There’s a lot of supremely bad advice out there about resource guarding:
Never take resources from a dog—they’ll feel like they have to protect things!
You can resolve resource guarding by trading resources for a treat or high value food reward.
Resource guarding has nothing to do with your relationship or “leadership” with your dog.
I wish it was as simple as trading for a treat. While this might get you by with a dog who is only half-heartedly guarding a resource, this is NOT going to cut it for a dog who’s feeling strong urges to guard. It’s also not creating a safer dog, which is what we all want, right?
Balanced training and resource guarding
Balanced trainers like me have a very different approach to resource guarding. It takes into account the whole dog, not just this particular behavior. Specifically, our approach addresses your dog’s:
relationship with you and other members of your household,
individual personality and attitude,
their ideas about their role in the family, including who makes decisions and who has the “right” to claim resources,
boundaries in the home,
understanding of and adherence to the out command.
The end result of this comprehensive approach to resource guarding creates a safer dog, a better informed dog, a safer dog and an empowered owner.
The following slides give a more detailed explanation about our approach to resource guarding and the “out” command:
Do you need help with your resource guarding dog?
We specialize in family dogs and we often work with family dogs who are resource guarders—many of whom are otherwise the “perfect” dog! We’d love to help you, too.