Whether it's guarding food, toys - or even you - dogs growling when they have something they want to protect is a major concern for owners. Here's how to make sure this behaviour doesn't set in
Puppies love to put things in their mouth but how do you get them to happily give them back to you?
Dogs will often guard things that they value (known as resources). This might be food, toys, found objects, their bed, their space on the sofa or even their humans. They usually guard these things because they don’t want to lose them and often, past experience has taught them that humans might take these things away. This usually stems from puppyhood. Pups seem to spend half their lives picking things up to explore them and new owners seem to spend half their time trying to get things back.
The scenario usually goes something like this - puppy picks up something they think is interesting or fun. Human however, thinks the object is valuable or potentially harmful. Human panics, rushes over, grabs pup and prises object out of mouth. Repeat this a few times and the puppy learns that if they’ve got something interesting in their mouth, the one thing they should definitely not do is let anyone come near them. This experience can be the foundation for resource guarding.
So one of the (many) important things you should be doing with every puppy is the ‘Human Hands Coming Towards Me is Good’ programme. This will build trust that when someone approaches, regardless of whether your dog has something precious, only good things happen.
IMPORTANT If your dog already has resource guarding issues (eg growls or snarls if you approach when they have something good), it is essential for your safety that you talk to a behaviourist first and get your dog checked by your vet, because guarding can be related to pain, territory, fear or other issues that need professional diagnosis. Our behaviourists offer in person or online training sessions to look at your dog in a holistic way and create a programme to help you resolve this.
But for puppies, this game is great to help prevent resource guarding setting in when they are older. For ease of explanation, the instructions below assume you will start with your dog’s food bowl at meal times. If your puppy strongly guards their food, start with something that is less precious to them, for instance an old toy or ball, or even their bed when they are lying on it. Then later you can start again with the food bowl.
Stage 1: Armed with really excellent, small pieces of food (ham, cheese, chicken, hotdog), walk towards the bowl and, so your dog can see you but not so close your hand might be seen as about to take food away, drop or gently lob the excellent food into their bowl and walk away. You may be able to repeat this 3-4 times at most but not all mealtimes. Work on this and this only until…
Stage 2: Every single time you approach, you see your dog lifts their head in anticipation of something good arriving in the bowl. At this stage, you can place one hand lightly on the side of the bowl while you add excellent food into the bowl. Walk away. Repeat 3-4 times at most but not all mealtimes if you can until…
Stage 3: Your dog is very happy with the touch and drop food into the bowl. Their tail may be waving as you approach, even wagging, their head comes up and they are looking at you expectantly. At this stage, you can slightly lift the bowl while you add excellent food (tip the bowl so they can see you doing this). Replace the bowl and walk off. Do this once or twice if you can at most but not all mealtimes until…
Stage 4: Your dog is happy at your approach. They might even slightly back away from the bowl, anticipating you are going to lift it, and looking forward to what that brings. Now you can gently pick up the bowl, stand up, add a fair amount of excellent food (tipping the bowl so they can see you are going this). Replace bowl and walk off. Do only once during most mealtimes.
The way to do this when your puppy has an object they are enjoying but not guarding is the same but with an additional stage. In stage 1 you approach, drop food next to the puppy while they have the toy/bone/slipper and move on. When you get to stage 2 – he is looking happily up to you as you approach, place you hand NEAR the object as you place food on the ground. This is to ensure he doesn’t start to show guarding behaviours (tension, head turned towards object, eyes on you) when your hand gets close to the object. Continue to do this until your dog is really relaxed then move to stage 3 – approach, your pup’s head comes up happily in anticipation, you touch object, THEN put food on the ground for him. That order is important – you touching the object should predict that excellent food is about to appear. Stage 4 is approach, lift object slightly, place food on ground, replace object, move away. Stage 5 is approach, lift object, place behind back, give excellent food, replace object, move away. Objects take longer – pups don’t have them as regularly as meals and your pup can start to guard things without warning. If he does, stop the exercise.
THE MOST IMPORTANT THING ABOUT THIS EXERCISE IS THAT YOU REPEAT EACH STAGE UNTIL YOU AND YOUR PUPPY ARE 100% CONFIDENT IN COMPLETE RELAXATION AND TRUST AT EACH STAGE. RUSHING THROUGH STAGES CAN BE DANGEROUS. You’re not looking for just tolerating/coping, you are looking for ‘very happy for you to have this’
In tandem, teach your pup a great ‘give/drop’ cue in the correct way. We work on this in our Perfect Puppy Foundations class, Shape ‘Em Up and Working Dog, so check out those courses or get in touch for a 1-2-1 session
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