive behavior when resource guarding.

The best thing about this trick to stop resource guarding in dogs is that anyone can do it. Even if you are not a professional Australian Shepherd puppy trainer.

Another thing that will help is to build up the relationship between the family’s daughter and the dog. Ive found a great way to achieve this is to have the guardian teach the dog some new tricks and cues. Since we focused on setting a good foundation for the dog’s behavior, I recommended the guardian drop her daughter off at our Intern Trainer London’s house who is nearby. Having the daughter watch London work with her own dogs and helping for the first visit will establish a nice foundation. Then she can retun with Noko and have London show them how to work together.

To help the family remember all the things we covered in today’s in home Omaha puppy training session, we filmed a roadmap to success video that you can watch below.