How to untrain resource guarding?
Meta Purdy
2025-05-24 11:13:25
Count answers: 2
If your dog shows guarding behaviours, leave them well alone when they are enjoying food or playing with toys by themselves.
Being consistent and always swapping items will help dogs learn to share without being worried.
If you need to take something from your dog, swap it for something else that your dog considers to be equally or even more valuable.
You could drop several treats on the ground near your dog, so they have to leave the item to go and eat them.
Then you can calmly pick up the item while they’re enjoying themselves.
You can teach your dog to drop and swap during fun training sessions.
When your dog is playing with a toy, get something they like even better.
Offer this to your dog a little distance away from what they already have.
Your dog should be enticed to drop what they have and come to get the new item.
You can then pick up the original item.
Where you can during training sessions, return your dog’s first item to them soon after you have swapped it.
This will help them to learn that letting go of something they love can be a positive experience.
Once your dog has the hang of this, you can add a cue word ‘drop’.
Over time, your dog should associate the word ‘drop’ with letting go of their toy, and you can ask them to ‘drop’ what they have in exchange for a tasty treat.
Alexie Beahan
2025-05-24 10:13:09
Count answers: 2
Your best bet is to start training early to prevent resource guarding from developing. Of course, that’s not always possible, especially if you get an adult dog from a shelter or inherit one from a family member. You can work with dogs who resource guard their food, for example, by slowly desensitizing them to your presence around high-value items. Tether your dog to someplace heavy and durable. Stay 6 to 8 feet away from the dog and toss food, such as chicken or hot dogs, in the dog’s general direction. Walk by the dog and throw the food, but don’t stop moving. If the dog gives you warning signals like stiffening the body or a raised lip, you have wandered too close. Once you’ve done this a few times, watch to see if the dog’s body language has changed. If they look up at you in a happy way, anticipating food will be coming their way, then you may move a little closer. The end goal is for you to be able to approach the dog’s bowl without them feeling threatened or feeling stressed. It’s really important to avoid engaging in any type of punishment. No yelling at your dog, screaming at the dog, or hitting the dog to ‘exert dominance,' this may only serve to worsen the behavior.
Sophie Nienow
2025-05-24 09:20:06
Count answers: 2
Always provide sufficient and equitable resources. To avoid resource guarding between dogs, make sure you have enough toys, beds, treats and food to go around. Use positive reinforcement to encourage good behavior. Try dropping tasty treats into the bowl while your pup is eating—that way, they’ll associate a human walking up to their bowl with something good happening. Teach “give” and “leave it” cues by pairing the action (the dog giving something up) with a reward (a treat)—and always offer a trade if you need to take something away. Remove problem items. If your dog is possessive when it comes to a specific toy, just take it out of the house. Sequester dogs in different rooms during mealtimes to prevent food aggression. Consistently reward good behavior and never punish dogs for “bad” behavior. Work to build your dog’s confidence. Expose them to new situations, people and animals (safely, of course) and reward them when they do well.
Hope Balistreri
2025-05-24 09:03:45
Count answers: 5
A big part of stopping a dog from resource guarding is to help them learn that when humans approach when they have the object or place, that we are not going to take it. I think the dog’s resource guarding problem was greatly influenced, if not directly caused, by the guardian pulling and taking things away from the dog. This caused Loumi to “act aggressive” when he has an object and is worried his humans may want to take it away. In cases like this, literally the worst thing you can do is take the item away forcefully, but thats exactly what many people do when their dog guards things. I showed them a simple drop it exercise that I added into a simple game of fetch. By holding out a treat when Loumi returned with the toy, then marking and treating her after she dropped it, his guardians can develop a great drop it cue while they play / exercise thier dog. I strongly recommeneded they stop taking things away from him forcefully and instead teach him to drop things like this so his guardians can trade the item for something safe and appropriate for him to chew. When you have a dog with resource guarding, its important you recognize the dog is acting more instinctively when they act out. Since this happened many times for Loumi, his guardians will need to practice the drop it cue with low value item toys and completely stop forcfully taking things away from Loumi. I recommended the guardians get a couple of small plastic boxes so they can have leave these treat caches nearby to use my tip to stopping resource guarding when Loumi starts to guard the chair, bone or other objects.
Stefan Eichmann
2025-05-24 06:20:05
Count answers: 3
To start, you will need some treats.
The trick is to teach your dog that a person approaching is a positive thing.
As your dog is finishing a meal, approach close to where they are eating, drop some treats near to their food bowl and calmly move away.
Allow your dog to eat the treats and then return to finishing what is in their bowl.
Repeat this a couple of times over a few days, always moving away and allowing your dog to eat the treats.
Over time you may see that as you approach your dog, they look up as they anticipate a treat arriving.
If your dog is already showing some resource guarding behaviour, it is important to try and stop it from becoming any worse.
Make sure all family members and everyone who visits know never to approach or interrupt your dog if they are eating or have a chew.
If you do have to remove something from them, make sure it’s an exchange rather than just taking something away.
When you are trying to exchange items with your dog, put down some food or treats a good distance away so that your dog has to move.
Another helpful tip is to teach your dog the “leave it” cue.
This will allow you to ask your dog to leave whatever they are guarding in a safe and positive way.
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