Do you have a dog that growls at you if you happen to get to close to her food? If you do….you have a ‘resource guarder’. This behaviour often starts in young pups and can get worse as the dog gets older. It will not go away without some training. Dogs that resource guard can be especially dangerous to children.

Dogs by nature are scavengers that hunt for food or find food sources. They tend to think that if they have it, then it is theirs and they will protect it.

Obedience can play a big role in solving this issue.

Start today to get your dog to sit on command. Then start to ask the dog to sit before you put down an empty bowl. Have a leash on the dog for greater control.  Then place a very small amount of food into the bowl. When the dog is finished, use the leash to call the puppy away from the bowl. Tell the pup to sit again and add some more food. Make the dog sit until you tell her it is OK and let her go to eat again. If the dog shows any sign of aggression at all, make her sit again and take the food away.

Once she seems to be getting better with her food, hold onto the food bowl while she is eating and occasionally add something a bit more tasty so the dog learns that you are not a threat to her food.

If this aggression is also occurring with toys, remove all the toys but one. When the dog has a toy, offer her a trade for her toy. The trade has to be a trade up for the dog. In other words, if the dog has a high value toy like a stuffed animal then you have to offer a very tasty but small piece of meat. You can start using a word for this, like trade or give and then you should be able to use that word to get your dog to give you whatever it has. Don’t nag the dog with this though or it may revert back to guarding things.

Dogs with a tendency to resource guarding should be on some sort of a leadership program. That means that they get nothing…not even petting without having to do something for the reward. So if your dog butts your hand asking for a pet, say sit first and wait till the dog sits before petting.

Your dog should not be allowed on furniture (some dogs will guard their place on the furniture) and should sit at the door before being allowed outside. If this problem persists after the age of 5 months, you need to get professional help.