Helping an Anxious Shih Tzu with a Resource Guarding Issue

For this Omaha dog training session we worked with a very anxious Shih Tzu named Riley, sharing tips to stop his resource guarding problem.

We tried a few different things to help Riley have a positive greeting, but he had so much cortisol in his blood we didnt have much success. Since he has a bite history, we had the guardians tether him to a table leg when we sat down to discuss things. This was to prevent him from nipping, as well as to keep him from running around the room; an action that often gets dogs even more worked up. We also wanted the guardians to be comfortable and relaxed; not worrying if the dog would attempt to bite us. If the humans are anxious, it can make the dogs feel anxious.

We spent the first part of the session going over some Dog Psychology tips that will help prevent the humans from contributing. There are many things we do that inadvertently send the opposite message of what we intend to sent. A classic example of this is petting an anxious dog. While we mean to be supportive and relaxing, that petting will actually make the dog more anxious.

After going over some creative ways to exercise Riley, the importance of rules and adding structure to petting via petting with a purpose and passive training, we were ready to tackle Riley’s main issue; bitting people when he is resource guarding.

We shot a free positive dog training video covering tips to stop a dog from resource guarding. Many people don’t recognize the early warning signs of resource guarding in dogs and this is why the dogs lash out and bite. In this video I go over what to look for as well as how to stop a dog from feeling the need to guard resources.

Stopping resource guarding isn’t hard if you use this positive approach. This secret to stopping a dog from resource guarding was developed by a famous Dog Behaviorist years ago, but you don’t have to be a professional Shih Tzu dog trainer or dog behavior expert to use it. Its actually an easy way to stop resource guarding because its all done with the dog in a calm state of mind.

Because of how serious a resource guarding problem Riley has, I made a number of suggestions to help keep everyone safe and the dog from biting anyone else. Things like removing access to furniture will prevent the dog from feeling in possession of a human or bite one of the humans if they roll over in bed and jostle the dog.

To help the humans remember everything we covered in this in home Omaha dog training session, we recorded a roadmap to success video that you an check out below.