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Dog to dog resource guarding
I am looking for tips to help manage my dogs resource guarding. I got her as a re-home 4 months ago. She is a French Bulldog and I do not know the full story of her history in the past home.
The main issue is she guards my bedroom. My parent’s have 2 other dogs in the house. Anytime we are in my room and the other two walk past or she hears them coming she prowls and then will even lunge at them out in the hallway. Sometimes I feel that my presence makes it worse. She also does guard me at times too… Especially when I get home and all of the dogs are excited I have to put her in my room, greet the other dogs and then let her out.
I am currently still completing my studies for dog training so I want to learn about different methods.
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4 Replies
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HI @AmberNoelle , you don’t mention any techniques you’ve tried thus far to deal with the bedroom guarding, but I have a couple of suggestions:
Gate off the room, perhaps using an xpen, so the entry is blocked and ALSO several feet of ‘air space’ is created so the frenchie can’t approach the doorway closely. Then, ask for a helper to bring one or both dogs (in a controlled way) down the hallway. As soon as your dog notices them (probably just hears them is enough), toss high-value treats (like fresh proteins) in the room, as far away from the door as possible. Repeat for subsequent exposures. Then let us know if you start to see a change in her emotional response, i.e., that she begins to get excited about the other dogs’ coming closer to the room because she knows it predicts treats. Let us know, too, if the treats do NOT easily redirect her.
Once you see some beginning success, we can advise from there.
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I’m so sorry I completely forgot to mention anything!
I will definitely be trying this method. I have been lost in what to try. When I first got her I thought maybe she would grow out of it, she was pretty scared being in a new home. I got a wall plug in for pets that’s a calming aid, that did not work. I also have tried spending less time out of the bedroom with her. I haven’t had any luck though.
Thank you so so much. I will give this a try for a few days to a week and let you know how the progress is going.
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If the dogs get along at other times you could try training them together with low value treats. Ask them all to sit and give each a treat. Down, target, come, etc. Stop if there’s any guarding or snarking. It’s meant to be a fun together activity.
This is in addition to Virginia’s suggestion, not a replacement.
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Thank you! For the most part they do get along outside of the bedroom so I don’t think it would be an issue to try this.
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