Guapisimo

Your precious angel just growled at you for the first time. He snagged a sock from your laundry pile and dashed under the bed. You reached under to get it and he growled. You reached again, and he snapped at you! He didn’t bite, but it’s clear he thinks the sock is a prize worth holding onto. Your dog is resource guarding.

Some dogs guard their food bowls. Some guard bones or toys. Some even guard crazy things, like rocks. On occasion, they will guard a person. Some dogs only get cranky with other dogs.

Resource guarding in dogs is not uncommon. This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t address it. Left alone, it could get worse. Here are some common myths about resource guarding:

“It’s funny.” People post videos on social media all the time with their dogs growling over everything from bones to beer bottles. They think it’s a hoot. It’s not. The dogs are clearly upset, and it’s only a matter of time before they bite someone. Then who will get the blame? Not the person posting the video, but the dog.

“My dog would never bite.” Any dog is capable of biting. When a dog growls over an object, he’s telling you to back off. He’s concerned that you will take his prize away. A growl is a warning. If you don’t listen to the warning, your dog may feel he needs to be clearer, and snap or bite. This doesn’t mean you should punish your dog for growling. If you do, you’re just treating the symptom, not the problem. The problem is that your dog has an object and doesn’t want you to take it from him. If you punish him for growling, he still wants the object. So he may skip the growl and go straight to biting you.

Growling is an obvious sign your dog has an issue. There are other signs a problem is brewing that are more subtle. If you approach your dog while he’s eating out of his bowl and he deliberately lowers his head, trying to cover the entire bowl, this is guarding. If he eats faster when you approach, trying to get all the food down his hatch before you take it from him, this is guarding. If you see these signs, it’s time to train your dog.

What Not To Do

Do not stick your hands in your dog’s food while he’s eating. This would annoy anyone and can increase the chances your dog becomes food possessive. Do not pet him while he’s eating. This is also annoying. Don’t take his food away repeatedly during his meal. Your goal is not to annoy him, but to teach him that your approach is something he should look forward to.

Teach Your Dog You Bring the Good Stuff

If your dog guards his food bowl, start with an empty bowl. Put a handful of his food in the bowl and move away a few steps. When he’s done eating, approach and put another handful of food in the bowl, then move away. Repeat for the entire meal and subsequent meals for at least two weeks. Your dog should start looking forward to you approaching his bowl.

If your dog guards an object, put it away for now. Start with an object he doesn’t guard. For example, put the coveted sock away and take out a tennis ball. Get treats. Offer your dog the tennis ball. Encourage him to bring it to you, and when he does, give him a treat in exchange. When he is good at this game, try another object that he is not likely to guard. When he has a dozen objects under his collar, then try the sock again. Be sure your treat also has a higher value. Continue to practice with the sock and other objects until your dog successfully brings you a variety of objects, rather than running away from you with them.

If your dog only guards from other dogs, there are a couple things you can do. You can manage the issue. If they argue over their meals, you can feed them in separate rooms or in their crates. If they argue over specific toys, don’t let them have access to them. If you want to fix the problem, then you need to teach your dog that the presence of other dogs is a good thing. Cue your dogs to sit, with enough distance from each other so your guarding dog doesn’t get upset. Give the other dog a treat, then give your guarding dog a treat. Repeat. Gradually work the dogs closer together. Only progress as far as your dogs are comfortable. You’re teaching your dog that he gets good things when the other dog is near.

If you asked me to name the single most important thing you can do for your dog, it would be this.

Keep your dog feeling safe.

This is not to be confused with your dog being safe, or whether or not you think your dog is safe. This is about keeping your dog *feeling* safe. Which means identifying what your dog finds stressful or scary by learning how to observe and read their body language to recognize when, where, and under what circumstances they feel uncomfortable, and doing whatever you can to avoid those situations.

This can mean that your dog never visits another dog park.

This can mean that even though it’s a beautiful Sunday and you’d love to have brunch on a patio of your favorite restaurant with your dog, your dog stays home.

This can mean that you politely (or not) decline requests to pet your dog.

This can mean that when children come over your house, your dog is in another room with a yummy Kong.

This can mean that you walk your dog during quiet times of the day.

This can mean that you drive your dog to walk them in a different area.

Whatever it means for you and your dog, keep your dog feeling safe.

You are your dog’s best and only advocate. You are what stands between them and the rest of the world, a world where dogs are set up to fail every day with often heartbreaking consequences. This doesn’t mean that we don’t also actively and *humanely* work to help our dogs feel more comfortable and confident in this world, but it does mean that until they do, WE HAVE TO KEEP THEM FEELING SAFE.

Our dogs are relying on us, it’s our job to have their backs.

✔ they are excited

✔ they are faster than you

✔ they have far stronger senses than you and the world is super stimulating

They are NOT being:

❌ stubborn

❌ malicious

❌ “dominating”

Things you can do to enforce leash etiquette:

✔ utilise treats and life rewards

✔ tire your dog out prior to their walk by playing tug, fetch, etc.

✔ utilise mini-commands (sit at road, “this way”, etc)

✔ freeze or U-turn when your dog pulls

Rather than:

❌ choke chains/prong collars

❌ yelling/shouting

❌ yanking the leash

❌ “dragging” the dog (collar grabs, pushing down their butt to sit, pinning them between your legs, etc.)

If you hold a small animal, any animal, and it starts to wiggle or push away from you put it down. Don’t just laugh. Don’t hold it tighter. Unless you have a good reason for holding it put it down.

I constantly have to tell children to put my chihuahua down and leave her alone when she wiggles. That’s okay. Children are stupid and don’t know anything about anything yet. We’ve all been there.

Adults have no excuse.

When you see a chihuahua like this you should not be thinking “demon dog” you should be looking at the owner and thinking “What did you do to this poor animal?” or alternatively if they got it from another person “What did that person do to this poor animals?” If a dog gets like this, any dog, the owner fucked up, not the dog. That is learned behavior. Those are extremely scared, uncomfortable dogs who have been mistreated. And by that I don’t mean beaten.

When people say “Treat a small dog like a big dog” that doesn’t just mean train and socialize it. It also means “Don’t do anything that would make a bigger dog bite your face off”.

Respect it’s signals. Let it know that it’s okay for people to hold and pet it by leaving it alone when it says “No more”. This can include wiggling, walking away from you, not responding when you touch it and looking at you in a way that shows the white in it’s eyes. It’s not hard to decode.

Only if you ignore signals like this will it start to show teeth and growl, and you have no right to get upset if it bites you after this. That’s on you. And eventually biting will be it’s first response because it has learned that the more subtle signals doesn’t work.

If it’s not your dog let it instigate contact with you. If it’s your dog respect it and you’ll find that it becomes much more tolerate of you and others handling it. Yes, if you try to clip its nails or something else it doesn’t want to do it might scream bloody murder, but it won’t bite because it knows this only happens sometimes and it’ll be over soon.

People have gotten so used to this idea that dogs have to be robots who should put up with everything we do to them and that’s really fucked up. They’re allowed to tell you no if there’s no reason for you to do it. It shouldn’t be forced to be held by you just because you want to hold it.

Hold it against its will to get vaccinated/groomed/other important things? Yes. Hold it against its will because you want to pet it? Big no. And of course teaching them tricks and commands are a must, but that’s not forcing them to do things. That’s teaching them that if they do the thing something good happens.

Of course animals are different. If people (me included) offer my shih tzu some food he will often show his teeth and it’s totally understandable that people get scared, but he’s not doing it to show aggression, he’s doing it because he doesn’t like to get food on his lips. How are people supposed to know that? I sure as hell didn’t the first time he did it, and it’s the right reaction for people to pull their hand back. Then I, the owner, can tell them not to worry, he’s just weird about food on his face.

And some dogs are more standoffish and take longer to warm up to people, and some trust you right away.

My point being, just assume every dog in the world show the same signals until the owner tells you otherwise.

I’ve said before that my chihuahua doesn’t like small children and avoids them at all costs because they do all the things I just told you not to do. She loves older children and adults though, and loves to be held even by complete strangers and is quick to roll up and snooze in the lap of any guest even if she has never met them before (trust me, no matter who you are, if you came to my home she would be sitting in your lap right now wagging her little tail wanting nothing but love from you), which is also why I panic when adults doesn’t respect her signals and try to force her to stay with them because Aw she’s so tiny and cute.