Want to Know the Secret to Stop Resource Guarding in Dogs?

For this Culver City dog training session we went over how to stop resource guarding to help 3 year–old Golden Cocker Lola.

We had covered a number of dog training fundamentals in a previous session which allowed us to focus on stopping resource guarding primarily in this session.

As always, I made sure to explain why resource guarding in dogs occurs, and the number one thing you need to avoid doing; taking away the resource.

When a dog is guarding something, it’s doing so out of the perception that someone is going to take their stuff. Unfortunately, many people think “oh, my dog growled when it had a bone and I walked nearby? Well then you can’t have that bone,” and take it away.

Many dogs will simply look for something else to do, but dogs with a resource guarding problem are likely to lash out.

My clients often tell me that the dogs resource guarding problem came out of nowhere. But that’s almost never the case. When I talk to the clients about the dog’s behavior history, there are always are a number of situations where people physically or forcibly take things out of the dog’s mouth.

Usually when people do this, they are sincerely looking out for the dog. They are concerned that the thing the dog is eating is harmful. But to a dog, the human is stealing the stuff literally out of my mouth. Forceably taking things out of your dog’s mouth is a great way to create a resource guarding problem.

When you think about it in the abstract, reaching into a dog’s mouth while holding it down isn’t a good idea. And because it is forceful, it can create some behavior problems in dogs. But in the moment, people just think, ill solve this problem by grabbing the thing out of the dog’s mouth.

Modern dog training is done in a positive way so that the dog does not feel cornered or forced. This is important for dogs because some dogs will decide to start getting physical with people who are doing the same to them. But when dogs do it, they do it with their mouth.

If you want to stop resource guarding in dogs, it’s important that you incorporate a holistic approach. That includes covering all the fundamentals and looking at the big picture. There are a few exercises that are related and are very effective when combined with this method to stop resource guarding in dogs.

First I walked the guardians through the leave it exercise. This is a very useful and utilitarian exercise that many people fail to teach their dog. Especially people who have small dogs. They simply overpower the dog and take the things away from them, over and over over the course of a long period of time.

Then one day, some dogs decide they are not going to let that happen again and they start guard things. When this happens, some dogs may snap at their human. When this happens, the human decides “my dog suddenly changed overnight.” But in reality, it’s not that the dog decided to get aggressive, its more accurate to say the dog finally decided to stop letting the human steal their stuff. This is when the dog resource guarding problem starts.

I like to teach them leave it exercise in two stage stages. I showed the guardians the first stage until Lola had it down and then I coached them up until they were getting the same result. Once that was the case, I walked them through the second stage and Lola responded beautifully.

I recommended they practiced the leave it exercise three times a day, in short one to two minute practice sessions then start creating situations where they can practice. Putting Lola on a leash, then having the partner drop a high value item on the floor across the room creates a set up where they can approach the item, then give the cue and help her learn that leaving things alone gets her a reward. Something in it for Lola!

Next I went over how to teach a dog three different lessons at once; take, give and drop. This is a lesson that’s actually best taught sporadically whenever the dog has decided to show interest in a particular toy.

Fortunately, Lola really liked her ball so we were able to use that to teach her to take and drop. Later I demonstrated how to teach give with her bully stick. It’s important you watch for dog consent and cut off signals when you’re doing this exercise while using a high value item such as a bull stick.

It’s possible the dog may start to shift into a guarding mindset mid exercise. When this happens, the guardians can use my method to stop it.

How to Stop Resource Guarding in Dogs

While one of the items that Lola liked to guard was a bully stick, she did not feel the need to guard it while I was there.

Dogs with a resource guarding problem can guard anything. It’s most common for them to guard high value items, but what constitutes a high value item varies from dog to dog.

In some cases, the human accidentally makes something into a high value item by taking it away frequently. I have had dogs guard their kennel, shoes they have stolen, the bed, the couch and one dog decided to guard the air around itself.

Fortunately I don’t need to see a dog guard something in order to show someone how to stop resource guarding.

If your dog has a guarding problem and you’re searching for an easy way of stopping resource gardening, check out the free positive dog training video below.

By going at the dog’s pace, watching for indications the dog is uncomfortable before proceeding and using a lot of high value treats, it’s not hard to stop resource guarding.

Since Lola doesn’t resource guard things consistently, the guardians will have to keep an eye out for her indications and then take advantage of any situation where she does decide to guard.

Usually I recommend my clients practice in short, 2 to 5 minute practice session when the opportunity presents itself. But the most important thing is that you stop before the dog feels the need to demonstrate any indicators that they want you to stay away.

We covered a lot of other things in this West LA in home dog training session. To help Lola’s guardians remember them all, we recoerded a roadmap to success summary video that you can watch below.