Dog resource guarding getting out of hand

[Pollyannalola]

I am at my wits end. My 8 year old cavalier king Charles spaniel is becoming increasingly prone to resource guarding and being quite aggressive while doing it.

She has a beautiful soft nature most of the time, but has always resource guarded very high value items like chew bones, we had to stop giving then to her. But recently she's started to do it with her food, little dog biscuits, lots of things. And she really snaps and snarls if you approach her.

She had a recent check up at the vets and no issues were found. I feel she gets stimulation from the guarding, I just don't know why she's started doing it so often or how to break the cycle. We have tried ignoring her and positive reinforcement but it doesn't seem to be helping.

She really snapped at me yesterday and I am so upset. One other thing I should mention is she doesn't seem to be sleeping very well, I will get up really early sometimes and she is laid in bed seemingly wide awake. She does nap a lot during the day though.

Any ideas or experience of this? Thanks

Firstly, just leave her alone with her food. If you go up to her while she’s eating you’ll make it worse. There is some really outdated advice that you should take things off them please don’t do this you will make things worse.
Most cavs are lovely even tempered things and a lot of behavioural issues are caused by pain. Have you looked into syringomyelia or Chairi-like malformation or MVD?

I don't actually approach her when she is eating, I leave her alone.

I can put the food down and she will just sit by it guarding it and if I even get up and walk in her direction she snarls and snaps. She is 8 years old and obviously hasn't always done this.

She is a lovely even tempered dog 90% of the time, loves her cuddles etc the only issue is this resource guarding that had really escalated.

I'm going to take her back to the vets this week I think.

Is there somewhere quiet she can eat where you won’t need to walk past her while she is? But yes vets are a good idea, they are sadly very prone to some really painful neurological conditions

Has she been spayed? Could it be a false pregnancy?

Have you tried hand feeding? My rescue lab has growled a few times when I go near him when he's eating (which I don't do much on the view that it is his food). He doesn't do it much, but I don't want it developing into anything else so periodically I hold his food bowl in my hand while he eats. That seems to do the trick.

You really need professional help for this as it would be dangerous for you if any of us gave you ideas for things to try .

Please don't take advice from anyone other than a clinical behaviourist or you risk making the issue worse. Your vet should be able the refer you but make sure they are IMDT or ABTC qualified.