When a dog resource guards he is telling you that whoever or whatever is approaching when he has whatever or whoever is threatening. It is not because he is dominant or feels you are below him in the pack order. The more you battle with your dog and prove you can take whatever the worse it gets.
With puppies I like to build a history of people approaching while my puppy is eating or chewing or sleeping and good things happening. Simple exercises like puppy eating dinner and someone walks by and throws a piece of sausage in the bowl. Pretty soon the dog is looking forward to someone approaching the bowl. This leads to being able to call the dog away from the bowl or cue another behaviour. I practice the same approach with toys and bones.
Old school methods did a lot of taking toys to prove you could. In my experience this left me with a dog that if the opportunity presented itself, such as outside with a dead thing in his mouth, there was no way he was going to come within hands reach so I could take it.
I am also proactive and while playing these games with my dog I always protect the dog from feeling threatened so he does not practice guarding. For example my dogs are all in crates when they get fresh bones so they can all chew in peace. No one is obsessing about taking someone else s and no on is feeling threatened that someone else will take their bone. Same with dinner they are at the very least separated and usually crated so no bad feeling are being practiced.
I have been in houses where the dogs are fed side by side sometimes even with bowls that are attached. From what I have observed there is usually one dog who feels a little (or sometimes a lot) intimidated and to me that is just not a good existence.
With puppies I like to build a history of people approaching while my puppy is eating or chewing or sleeping and good things happening. Simple exercises like puppy eating dinner and someone walks by and throws a piece of sausage in the bowl. Pretty soon the dog is looking forward to someone approaching the bowl. This leads to being able to call the dog away from the bowl or cue another behaviour. I practice the same approach with toys and bones.
I am also proactive and while playing these games with my dog I always protect the dog from feeling threatened so he does not practice guarding. For example my dogs are all in crates when they get fresh bones so they can all chew in peace. No one is obsessing about taking someone else s and no on is feeling threatened that someone else will take their bone. Same with dinner they are at the very least separated and usually crated so no bad feeling are being practiced.
I have been in houses where the dogs are fed side by side sometimes even with bowls that are attached. From what I have observed there is usually one dog who feels a little (or sometimes a lot) intimidated and to me that is just not a good existence.
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