It’s normal for dogs to guard the resources that matter to them. But if your dog shows warning signs like excessive barking, growling, or snapping, it’s time to step up your training game. Focus on basic obedience, recall, the “quiet” command, and reducing anxiety. Basic obedience lays the groundwork for troubleshooting problem behaviour, and basic commands can be incredibly useful in a tense situation. Recall, or coming when called, is among the most important things you can teach your dog, and for a territorial dog, it’s a key command to keep her out of trouble. If your dog tends to bark when she senses a threat to her territory, teach her a command that means “be quiet.” Training can go a long way, but while you’re still working on the basics, it’s up to you to reduce potential triggers. Desensitise After you’ve spent some time working on the other training steps listed above, you can gradually introduce desensitisation and counter-conditioning to change your dog’s reactions to triggers.