1 Behaviour Corner Resource Guarding What is resource guarding? Resource guarding is a fairly common behaviour that occurs in both dogs and puppies. It has adaptive advantages for the dog which is why it persists in our domestic dogs today. For wild dogs, the guarding of resources can be important when you don t know when your next meal is coming or you have a hungry pack waiting to take that meal from you. Holding onto the item is vital as in dog terms, possession is everything. Wild dogs do also learn to share however and to work co operatively for the benefit of the pack. Resource guarding in our domestic dogs becomes a behaviour problem when it is directed at us. It occurs when your dog or puppy becomes protective about an item that they have in their possession. We call this item a resource as it is something that the dog sees as being important to them. The reaction that you see from your dog as you approach is the guarding behaviour where your dog is guarding the item as they are worried that you will take it from them hence the term resource guarding. The item doesn t have to be food, it can be anything that your dog sees as valuable to them. The most common items that are guarded include: Food bones, pigs ears and other treats, kibble and even empty food bowls Toys and balls Stolen clothes items especially socks, shoes and underwear Other items Tissues, food wrappers Locations Furniture, beds, entrances to areas, food preparation areas, crates, cars People Individuals within the family What does resource guarding look like? When your dog has a valued resource, they will show distinct behaviours that can alert you to a potential problem. Your dog may show any or all of the following: eat the item more quickly as you approach Move or run away from you and attempt to hide and finish the item Become very still and tense termed freezing Tuck their tail between their hind legs fear response Flatten their ears against their head with a stiff body Move between you and the resource Stare at you in a way that makes you feel uneasy Growl Show their teeth Lunge suddenly with a warning air bite no skin contact made Lunge and Bite
2 The important thing to remember is that dogs that guard resources are not bad or so called dominant dogs. They are often the opposite an insecure and paranoid dog that assumes your approach towards their food bowl or soggy pigs ear is a major threat. As you approach, your pup or dog may show defensive behaviours and escalate these behaviours until you go away or the item is eaten. So if your dog or puppy shows any of these guarding behaviours, you need to listen to them. Move away so that they do not feel like they need to escalate into a more ferocious display to tell you to back off. If you have two dogs, you may already be familiar with the signs of resource guarding. Dogs guard items from each other all the time. Provided the dogs listen to each other and back off rather than launching into an attack, you do not have to intervene. Dog to dog resource guarding is a normal and natural behaviour (although if you are worried or injuries have occurred please do seek the assistance of an experienced dog behavioural trainer). Dogs are masters at reading and responding to dog behaviour so they know exactly what to do when another dog says stay away. It is primarily resource guarding from humans that we consider to be a problem. Dog behaviour can be subtle to our human eyes and we often fail to pick up the important messages our dogs are so desperately trying to tell us. When we do this, a resource guarding dog can quickly escalate into a biting dog. The problem becomes even more important to solve when children are in the house or visitors come over who are not aware of the problem. You may be placing everyone in a dangerous situation. Preventing resource guarding The good news is that resource guarding can be easy to prevent. We simply need to make our puppies feel relaxed and secure when they have something they value. Equally, we need to let them know that if we do need to take something from them, it will always be replaced by something even better. By doing this, puppies learn that humans approaching is never a threat but always a wonderful thing. We do this in two ways food bowl exercises and teaching them to exchange or give. Food bowl exercises. Breeders can begin these exercises before puppies go to their new homes. By doing this, any potential guarding problems can be identified as the new owners will need to be made aware of the problem and continue the exercises. When you feed your puppy, sit down next to him while he eats and talk to him. While sitting next to puppy eating, periodically toss a tasty treat into the bowl several times during each meal. The tasty treat needs to be of much higher value than his dinner eg small pieces of cooked chicken breast. If puppy stays nice and relaxed over several meals, begin to place your hand closer and closer to the bowl each meal as you toss and eventually place the tasty treat in the bowl. The aim is to get puppy used to having your hand approach their food bowl while they are eating and to ultimately be able to put your hand in the bowl while they continue to eat calmly and with a happy and relaxed body. In addition to the food bowl exercises, you can also hand feed a
3 portion of puppies daily ration of kibble to create a good association between hands and food. Handfeeding is a great way to teach a puppy to gently take treats. The other important thing to remember is that everyone in the household needs to do these exercises. Dogs are not good at generalising which means that if only one person does the exercise, then puppy will be good with food around them but may guard from everyone else. If children are in the home, a modified version of the food bowl exercises can be done by them if they are of a suitable age and only after all adults have completed the exercises without any signs of guarding in the pup/dog. Children should not attempt to place hands in bowls but can instead toss treats from a distance to teach pup that children around bowls is equally wonderful. Children naturally should be very carefully supervised at all times when interacting with dogs. Tossing a tasty treat into the bowl. Slowly building up to touching the bowl Teaching exchange or give This is easy to teach and is a vital part of any puppy or owners education. Since puppies are new to the world, everything is a treasure for them and we will spend a lot of our time following puppy around and retrieving items they have stolen. An important part of all dog and puppy management is to remove all items from their reach that we do not want them to have. Half the battle is then already won. The second half of the battle is to teach them to happily give or exchange items. The key to success is to make your dog/puppy happy to give you what they have in exchange for something even better. This is a two way street. If items are only taken from your dog/puppy, they will naturally guard them. But if items they have are replaced with even better items they will happily give items up. I explain this using a money analogy. If you have $10 and I offer to take that $10 from you but replace it with $50, are you likely to give me the $10? you d be crazy not to. But if I took the $10 and left you with no money would you be happy to give me your money the next time I wanted it not likely. Well dogs are no different. To teach give, you simply offer puppy a high value treat (something that they just cannot say no to eg cooked chicken, cabanossi or devon) while they have a toy. Puppy must drop the toy to take the treat. While pup is eating, remove the toy. The moment pup is finished eating, return the toy. That last step is really important as we want pup to know that they are not losing anything when we approach. We always exchange or give the item back. Once pup is routinely exchanging the item for treats
4 or toys you can add the verbal cue give or thank you. Practise often so that you and pup are ready for when real life scenarios occur, like the one below. Scenario 1 - Puppy has stolen your sock, go get their favourite toy and wiggle it around in front of them like it is the best toy in the world. Your puppy will naturally want to join in the fun, when they leave the sock and take the toy instead, simply remove the sock and keep making a big fuss about the toy. Scenario 2 Puppy is eating a pigs ear, approach and offer a tasty morsel of cooked chicken (note it must be something of higher value than the item the pup has), ask pup to give and offer the chicken and remove the pigs ear in that order. The moment pup finishes the chicken give back the pigs ear. When to seek help The exercises described in this article are for prevention of resource guarding. Treating or rehabilitating a puppy or dog that already guards requires a more thorough and planned approach. For treatment to be successful, it is vital that the dog/puppy has a soft mouth or good bite inhibition. This means that during the normal puppy mouthing stage, the puppy was given feedback about when mouthing hurt so that by 16-20 weeks, puppy had learnt how to inhibit the force of mouthing and developed a soft mouth ie one that will not deliver an injury causing bite. Read Dr Ian Dunbar s chapter on Learning Bite Inhibition for a more thorough look at this important subject (see the resources section). You need to seek the help of a qualified dog behavioural trainer or veterinary behaviourist if your puppy or dog already exhibits any of the signs of resource guarding as listed above. If children are in the home or are regular visitors, it is even more urgent to seek help. Interestingly, dogs that guard resources often will guard more than one type of resource eg food bowl and pigs ear or crate and furniture. It has also been found that resource guarders may also feel uncomfortable with being handled in certain ways or by different people. Finally and most importantly, if your dog or puppy resource guards it is vital that you do not use any form of punishment to fix them. Resource guarding is not a dominance issue but rather is due to the dog feeling insecure. Therefore we treat resource guarding by restoring confidence in the dog. Punishing an insecure dog may cause them to escalate their guarding behaviour next time either with you or an unsuspecting family member. Punishing can sometimes appear to have fixed the problem eg the dog no longer growls or shows its teeth when you approach because the last time he did that he was punished. In reality, the punishment has actually stopped the dog from showing the early warning signs. Next time someone approaches there may be no warning and the dog will launch straight into a bite. Additionally, you may reinforce the dog s fear and insecurity and destroy your relationship with them. For resource guarding, prevention is best. If a problem already exists, working with an experienced trainer to restore confidence using the food bowl exercises and teaching exchange/give will provide the best outcome for everyone.
5 Resources To find a qualified dog behavioural trainer in your area look up:- www.deltasociety.com.au www.apdt.com.au Dr Ian Dunbar s Before your get your puppy and After you get your puppy. May be downloaded for free from the Siberian Husky Club of NSW website. Alternatively buy a copy from Amazon or Kenneth and James publishers. Mine- A guide to Resource Guarding in Dogs by Jean Donaldson. Buy through Amazon, Dogwise or Wag School books. Videos of resource guarding http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qg-l-qnm0l8 Resource guarding of a food bowl. Notice that the dog escalates its aggressive display in response to the owner continuing to try to touch the dog or the bowl. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f2kdrvtvv_4 A shelter dog guarding food. This video shows the dog being handled without food present the dog is relaxed and happy to have his feet touched. Notice when food is first given the dog s tail is wagging in a relaxed way but once the hand approaches, the tail stops moving and is held low. The dog then freezes followed by growling and then when the threat (ie hand approach) continues, the dog quickly escalates into biting. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ywabonblod0 10 week old Mastiff puppy being assessed after it was surrendered to a shelter for resource guarding of its food bowl. About the Author Louise Ginman is a Delta accredited CGC Dog Behavioural trainer who runs a dog training business Positive Dogs in Sydney NSW. She has several qualifications including a Bachelor of Science Degree and Certificate IV in Companion Animal Services. She currently sits on the Education Committee of the Association of Pet Dog Trainers and is a regular contributor to their newsletter and the newsletters of local dog training clubs. Louise has over 20 years experience with both domestic and exotic species in both a training and husbandry/management capacity. Louise has worked as a veterinary nurse, dog and cat groomer and animal attendant before moving to Taronga Zoo in 1994 to work in the Carnivore Unit where she is the Unit Supervisor. Louise shares her home and life with Mekari, a male Siberian Husky who has taught her so much about behaviour and training. He is the light that keeps her striving to share her words and thoughts with others that also share their lives with dogs.