[Dailydrool] Resource guarding

[Pam McQuade]

Our Belvedere came to us, probably in part because we had no kids or 
grandkids or any other kind of kids. He was fairly food aggressive. Over the 
years, we've been able to deal with it. He's not perfect, but we rarely have 
a problem, and then it's because a dog who is lower in the pack order gets 
near his food.

You can do a couple of things to change this behavior. First, start feeding 
your dog by hand at every meal. Nothing he eats does not first pass through 
your hand. That way the dog begins to get the idea that good things come 
from people fiddling with the bowl.

But the thing that has really helped Bel was establishing the trade system. 
If he has something that I want (a bowl, toy, or whatever), I drop a really 
tasty treat some distance away, and while he goes to get it, I grab the item 
in question. Now, you have to be careful with this. You have to drop the 
treat far enough away that you can safely grab the item. And this system 
will not work if the hound has a to-die-for item, like a pig's ear. The 
trade item MUST be something better than whatever he already has. Some dogs 
do very nicely with this trick--others will not go for it at all. We had a 
VERY food aggressive foster who wasn't taken in by it at all. Our Jane, who 
fortunately is not at all food aggressive, also will not do a trade when she 
has socks in her mouth. I guess nothing is better than socks.

In a case where you have vomit or whatever, I would try to get the dog to go 
into another room, so you have time to clean it up. Close the doors or 
otherwise block the dog in that room while you do the cleanup.

You may also find that your dog guards you (his favorite resource), 
especially if you have another dog around. Bel does this--he will sometimes 
get snippy with another dog that tries to get my attention. I call this his 
"mine, mine, mine" attitude--he thinks he owns me. If that happens, you 
simply get up and walk away, breaking off his attention.

Bel has never bitten anyone, though he's snapped many times. It's a matter 
of the human controlling the situation.When he is around children, I keep a 
very close eys on him.

Since I don't have kids, it's hard for me to comment on that situation. But 
at the very least, I think you need to be able to train the child not to try 
to take anything the dog is guarding. Unless there are other indications 
that there is further trouble, I don't think you have to worry about an 
unprovoked attack. Neither of the dogs I've dealt with transferred the 
aggression to anything else. It's not as if you have a time bomb waiting to 
go off and ravage your child.

I say all this out of our experience, but I would also be sure to take the 
behaviorist's advice. After all, I am not trained in these things--though I 
think if I were younger and/or in better health, I might do a career change 
and get into dog training or behavior. I would especially talk to the 
behaviorist about dealing with a child in this situation. You will want to 
make sure the dog sees the child as being higher in the pack order than he 
is.
Pam, food slave to the Dashing Bassets