Resource Guarding in Multiple Dog Households
In any multiple dog household, odds are there is a crew member who resource guards in some way. Whether the guarding is minor or major, it can be a problem. To resolve this, establishing yourself in the role of benevolent leader is more important than anything else. A leader creates boundaries for behavior that should be respected. Establishing a pattern of these boundaries will help your crew know what is and isn’t appropriate.
If one of your crew members guards to such an extent that you fear for your own or your family’s safety, you should get in home professional assistance ASAP. The same goes if any of your crew is guarding something from another crew member to such an extent that the offending dog attacks the other predictably at certain triggers. But if the guarding starts with a growl, you can likely work on this yourself. In all cases, the training methods used should be based on positive reinforcement only—force-based training techniques will only exacerbate the issue.
The first step in this process is to teach your crew that all good things come from you and you can just as easily take them away. Always deliver any high value items directly to your dog’s personally. Never permit one dog to take another dog’s high value item away. Retrieve the item (using the “leave it” cue below) and return it to the dog who it was taken from. Make this action evident to all involved. It is important that your dogs understand that you make the decisions about who gets what.
Having an abundance of things available for your dogs, such as toys, dog beds and other items, typically reduces guarding behavior. Reward your dogs when you notice that they are sharing nicely.
An important thing to work on with all of your crew members is a strong “Leave It” cue. You will need to work on this with each dog individually at first, adding a dog or two as appropriate. Be sure to practice this cue with many different items and in several different areas of your house. Reward lavishly for compliance. The value of the reward should always be higher than the item you’re asking your dog to leave.
Another option for managing guarding of only certain items is to simply tether or crate the dogs in question when the high value item of choice is in use. If you only have battles over bully sticks, then just make that brief separation a part of the bully stick experience. However, if you have guarding of multiple items, it is in everyone’s best interests if you work on minimizing the guarding.
“Time outs” can be invaluable in assisting with modifying guarding behavior. Implementing a time out properly is imperative. The timing of the time out is everything. Time outs are meant to be negative only in the fact that there is a removal of attention. The cue word or phrase that is chosen for the time out should be said in a happy tone. Time Outs should not exceed two minutes typically, but there are exceptions to every rule.
Modifying resource guarding in a multiple dog household is not always going to be an easy feat. But it is well worth it for everyone’s safety and sanity.