Help! How can I get my dog to stop resource guarding food and toys?
Welcome back to My Dog Dilemma: Country Living's weekly dog column in collaboration with the PDSA. Each week, a vet will answer your dog dilemmas, sharing tips, tricks, and advice to help you and other owners.
We know how a pet's irrational fear, unusual behaviour, bad habit or health condition can affect an owner's life – and My Dog Dilemma aims to answer all your burning questions.
Last time we heard from Rachel who asked for advice on moving house with her dog. Keep reading for our next dilemma, submitted by Emily.
The problem...
My name is Emily and I have Ozzie, a 7-year-old male Springer Spaniel Poodle Cross, who is not neutered. He has always resource guarded, mostly things he steals around the house (socks, small items).
This starts as a game, he looks for a reaction from us and then starts getting aggressive if we engage. Luckily for us, he doesn't usually destroy what he steals, and will never swallow anything, so we can usually ignore this behaviour and remove the item when he's bored of it.
If it's something valuable, we will swap what he's stolen with a treat of higher value and hide it away. But I'm worried that giving him treats for the items he's stolen is only encouraging the bad behaviour.
We try to keep things he likes to steal out of his reach but this isn't always possible (as we're only human!). But recently, we've noticed the resource guarding is getting worse. He's now begun guarding his bowl of food, which he's never done before so I've started hand-feeding his biscuits rather than putting a bowl down.
There are no other dogs or children in the house and he gets three walks a day. Telling him off only makes the behaviour worse – trust me, I've tried many times! Is there any way to train him out of this behaviour completely?
The solution...
Hi Emily, resource guarding usually stems from a dog's worry that something they consider 'precious' might be taken away from them, and by guarding this precious item, your dog thinks they are keeping it safe.
As Ozzie is trying to keep items safe, taking them away from him, or telling him off for guarding is likely to increase his anxiety about losing things, as you have experienced.
Whilst it is a natural behaviour for dogs, stemming from the need to keep things safe in the wild, it can develop into quite a severe issue impacting daily life. Although you don't currently have other pets or children in the house, situations change and you shouldn't have to live with this behaviour either, so this does need to be addressed.
We recommend speaking with your vet, who can put you in touch with a certified behaviourist who will be able to form a personalised plan of action for Ozzie, to help both you and him through this.
Springer Spaniels and Poodles are usually very active breeds, harbouring lots of energy, while also needing to use their minds as well. Although you already take Ozzie for three walks a day, it's important to include off-lead exercise and give him opportunities and time to have a good sniff. In between he may enjoy games to keep him mentally satisfied but be mindful of introducing toys, as Ozzie may begin to resource guard them as well.
There are things you can try to help Ozzie detach from items and prevent guarding. Try teaching Ozzie the 'leave it' command, with positive reinforcement, using a really high-value treat, so that the reward is of greater importance to him than the item he's trying to guard.
For learning how to leave it, only start training when Ozzie is relaxed, and not in a situation where he might feel he needs to show guarding behaviour. Start by holding a treat in your hand and tell Ozzie to "take". Then hold a treat in your closed fist and let him sniff and lick at your hand, but don't respond.
Once he backs off, even if just for a second, open your hand to give him the treat saying "take", with lots of praise. You'll need to repeat this many times over several short, regular training sessions. Once Ozzie is consistently moving away from the treat, add in the command "leave" as he starts to back off, then open your hand to give him the treat as you say "take".
Once Ozzie has mastered this step, progress to practicing both the "leave" and "take" commands with the treat in your open hand, and eventually on the floor. If he struggles at any stage, just go back a step.
The swap-out training that you have started is fine to do, as long as you are making sure that you only reward him when he is calm and not guarding. You aren't rewarding bad behaviour, so don't worry about that! You're teaching Ozzie that when he swaps something with you, that's a positive swap.
This probably won't work in Ozzie's case as he's already established resource guarding behaviours. We'd advise being very careful with Ozzie, as trying this following advice could end up making him more anxious and more likely to bite.
However, in other cases where dog owners are looking for some early help, they can try this when feeding your dog their main meal, keep some food back.
Wait until your dog has finished their food, and only if completely safe to do so, while monitoring their body language and ensuring your dog is not guarding – calmly approach and add another small handful of the food you've kept back into their bowl. Let your dog finish the added food completely, waiting for them to be calm and again ensuring they are not guarding, before approaching again and adding a little more.
Approaching and rewarding will show a dog that someone coming near to their food bowl is actually a positive thing. It is important to note though, if a dog is already strongly resource guarding, they may not want you to approach their food bowl even with extra food, and you must never put yourself at risk of getting bitten, so don't try this if your dog seems at all worried as you approach, as this won't work.
Every dog is different with their resource guarding and a certified behaviourist will be able to help Ozzie and any other dog get through this behaviour safely and in a controlled way.
Answered by PDSA Vet Nurse Nina Downing
If you would like to have your query answered, please email us at dogs@countryliving.co.uk and tell us a bit about you, your dog (with age and breed), and your problem. Please go into as much detail as possible.
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