The dog that suffers resource protection is the one that "protects" through aggressionthe resources that he considers valuable. Food is perhaps the most frequently protected resource for dogs, but it's not the only one. Thus, there can be dogs with resource protection for food, places, people, toys and almost anything imaginable.
Resource guarding has always been used to create property guard dogs. In fact, territoriality, which causes a dog to act aggressively towards strangers, is a particular form of resource protection in which the dog protects a certain place. However, it is not a typical form of resource protection because the dog protects the territory only from strangers.
In this article on our site we will detail with you what is the possessive dog and protection of resourcesand how you should act to eliminate this behavior that can become very dangerous:
What is resource protection? How to identify a possessive dog?
In typical forms of this behavior, the resource guarding dog reacts to the proximity of both acquaintances and strangers.
If you have met a dog that does not allow anyone to approach its owner, then you have met a dog with protection of resources (in this case, the owner). Likewise if you can't get close to a dog when he is eating or has a toy in his mouth
This strategy is very common among dogs, and allows them to defend their possessions when other dogs try to take them away. When a dog has taken possession of a resource (food, toy, etc.), the others usually respect that situation even if the first one is smaller. However, if another dog tries to take away that resource or approaches it, the first one will react with growling or aggression That's resource protection.
Of course, there are cases where a larger dog can take a resource away from a smaller one, but such cases usually occur only when the availability of that resource is very limited and it is essential to survive.
Resource guarding in other species
Although better known in dogs, resource guarding is not unique to that species. On the contrary, it is a typical behavior of all social animals. Many years ago, when I was still in college, I was able to see this behavior while making an ethogram of a group of captive jaguars at the zoo.
That group (completely unnatural) consisted of 12 jaguars and they were all fed at the same time. When a piece of food had no owner, the jaguars would fight over it. But when a jaguar had got hold of a piece of food, no other jaguar tried to take it away (with rare exceptions). This had nothing to do with dominance or other similar interpretations, because even Cindy, the weaker and smaller jaguar, was respected when she had her food.
However, if one jaguar approached another with food, the latter would begin a series of aggressive displays. If the first one kept getting closer, an attack would usually occur.
While resource guarding is a natural behavior in dogs, it is also a dangerous behavior for humans and especially for dogs. kids. In fact, it is usually young children who discover that the house dog suffers from protection resources, because they do not evaluate situations well when they approach the dog.
To make matters worse, the dog that is guarding a resource can generalize that behavior to various resources. Thus, a dog that begins by protecting his food can go on to protect his toys, the chair, a particular person, and other valuable resources for him. In the end, you have an aggressive dog towards everyone who approaches anything.
Of course, the resource guard dog can also generalize his "victims" by attacking humans, other dogs and even objects. But can also discriminate, attacking only individuals of one species (for example, only humans), individuals of one sex (men or women, but not both), individuals with certain physical characteristics (for example, only men with beards), etc.
The good news is that it's relatively easy to prevent your pup from becoming a resource guard, and it's not that difficult to eliminate that behavior in most cases (although some cases are more complicated than others).
How to prevent resource guarding in puppies
If your dog is a puppy and still has not shown signs of developing resource protection, you can prevent the problem from appearing with the following tips:
Train him to drop items on command and to ignore things. Both exercises teach him self-control, which reduces impulsive reactions, and also teaches him that giving up resources (toys, food, etc.) can have very pleasant consequences (prizes, congratulations…)
Avoid protecting resources with toys
To avoid protecting resources with toys, the ideal is to work with the dog and teach him to drop objects. Collecting toys should be a fun activity where we offer the dog the toy on a regular basis, retrieve it, and offer it again.
The important thing in this case is that the dog does not have the feeling that we "take away"his precious toy but more good that we are sharing a fun activity with him. Nor should we try to remove the toy from the mouth. Visit our post and teach your dog to drop objects.
Avoid protecting resources with people
This part is undoubtedly the most important in resource protection. That our dog considers us (or another person) his resource is not at all positive since it can lead to serious aggressiveness problems. To do this, we will work hard on the socialization of the dog when it is a puppy.
As we have mentioned, animals, people and the environment participate in socialization. In this case it will be important to introduce him to people of all kinds (adults, children, adolescents…) and let them caress him, offer him prizes and treat him correctly.
If this process is carried out properly, our dog will not suffer protection of resources with people since He will understand that human beings are friendlyand good to him (and to you).
Avoid protecting resources with food
Avoiding this problem is relatively easy. To do this we will begin to offer bits of food directly from our hand to our puppy dog to reward him in training or in behaviors that we like about him.
Then we will begin to offer him food from our hand before putting his foodand we must make sure that he watches us when we empty the food in his bowl. This perception will help him understand that we are the ones who generously provide him with food. This will help you not protect this resource.
When we see that he totally trusts us, we can even bring our hand closer to the feeder when he is eating. Mainly if it is a puppy and has never shown any type of aggressive or possessive attitude before, no problem should arise. Never give him the special food if he shows any signs of aggression because in that case you will be reinforcing aggressive behavior.
If no problem occurs during the application of this program, you should continue prevention until your dog is an adult. For that, it will be enough for you to give him food from your hand occasionally, and for the rest of your family to do it. This usually happens during obedience training, since you will be using a lot of food during it, so no special program is necessary.
Don't forget that…
All the exercises that we have explained to you should be applied to puppies, never to dogs that already suffer resource protection. In this case, and mainly to avoid aggression, we must go to a professional.
What to do if my dog is possessive?
Generally, dogs that suffer resource protection warn before attacking by growling, a slight and constant sound that alerts us that Let's not continue with our intentions. If so, it will probably bite us.
In other more serious cases, dogs bite directly, it is then that we must work on bite inhibition, a complicated issue when the dog is an adult and should always be a qualified professional in behavior problems.
What to do when the dog growls at you?
When the dog growls at us it is alerting us of an imminent aggression. At this point dominance and other punishment-based training criteria become totally dangerous as they can provoke an unexpected reaction from the dog.
Furthermore, we should never scold the dog as this could lead him to think that attacking is preferable to "warning". A behavior that, within the bad, is good. Growling is part of the dog's natural communication.
The ideal is not to force the situation and be careful with the limits that the dog accepts and adapt to them. In these cases, especially if we do not have knowledge about dog training, it is necessary to go to a professional who will explain to us how to work with our dog, what are the guidelines that we must follow for our specific case and some exercises to deal with the possession of resources such as It can be teaching a dog to drop objects or practicing seeding to improve the habit of possession with food.
What to do if the dog bites us?
Once again we will repeat that it is not advisable to scold or punish the dog. We must avoid aggressive situations at all costs that, in addition to being very dangerous, stress the dog and seriously worsen the relationship with us. In such serious cases we must go to a professional immediately
