Teaching a Chihuahua Dad How to Stop Dog Resource Guarding

For this in-home Omaha dog training session we shared tips to stop dog resource guarding to help Chihuahua mix Buster.

We had already completed two other sessions with Buster where we went over marker words, how to introduce cues, fading the lure, the importance of celebrating desired behaviors and dog body language specifically cut off signals.

Knowing how to read your dog’s body language is of paramount importance if you want to stop dog resource guarding. Dogs will usually give you an indication that they are uncomfortable before they start guarding.

But before we got to the tips to stop dog resource guarding, I spent a few minutes going over how to teach a dog to take, give or drop.

The best way to teach dogs to drop things is to practice with low value items. These are the dogs toys or things it is allowed to have that humans do not show any interest in.

I like to do this by having a couple of treats in my hand ready when the dog is playing with its toys. When the dog is holding a toy in its mouth, I present a treat to the dog’s face near its lips.

At first I don’t say anything, I just wait for the doctor to drop the item then I say the marker word and put the treat in the dog’s mouth.

After you’ve done this multiple times, the dog will start to anticipate what’s going to happen next and drop right away.

When that happens, then I start saying the command cue of “drop” before I present the treat. As soon as the dog drops, I say the marker word, then give the dog a treat and leave the object on the floor. Leaving the object on the floor is important.

Many dogs steal and guard things because it is an easy way to get our attention. But by training your dog to drop things this way, and then ignoring and not picking the item up, we build the dogs confidence that we’re not there to steal their things.

I always like to show guard how to get their dogs to drop things when they hire me to stop dog resource guarding. The problem with this activities is you have be observant so that when the opportunity presents itself, you are able to pull out that treat and practice. This isn’t something that you can practice on the regular because you need to make sure the dog wants to have the object in its mouth.

Often, the dog will start dropping right away as soon as it sees you coming over which makes practice difficult – but that’s a good thing because it means you are changing the dog’s perception of you from thief to trusted person who gives treats when they drop things.

It’s going be a little bit of a challenge for the guardians to practice this exercise as they have a very active 2 year-old girl in the house.

I recommended that the father stepped away from his work from home job a couple of times a day to practice with a crayon, one of Buster’s favorite things to steal.

After demonstrating how to teach Buster to drop myself, I coached the Dad through the exercise and it was impressive how quickly Buster figured this out.

If the Dad can practice this exercise a couple of times a day and short, one minute practice sessions, I would imagine that he would be able to establish a solid drop within a week or so.

How to Stop Dog Resource Guarding

Next we were ready to address Buster’s guarding behavior. This is a bit of an unusual case of resource guarding because I think it’s more rooted in the jealousy of losing the attention to the 2 year-old child then it is actual guarding.

Buster displays this behavior when he is sitting on the couch next to one of his guardians and the daughter approaches. Usually a dog with a guarding problem guards a particular object, in this case it was an object, but more specifically a human.

I wanted to make it easy for the guardian to remember how to stop dog resource guarding a person so I started walking him through it.

I could tell from his face that he understood the concept but wasn’t as comfortable and confident as he would like to be. I pulled out my camera and handed it to him so that I could demonstrate this technique to stop dog resource guarding.

If you have a dog who gets jealous when people approach you or is guarding you, you should definitely check out this free positive dog training video that details an easy way to stop dog resource guarding.

Of course Buster decided he wasn’t going to guard the human when we shot the video. And in a comedic irony, the daughter didn’t want to approach Buster either.

Fortunately this technique to stop dog resource guarding is easy to demonstrate even if the dog is not guarding anything.

The video details two scenarios. One where they can practice Buster feeling good about the daughter approaching when he is not guarding. The other scenario is the technique that I’ve used to stop dog resource guarding for the last 10 years or so.

I recommended that the family practice the non-guarding version at least once a day. The more that they practice that, the less likely Buster will be to guard them from their daughter.

It can be frustrating when you have a dog with a gardening problem because the behavior is not consistent. It can also be scary because some dogs will bite when they are guarding things and we take them away.

I made sure to point out to the guardian the importance of not picking Buster up or snatching things from him. These are too very common mistakes people make when they have little dogs. It seems so simple, we can simply overpower the dog or grab things or pick them up to solve the problem.

The problem is that creates resentment in the Dog. And that is a very common contributing factor for dogs who guard things. So if you need to stop dog resource guarding and you have a small breed dog, make sure that you teach them to drop, remove things they made guard and practice good things happening when they give up what they want.

If you don’t do these things, the dog will look at you as a thief. If that’s the case, it’s really hard to stop dog resource guarding.

But if you teach the dog that dropping things is actually a good thing, that they get something of benefit, they lose their insecurity and are more comfortable and confident.

After we finish practicing how to stop dog resource guarding I shared some tips on how to get a dog to put his own harness on. We didn’t quite finish that one so the guardian mentioned that they would like to book a follow up session to work on that.

I shared some final tips and suggestions on this exercise to stop dog resource guarding and told the guardian to shoot videos and text them to me if he ran into any problems so that I could share tips before our next session.

Based on how smart Buster is, I’m really looking forward to hearing about the progress the guardians make over the next week or so.