Let’s talk about resource guarding – it’s real and it takes patience to navigate

Pinot is the sweetest floof ever. Her wiggly butt moving so ecstatically that it shakes her entire body whenever she sees a new friend. The way she’ll hop up next to you when you sit down and plop against your side even though she was fast asleep on the next couch over. Her little paws hopping up on the edge of my bed, big chocolate eyes asking for help up (even though she can totally make the jump).

But go near her while she’s eating her dinner, or having her daily chew, and you will meet a different dog. Low growls, sometimes a full bark or snap at the air in front of her. 

I didn’t know it was possible to bark and eat at the same time. Pinot has shown me it is.

This is called resource guarding. It’s kept animals, dogs specifically, alive for thousands of years. Although most dogs nowadays receive their meals in shiny bowls, that wasn’t always the case. 

It wasn’t Pinot’s case for the beginning of her life either.

The fact she was found in a park with no idea of how long she’d been out there is what prompted me to check for resource guarding in the first place. 

I had never heard Pinot bark before I went near her during her dinner that first time. It was so sudden; the growls, the bark, the snap of her snout, the hurried way she continued to eat as she produced these sounds. 

Honestly, it scared me. 

My baby doggy had never shown an ounce of aggression until that moment. 

But the more research I do, the more I understand that she needs to understand that no one is going to take away her food. She no longer needs to defend her nutrients as strongly as she once did, as her ancestors once had to. 

Pinot only does this when she has something that she considers her meal. She chews on a treat as I tighten her harness every day with no qualms about my hands being near her face. I can take a stick out of her mouth on a walk if she refuses to drop it on her own. I can take a toy from her during playtime.

Recently, Pinot has decided that the dishwasher is part of her meal. Eagerly running to lick the remains of the human’s dinner from the shiny tray that pulls out within reach her snout. It was our previous dog’s favorite thing as well. 

But as my mom continues to load the dishwasher the growls start. My mom has to reach over Pinot’s back from behind her given where Pinot has assumed her dishwasher-licking stance. 

This is taken as a potentially aggressive or threatening action. Dogs protect their backs; especially when eating. They protect each other’s backs as well. When Pinot and I hang out in a park she’ll plant herself sitting for laying down against my back. After she gets all her sniffs in, of course. 

How do we make post-dinner not threatening to Pinot? How do I make her understand that I might pass near her while she’s eating, but I’m not taking away her kibble? How do I portray that I only approach her when she’s chewing on the furniture to get her to move to her dog bed?

Turns out I’ve been doing it all wrong for the past few months.

Remember how I said Pinot didn’t growl at me when I take away sticks, physically pulling them from her jaw. How I pull the frisbee, sometimes even opening her mouth to get it, so we can keep playing fetch. How I continue to pet her while she’s eating, even though she’s warning me away, to reinforce that this isn’t a bad thing.

Yup, totally wrong thing to do with a dog that struggles with resource guarding. 

Growling should get us to back off. It’s her way of saying I’m pushing her too far. And if discouraged a dog could jump to biting the next time.

So, what’s the “right” way?

Trust. And time. And conditioning a positive response to an approach. 

I stand a few feet away from her while she’s eating and throw a yummy treat. Just once or twice through her meal; you wouldn’t want a constant interruption to your dinner, would you? But slowly she’s learning that my approach gets her another yummy thing. 

I trade her a treat for that stick or frisbee instead of taking it from her with nothing in return. I never open her jaw to remove something.

If she’s chewing on the furniture, I trade her a treat for the chew and then give her the chew right back, but in her dog bed.

I distract her with treats, keeping her on the far side of the dishwasher from the sink, and practice her basic commands while my mom gives the dishes an extra rinse and loads the tray. She gets some additional training and then gets to lick the plates without feeling threatened by the loading process. 

I certainly do not have the answers, but I can see (and hear) a difference in my little rescue pup since I adapted my behavior and tactics. 

The starting point is learning what I am doing wrong; which of our human behaviors could make it worse.

And then building trust through time and patience.