Resource Guarding

[Stellarbella]

I have a lovely goldie pup who is now 5 months old. He is really starting to grow into a great family pet, has taken really well to training and is pretty much bomb proof around dogs and children etc.

However, I have noticed that he is developing a resource guarding issue. I first noticed it when the cat got near his bone, and he snapped at her. The cat couldn’t have cared less.

His dog walker told me yesterday that he ‘went for’ another puppy when they were both being fed together. Not sure whether that means snapping or just growling.

He has never so much as raised an eyebrow when I’ve taken his food away from him.

I’m 15 weeks pg, and I really want to nip this behaviour in the bud before introducing a baby into the family.

Does anyone have any advice?

I’m on Goldie number 4 and this one is the 1st one who had resource guarding issues but I understand it’s not unusual.
What we did was to identify things that seems especially valuable to him ( filled chews/bones) and avoid those. We also never took anything from him, we swapped for a treat and as he seemed especially worried about DS taking his things we encouraged DS to bond more closely with our dog. We would also encourage him to bring things to us and we would reassure him and “share”it with him. He now likes chewing a bone while sitting on your foot.
I think don’t think warning off a cat or another puppy is a big deal, it’s natural as long as it is just a warning not an attack.
Ddog is 2 now and it’s no longer an issue
Goldies are the best!

Agree with @Hoppinggreen about value of stuff.

We have a dog that does this. She would bite if you take away her food (rescue with issues) but it's never a problem when offered (and given) something of higher value.

If someone comes along talking about pack leadership and dominance please ignore!

If he is OK with humans around food then the fact that he is telling the cat/other puppy to keep their distance is not necessarily an issue.

Okay, that’s good advice, thanks all. I can’t imagine him ever actually attacking another animal, he’s really a great, chilled out dog normally, it’s just around food that he becomes more difficult.

My poodle will tell the cat to f**k off if he comes near his food (growling) needless to cat looks totally unmoved but never growls at us. I suspect he might do the same thing with anther dog although I walk with friend and her dog and he shares/waits for treats quite happily.

Also are you teaching him a leave it/off command? It's a very useful command and one of the first things worth teaching especially if you will be rewarding him with treats.

We had a resource guarding issue with our poodle when he was about 7-8 months, not with food or his toys but with stuff he wasn't supposed to have eg socks, post, dd's stuffed toys etc. He would really try to go for us if we attempted to take anything like this away from him and we got a behaviourist in to help, as we weren't sure how to deal with it (it was more extreme than your situation sounds). She got us doing lots of swapping games with him, offering something of higher value and also giving him a toy/ball/tuggy etc and then holding a treat above his nose with a 'give' command, to get him used to parting with things and being rewarded for doing so. A few weeks of that made a big difference.
He will still make off with things but at nearly two now, we can offer a treat and remove the illicit item from under his nose without a problem! He also has a favourite very stinky fish skin chew and he only gets these for leaving something when asked - you can pretty much guarantee that whatever he's got, a shout of 'Fudge, do you want a fish?' will bring him dashing to the kitchen

Yes, we can pretty much guarantee Ddog will drop anything if you say the word “cheese” and head for the fridge!

Haha! Yes, my boy’s the same if you say ‘what’s this’ and go to the treat cupboard. But he’s not brilliant at the ‘leave it’ command so we will work on that.

If someone comes along talking about pack leadership and dominance please ignore

Wish we could just get this as a sticky for the doghouse board