Animal Welfare Professionals

My family has had several fosters with varying levels of resource guarding, and they've all been really different. We've had two fosters that came to us after being returned for resource guarding in the home. Both guarded a few things for less than a week and then, for the most part, stopped. We had another who didn't resource guard in the beginning, but started to do it about a month after we had him. With the 2 returned dogs, it seemed like environment and the comfort level of the handlers played a big part in their guarding. I'm curious to hear others' experience with resource guarding.

We try to identify what is being guarded to target how to respond and intervene with the behavior.  Interventions will vary if its guarding from people or from other animals too.  If the dog is guarding any food product from other dogs, all food it put away and not accessible. At meal times (or special treats like bones or kongs), the dog is kenneled while they have the food.   If the dog guards food from humans, meals are again while kenneled - bowl is picked up only when the dog goes out afterwards to potty.  No long lasting chews are ever recommended for a human, food guarder.   Training with treats is always separate time away from other pets.

If the dog guards toys, no toys are freely available. Like training time, play time is separate from other dogs.  Any sign of guarding of toys from humans immediately stops the interaction.  We also recommend training leave it, drop it, or trade it with ALL dogs (regardless if they are a guarder).

The above are the two most common we have seen.  On a rare occasion, we have had some extreme cases of guarding people, furniture, or more generalized (which is a HUGE red flag).  Usually, we get an official trainer out to assess and recommend possible interventions.