Big Feelings About Your Stuff and How You Deal With It
Don’t get me wrong, I don’t mind sharing food with my hubbie but he tends to eat faster than me. If we decide to share a dessert, I try to split the portion so I don’t have to resort to speed eating in order to get a bite or two in. Thankfully I also have the ability to ask him to only eat his share lol.
I think each of us has a special object or something that we like kept in a certain manner. We might get displeased when someone uses it in a way that isn't careful or consumes something that you were saving for yourself. For dogs, they may have feelings about their food, a fav toy, a chew, their bed, the human etc.
It’s important to understand that a resource guarding dog is not being dominant, a bully, a jerk, whatever label you might use. Wanting to have what we think is ours is natural behavior and it's our jobs as humans to keep everyone in the household safe through management and if feasible work with a professional to modify behaviors. In the meantime let's quit with the labeling.
If you’ve only interacted with dogs who blissfully share everything then it can be really alarming to experience a resource guarding situation. For others, the expectations might be completely different like why would one not expect a dog to guard their resources. I tend to operate with the latter assumption that dogs may likely have feelings towards guarding so relevant management is the default stance I take. Even if our dogs haven't demonstrated any resource guarding tension, I typically don't relax all the management because you know, you never know who might suddenly have a stressful day that breaks the proverbial camel's back.
By the way I’ve also seen taking things away or trades go south. For example your puppy has your shoe so you take it away from them. Or maybe you trade for it by tossing a kibble in another direction and while your pup goes for the kibble you take back your shoe; your pup comes back to sniff the spot where the shoe was. Sounds innocent but fast forward and your actions may be encouraging future resource guarding. Increase your management ie don’t leave shoes out and if you really need to trade make what you give higher value than what you took away.
Lets go back to seeking professional help. Having feelings about the things a dog cares about is natural but how they communicate this or respond to another who maybe isn't hearing the message may reflect poor skills or utilizing inappropriate behaviors given the situation. Getting support and guidance from a force free and fear free professional is recommended rather than googling it yourself.
Cheers, Tracy
