Understanding Resource Guarding

As promised in my “But You Didn’t Fix Him!” post, I am back to elaborate more on resource guarding. Alongside separation anxiety, resource guarding is one of the most common problems reported by dog owners. Why is this? Because it is a 100% NATURAL behavior observed in all living species. Furthermore, warning signs are often ignored, and healthy communication is typically misinterpreted and punished by dog owners who don’t know any better. The result? A very stressed, very confused dog who has been conditioned to exhibit uninhibited aggression.

First, let’s start out by defining resource guarding as well as clearing up some myths. Resource guarding (often referred to as possessive aggression, which is an acceptable term), is the act of aggressively guarding a valued object in order to maintain control of said object. Not all resources are created equal. A dog may value his bed more than his toys, and therefore be more likely to guard that. However, according to veterinary behaviorist Lana Reisner, DVM, PhD, “food guarding is the most common stimulus for aggression.” This aggressive behavior can increase the more a dog learns that it works, and it also can increase as a consequence of fear, defensive behavior, and/or previous conflict.

Myth #1: Resource Guarding is a Dog Wanting to be the Alpha
Contrary to popular belief, a dog’s displays of aggression over resources are not about hierarchy (wanting to be the alpha dog), but rather about their “need” to maintain possession of a valued resource (situational dominance, which is fluid). That resource in itself provides an opportunity for confrontation if it is both limited and in demand among a population of dogs. The less likely another dog is to defer from the resource, the more likely the dog in question is to display acts of aggression. Because resource guarding can increase as a consequence of previous conflict, it only takes a handful of incidences where one dog doesn’t defer for a dog to feel the need to aggressively guard resources from all dogs. Because resource guarding can also increase as a dog learns what’s “acceptable,” if humans do not interpret and respond to signals correctly, aggressive responses can increase in severity very quickly (we’ll touch on this).

Myth #2: Resource Guarding can be Cured
If you are reading this in hopes of totally curing your dog of their belief that they need to guard valued objects, then unfortunately, I’m only here to disappoint. While training and management can most certainly improve things (quite drastically, I might add), an owner of a dog with resource guarding issues which have a history of escalating to aggression must accept a certain degree of risk throughout the dog’s entire life.

Think How Your Dog Thinks
To understand resource guarding, we must first understand what is running through your dog’s head. Think about it this way: you’re sitting down eating dinner when I come up and start poking around your food. Your first reaction is probably hesitation. Why am I doing this? You ask me to stop, but I don’t. Eventually, I come up and just start eating off your plate, all the while pushing you out of the way. Maybe you are an extremely patient individual (and I applaud you for that), though if you’re anything like me, you’d snap and tell me to feck off.

Now. Imagine using your words is unacceptable for some reason. Every time you ask me to stop, you are punished in some manner. You’re hungry, I am getting increasingly annoying, and you just want to enjoy your food in peace. No matter how patient of a person you are, eventually you are going to try to physically remove me by force. It’s nature. And you know what? It works. I walk away.

This whole story seems quite ridiculous, doesn’t it? That was your food. I had no business taking it. Why aren’t you allowed to talk? I’m glad you’re picking up on that. Your dog feels the same way.

Let’s turn this situation over. You give your dog a tasty chewie (or a new toy, a bowl of food, or anything else they value) and another dog comes up wanting a piece of it. Dogs often show fear based body postures at first such as tense muscles, hunched back, and hard stares. Remember, the worst thing you can do to a fearful dog is to confront them, as it simply escalates the problem at hand. So, if that other dog continues to approach, your dog’s first method of defense will be a growl. No judgment, but how many of you reading this have corrected your dog for doing so? After all, that was aggression, right? Nope. That was your dog politely asking the other dog to stop, just like you would. By punishing him, it only increases the likelihood of escalation. Now, some dogs respect growls and will walk away then and there, and your problem is solved. Others do not and will continue to pester. If you push a dog’s patience far enough, they have no choice but to push back eventually... no matter how tolerant or patient they may be. This is exactly how bites happen.

If you are unsuccessful in simply using body language and punished for using words as a means of defending your food, and the only way you’ve succeeded to remove them is by behaving aggressively, then the next time they come up and try to take your food, how are you most likely to react? You’d probably skip the tense body language, skip using your words, and jump straight to confidently punching them in the face. As this persists, you might even start behaving defensively when they start walking towards your food. Your dog does the same thing. This is called the reduction of critical distance, and it’s exactly is how severe resource guarding is born. A very natural emotion and corresponding behavior (wanting to eat your food in peace so you ask them to go away) has been unintentionally shaped into an aggressive response (wanting to eat your food in peace so you punch them when they try to come up to you while you’re eating).

Resource Guarding Do’s
If your dog has any high value, limited resource, let them be!  I’ve always recommended valued resources are delivered to the dog in a crate or similar “safe space” away from all other dogs or people. This helps minimize conflict before it even has the chance to start. It also helps reinforce the crate as a positive space. It’s a win-win situation!

Offer a trade when necessary. If a dog has an object that you absolutely need to remove from them, baiting them with an even higher value object and offering a trade is a safe option. Drop it and leave it cues (when properly trained with Force Free methods) aids in management as well. However, there should always be a reward for your dog deflecting from a valued resource.

When preparing food, request dogs either hold a down stay or keep them in separate rooms. Most fights I’ve witnessed have occurred shortly before mealtimes. I’ve had great success teaching dogs to “go to mat” while they wait for their food to be prepared. This gives their brain something to focus on, and it also keeps them away from the food and away from each other.

Counter conditioning. When done properly, counter conditioning is the best way to go about the treatment of resource guarding. This process involves pairing pavlovian conditioning with operant conditioning to not only change the behavioral response to a stimulus, but the overarching emotional response as well in order to shape an appropriate voluntary reaction. Because there is a huge risk working with any form of aggression in dogs, this should ALWAYS be done under the careful instruction and oversight of a qualified behaviorist. The dog should be kept under controlled exposure with a strong avoidance regimen so as not to instill unhealthy reactions outside of regular training session. When training, having eyes on subtle body posture changes is necessary to prevent the dog from going over threshold and setting himself back in training.

Resource Guarding Don’t’s
Playing with your puppy/dog’s food bowl. Many people believe that if they play with their puppy’s food dish when they are young, that it will somehow prevent resource guarding. This couldn’t be farther from the truth! All it will do is create hypervigilance. Dr. John J. Ciribassi DVM, DACVB, explains in one of his seminars that if you give a dog a reason to be hypervigilant about food, they will be. Therefore, dogs who had their food played with by their owners as puppies actually have an INCREASED chance of developing resource guarding issues in the future. On the flip side, if a dog learns that it can eat without being bothered, he will be less likely to be on guard and will not feel as if he needs to defend his resources.

Allow limited, high-value resources to be left out in a multi-dog household. Avoiding known triggers always is a necessity. If your dog has a history of aggressively guarding food, don’t leave food out. Sounds simple, but it’s a concept that most owners don’t understand for some reason. Meals should be fed in isolation (a safe space), and they should be small enough that the dog can comfortably finish all of the food in one sitting. There should be nothing he could come back to later, which would result in his “need” to guard it. Likewise, chewies should never be left just scattered on the floor. Any leftover traces of chewies should be removed before dogs are allowed to interact in that space again.

Confronting a dog with a valued resource. With a dog with a known history of aggressive responses, you should avoid confrontation as much as possible. Always let dogs have chewies and other valued resources until they are done with them, and then go in and remove them. Never let another dog confront your own dog over valued resources.

Punish healthy communication. If your dog has a valued resource outside of a safe space and another dog comes up and tries to take it from them, instead of punishing any sort of tense body posture or growl, redirect the other dog and reward them for leaving your dog alone. Finally, reassure your dog they did nothing wrong, and enthusiastically move them to their safe space if they aren’t there already.

When to Call a Behaviorist
I’ve mentioned before that resource guarding is a natural, normal behavior, right? With that said though, it’s still not something many dog owners enjoy. You’re probably wondering when exactly things go from “This is fine. Everything is fine!” to “Houston, we have a problem here.”

In a household where proper management is in place, I have very little tolerance for Dog-Human aggression. However, minor resource guarding among dogs is something I don’t take too harshly. Here’s my personal checklist for when Dog-Dog resource guarding becomes a problem. If you notice any of the following, then I recommend finding professional help immediately.

1. Fights are frequent (i.e., occurring more than 3 times per week)
2. Resulting fights are not clean (i.e., multiple puncture wounds and lacerations)
3. The critical distance has been reduced significantly (i.e., your dog loses his mind when another dog simply walks in the room he is in, or the room a resource is in)