Resource guarding

[Hollysdad]

This morning we gave Holly a ham bone. She immediately took it into the garden and started eating it, a bit faster than we'd have liked so we decided to take it off her.

She did a textbook example of resource guarding. One end was wagging but she had the bone firmly in her mouth and was quietly growling if we came too close. As R+ types we decided that the approach was to distract her with something even more attractive so OH went and got some treats spread with pate. She put one on the grass a few inches in front of Holly, who snatched it up and grabbed the bone again. The next one was in the same place, and Holly did the same.

OH then started putting them on the ground progressively further away, until Holly left the bone unguarded and I picked it up. She immediately got more treats from OH to distract her as I walked off with the bone.

Did we do the right thing?

 

[DuggansDad]

Resource guarding isn’t quite that simple. Yes you safely and effectively retrieved the bone but you still have a dog that wants to guard bones. I recommend a book called “Mine” by Jean Donaldson. It will inform you on what is happeneing and offers multiple step solutions to eleiminate resource guarding. In the mean time try to avoid this from happening ie let her finish with a bone and give space until she walked away from it or avoid giving bones. You don’t want to make this worse. The fear in their mind is that you are going to take the resource away so they need to protect it...which is what actually happened so you confirmed her biggest fear possibly making it worse.

 

[Hollysdad]

Holly is not a resource guarder by nature. This is only the second time she's done it in over five years so we weren't quite sure what to do.

I need to do more reading about this, so thanks for the recommendation.

 

[Selina27]

This an interesting one.
Cassie is very much the same, not at all "possessive" over things, but has once growled slightly at me when she had a bone. The next few times I gave her one I asked her to give it back to me a couple of times before returning it to her. She did this quite happily, and she hasn't done it again.

And then I think to my self, actually, I've given her the bone for her to enjoy, so just let her do that. Although I guess that, in principle, it's good to be able to remove stuff from them if it's liable to harm them.

I think I will get that book too, just for interest.

 

[Charlie]

I would give Holly the bone and leave her to get on with it. It's a treat. Imagine someone trying to take your glass of wine or meal! The only time I distract with treats is if I am trying to get some rotten animal part from Hattie. x

 

[UncleBob]

I would have done the same thing and then ... I would have given the bone back to her!

That may seem strange but my thinking is that this shows her that you are not competing for the bone - if she knows that there is no competition then she has no need to guard the bone. Rinse and repeat and gradually she will relinquish the bone more and more willingly.

 

[Oberon]

I would’ve done what you did, Hollysdad. Distract/compensate with something nicer and remove the bone. She won’t have any hard feelings about it and because you gave her a more attractive and higher value alternative you won’t have made the problem worse for next time. Going straight to a very desirable alternative like pate on toast was a very good move. Definitely something to bring out the big guns for!

Speaking for myself, I don’t give my dog large bones because they are really hard and create wear on teeth. Also, there’s a risk of breaking a tooth. Cooked bones (maybe like the ham bone?) are especially hard and go straight in the bin here. Obi only gets bones that can be crunched up and eaten entirely. That means no mammal leg bones, essentially. And it also means no resource guarding issues as there is nothing left to guard. He always gets left to eat in peace.

Occasionally Obi will come across and grab a bone on a walk. On these occasions we drop a large handful of treats on the ground which he will abandon most things for. Usually stuff we find on walks is pretty dry and old so it’s not really that desirable and you can make a better offer

 

[DuggansDad]

I think the give and take method is something you do with a pup to prevent resource guarding and prevent possession of items reducing their value like dead birds on the beach and your favourite bra to make it easy to take it off them. Once you get to a growling stage the situation becomes more complex. Kinda like an ounce of prevention is better than a pound of cure. Hopefully I’m wrong. I have a resource guarding dog and have spent months working with him. I am not a trainer or behaviourist, just a dog owner with a dog that growled once over a bone when someone walked passed in his adolescent years. He was trained from from day one using the give and take method to prevent possession as he had been training to hunt ducks. His guarding extended to peanut butter filled Kongs and his food bowl regardless. It all started with one growl over a bone. Just my experience so you know why I wrote what I did. Perhaps your situation won’t end this way. For us, it wasn’t a big deal except there is a lightning fast toddler in the mix so we had to work with him. Hope it’s nothing for you and the give take method recommended above works for you.

 

[Lisa]

When we first got Simba (at 8 months old) he was a terrible resource guarder, along with many other issues. I started with very slowly sensitizing him to having a hand come closer, starting very far away and C & T for no reaction, getting closer and closer until I could touch him while he was chewing on something. Surprisingly, this didn't take all that long to do. But I was and am still very cautious about actually taking something from him. For example...last night he got into the garbage (my fault, left it open). He dug out the bacon package that had been thrown away (no bacon in it, just the wax/plastic package the bacon was in. There was no way I would reach down and take it from him. Even though at this point I am fairly confident he would not try to bite me, I have worked very hard to teach him that I'm not the evil person who is going to take away his treat. I don't want to set him back to where he was when we first got him. So I tried raining kibble and crunches down around him but not much success. My big concern was that he was eating the package, I didn't want him to have that alll wadded up in his gut. So...finally he lunged for the kibble and I took what was left of the garbage. He has a pretty strong "leave it" command that works 99% of the time...except when he actually has something of really high value like a bone or this tasty garbage, no way will he leave it. I don't think he even hears the command at that point.

So, I dunno. I can put my hand in his bowl while he eats. I am pretty confident that he is over the worst of his guarding behaviour. But I'm still careful. I think the high-value treat swap is a great idea, but I didn't have time to get anything high value as he was gobbling the package as only Labradors can. Which is another interesting observation. He tends to get gobbling like that when he knows I want what he has. If i had left him alone he would probably just lick it clean and not try to eat it. But because I came upstairs and found him head down in the garbage, my "Simba!" reaction made him grab the item and race away and try to eat it. Ho hum. Mainly a fail all round on my part. It's tricky.

 

[Selina27]

. Imagine someone trying to take your glass of wine or meal!

Exactly. If I've just given her the bone why would I take it off her?

But at the sametime I can see that no one wants to store up trouble with resource guarding.

 

[Beanwood]

and your favourite bra to make it easy to take it off them.

Erm...is there something you'd like to share with us?

 

[Selina27]

Erm...is there something you'd like to share with us?

I didn't have the courage

 

[Charlie]

Exactly. If I've just given her the bone why would I take it off her?

But at the sametime I can see that no one wants to store up trouble with resource guarding.

I see what you mean Selina. I still would just give the bone and leave it at that, luckily I don't have any resource guarding with my two. Also I wouldn't give any bones that cannot be totally consumed due to possible damage to teeth, both painful and expensive. I do the same as @Oberon regarding giving up dead animals or bones, I throw a handful of treats away from me, Hattie will drop anything in favour of that. Charlie doesn't eat anything on a walk - good boy! x

 

[Selina27]

I still would just give the bone and leave it at that, l

Yes I do, she deserves the enjoyment.

And yes, have managed to do a deal over the occasional questionable find on a walk.

 

[Boogie]

I would have done the same thing and then ... I would have given the bone back to her!

That may seem strange but my thinking is that this shows her that you are not competing for the bone - if she knows that there is no competition then she has no need to guard the bone. Rinse and repeat and gradually she will relinquish the bone more and more willingly.

Good idea.

I tend to ‘swap’ for something even ‘nicer’ (like a stinky tripe stick, which I never give except when I need to take something ‘marvellous’ off them)

 

[MaccieD]

My advice is always if you give a dog a bone let them enjoy it in peace. If, and this certainly isn't recommended, if you need to remove the bone in an emergency use high value treats to entice away from the bone. I would ever on the side of caution and not give Holly a bone again as she has shown a tendency to resource guarding in- it's easier.

 

[Hollysdad]

That's pretty much how we see it too.

 

[DuggansDad]

Until you’ve seen the ugly side of full on resource guarding in your own animal I imagine its easy not to take it seriously. First time I was ever scared of a dog is by the one I have now. He’s also the best behaved and most well trained. ...