How to make sure resource guarding doesn’t happen?

Thedarksideofthemoon30 · 2021-03-09T16:50:27+00:00

We are bringing a golden retriever home in the summer and we want to make sure that we hve no issues with resource guarding. How would we go about this?

FishWithoutABike · 09/03/2021 16:56

Hand feed some of their food or put small bits in their bowl at a time so that hands near food becomes a good thing.

LaurieSchafferIsAllBitterNow · 09/03/2021 17:02

When pups are small we fiddle with their bowls and put more food in, hands/people near bowls mean MORE not danger

For toys, if training we exchange, if playing they always end up with the toy, the only exception is if something is suddenly dangerous, but then they'd get a treat, I took a broken toy from our new GSD the other day and we went straight to the kitchen with him to get some chicken. I did do a "leave" and "show me" first though...no snatching, it's not nice manners! :o

Lots of GSDs, Labs and Lab/Grets through the house and never had any bother with guarding.

Forestdweller11 · 09/03/2021 17:04

Ill give out my favourite Facebook group - dog training advice and support. They have documents which will give you a plan for a new dog, resource guarding etc.

It's not a given that resources guarding will be an issue. We've had four dogs and resource guarding has not been an issue with any of them.

The basics are don't give the dog the chance to resource guard - but it's very easy to get things wrong - snatching the item from the dog, swops not been high value enough, dog believing that they are being rewarded for the guarding etc etc. There's a need to be eagle eyes about items that might be guarded, don't interfere with the dog when it's eating/knarling a bone etc . Don't let the dog have anything that you are going to want to take away before it's finished. Read the dogs body language.

PollyRoulson · 09/03/2021 17:43

The advice about going to a dogs bowl to put in more food is ok BUT it depends a lot on the dog.

A dog with no resource guarding issues will obviously let you do this no problem. You will think that your training has made them not have resource guarding issues tbh they probably would not have had them anyway

Let dogs be when they eat , lets dog be when they have a bone, give them space if you have more than one dog or children.

IF they guard any item remove it when they are distracted or not around and do not let them have the item again.

It is always a good thing to teach a toy swap for many reasons. So have a pile of toys and play with one with your dog, then you drop that toy and move to another from the pile and play with that toy. Your dog will probably want to play with the original toy but really work hard to get them onto the toy you have.

There are loads of positives on doing this one is that you are more important than the toy to have fun and it helps with toy swapping or removing items the dog may get by mistake.

A chilled dog does not need to be guardy. A chilled dog is an non threatened dog so work on having a chilled dog rather than mess around with their food bowl

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tobee · 09/03/2021 18:56

@Forestdweller11

Ill give out my favourite Facebook group - dog training advice and support. They have documents which will give you a plan for a new dog, resource guarding etc.

It's not a given that resources guarding will be an issue. We've had four dogs and resource guarding has not been an issue with any of them.

The basics are don't give the dog the chance to resource guard - but it's very easy to get things wrong - snatching the item from the dog, swops not been high value enough, dog believing that they are being rewarded for the guarding etc etc. There's a need to be eagle eyes about items that might be guarded, don't interfere with the dog when it's eating/knarling a bone etc . Don't let the dog have anything that you are going to want to take away before it's finished. Read the dogs body language.

Agree DTAS Facebook group is great for this!

Juanbablo · 12/03/2021 19:54

We were taught to put some food in the bowl, take soMe out, lift up the bowl etc to get the dog used to us handling his food. I think some dogs are more prone to it than others. We've been lucky with ours that he doesn't seem to care if we take a chew or toy. Generally we exchange toys for toys and taught "drop" and if he does get hold of something he shouldn't have we ask him to drop and give him a treat.