When Dogs Guard People: Resource Guarding a Pet Parent

In this episode of Dog Training Today, Dog Behaviorist Will Bangura explains one of the most misunderstood forms of resource guarding: when a dog guards access to a pet parent, family member, couch, bed, lap, or preferred person.

Many pet parents describe this behavior as jealousy, protectiveness, or loyalty. However, when a dog stiffens, blocks, growls, snaps, lunges, or bites as another dog, spouse, child, visitor, or family member approaches, the behavior may be better understood as resource guarding.

Will breaks down what person-directed resource guarding looks like, why it happens, why punishment can increase risk, and how pet parents can begin managing the behavior safely. He also explains the importance of distance, early body language, threshold awareness, pain and medical considerations, multi-dog household management, and humane behavior modification.

This episode is especially important for families living with multiple dogs, dogs who guard the couch or bed, dogs who growl when another dog approaches a pet parent, and dogs who become tense or aggressive when people come too close to a valued person.

Learn why growling should not be punished, why dogs should not be forced to “work it out,” and why the goal is not forced sharing. The goal is safety, emotional change, predictable routines, and helping the dog learn that people and dogs approaching the pet parent are not a threat.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:01

Raised by wolves with K9 DNA in his blood, having trained more than 24,000 pets, helping you and your fur babies thrive. Live in studio with Will Mangura, answering your pet behavior and training questions. Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome your host and favorite pet behavior expert, Will Bangura.

SPEAKER_01 0:40

Hey everybody, I'm Will Ban Gura. Thanks for joining me for another episode of Dog Training Today. Glad that you can be here. I know it's been a while. I've been working on other projects. I apologize there's not been another episode for a while, but I think that you are going to really enjoy today's episode because this is something that is really important. This is something that a lot of people deal with. Today I want to talk about a behavior problem that can be kind of confusing. Um, it can be emotional and in some homes, very dangerous. We're going to be talking about dogs who resource guard a person. Now, when most people hear the term resource guarding, they usually think about food. They think about a dog growling over a food bowl or a bone, um, a bully stick or a toy or maybe something that the dog stole, like a sock or napkin. But dogs can guard more than just objects. They can guard more than food, they can guard more than toys. Dogs can guard resting places. Yeah. They can guard doorways, they can guard beds, couches, laps, personal space. And yes, dogs can guard people also. They can guard another animal in the house. But today we're going to be talking about guarding people. That means that a dog may guard access to a pet parent, a family member, a spouse, a child, even a visitor. And even a person the dog has just recently decided is valuable. And that could be somebody that comes over to the house that's brand new today. And this can show up in a lot of different ways. Maybe your dog is lying next to you on the couch, and when your other dog walks into the room, your dog suddenly gets stiff. Maybe their mouth closes. Maybe their eyes get hard. Your dog stares at the other dog. Maybe your dog leans into you almost like they're trying to block access to you. Then the other dog takes one more step, and now your dog growls. Or maybe your dog's on the bed with you, and your spouse or partner walks into the room. Your dog growls, maybe it barks, snaps, or maybe moves between you and that other person. Or maybe you've got a child who runs towards you while you're sitting on the couch and the dog jumps up, blocks the child, barks or growls. Or maybe you're out on a walk, and when another dog or another person approaches you, your dog lunges, barks, or positions their body between you and the approaching individual. A lot of pet parents describe this as protectiveness. They say, Oh, he's just protecting me, or she's jealous, or he thinks I belong to him, or she just loves me so much. And I understand why people say that. From the outside, that may be exactly what it looks like. The dog is close to you, someone else approaches, and the dog tries to drive that other individual away. But behaviorally, we need to be much more precise than that because when we label it as protective, we can accidentally romanticize a behavior that may actually be rooted in anxiety, insecurity, conflict, learned reinforcement, fear of losing access, or a need to control distance. So today I want to unpack this in-depth. We're going to talk about what resource guarding of a person is, what it looks like, why it happens, why punishment is risky, why management matters, how behavior modification works, what to do in multi-dog homes, those can be really challenging, what to do when children are involved, that can be really risky. And when it's time to look for professional help. And I want to say this right at the beginning. If your dog is growling, snapping, lunging, biting, or fighting over access to you or another family member, please do not dismiss this as loyalty. Take this seriously. Not with panic, not with punishment, but with seriousness, safety, and a real behavior plan. Now, let's talk about what resource guarding really means. Let's start with the basic definition. In the scientific literature, resource guarding has been defined as avoidance, threatening, or aggressive behavior used by a dog to retain control of food or non-food items in the presence of a person or another animal. Now, that comes from Jacobs and colleagues in their 2018 paper who looked at how experts define and clarify resource guarding and possessive aggression. Now, that definition is important because it tells us that resource guarding isn't limited to food. And a lot of times people are just thinking food, okay? Now, it can involve non-food items, it can involve context, it can involve valued spaces. Veterinary clinical references also describe possessive aggression, commonly called resource guarding, as occurring when a dog is approached while in possession of something the dog wants to retain, or when the dog is near something valuable. That can include food, treats, toys, stolen items, resting places, and preferred individuals. Preferred individuals, that's the piece that people often miss, or that's one of the areas of resource guarding that I think gets talked about the least. A person can become part of the dog's valued resource context. That does not mean that the dog is morally possessive. That does not mean that the dog is dominant. That does not mean that the dog is spoiled, and it does not mean that the dog is trying to run the household. It means the dog's behavior may be functioning to preserve access, increase distance, avoid conflict, or prevent an approach that the dog experiences as intrusive, or threatening, or frustrating, or often perceived as unsafe. And that distinction matters because if we think the dog is being dominant, people often start looking for ways to dominate the dog back. They punish, they intimidate, they correct, they confront, they force the dog to tolerate the approach. But if we understand the behavior as resource guarding, as a behavior with a function, then we start asking better questions. What is the dog trying to keep? What is the dog trying to prevent? Who's approaching? How close are they getting? What is the pet parent doing at that moment? Is the dog on the couch, on the bed, in a lap, pressed against the person or in a narrow space? What happens after the dog growls, barks, snaps, or lunges? Does the approaching person move away? Does the other dog retreat? Does the pet parent comfort the guarding dog? Does the guarding dog get to keep the position? That is how we begin to understand the behavior. We look at the antecedents, what happens before the behavior? We look at the behavior itself, and we look at the consequences, what happens right after. That is much more useful than saying he's just jealous, or she thinks that she owns me. Resource guarding a person is not the same as healthy attachment. Now, I want to be very clear about something. Dogs are social animals. Many dogs form strong bonds with their families. A dog who wants to be near you is not automatically resource guarding. A dog who follows you from room to room is not automatically resource guarding. A dog who likes to sleep near you, sits beside you, or seeks comfort from you is not automatically resource guarding. Healthy attachment allows flexibility. A dog with a healthy attachment can move away. They can allow somebody else to approach. They can tolerate you giving another dog attention. They can recover when interrupted. They may not love, for example, every interruption, but they can handle that without using threat or aggression. Resource guarding really becomes a concern when the dog uses tension, blocking, growling, snapping, lunging, or biting to prevent another individual from approaching you or entering a certain distance zone around you. And that's the key difference. Wanting closeness is not the problem. Using threat or aggression to control who can approach that closeness, that's a problem. And this can be emotionally hard for pet parents because they often feel conflicted. Because, right, at first you kind of feel flattered, right? They they'll say things like, Oh, he just loves me so much. And I get it. It can feel like devotion. It can feel like the dog is choosing you above everyone else. But we've got to be careful because what feels like devotion to the person may feel like conflict, insecurity, or threat to the dog. Sometimes a more accurate way to think about this is the dog is not simply saying, I love this person. The dog may be saying, I'm uncomfortable with you coming closer while I have access to this person. That's a very different message. And when we understand that message, we can respond in a way that helps the dog rather than accidentally making the situation more dangerous. Now, let's talk about why dogs guard a pet parent or a family member. Okay, so why does this happen? Well, there is rarely one single reason for this, and really for any complex behavior. But person-directed guarding can involve learning history, it can involve emotional state, household routines, proximity, competition, pain, prior conflict, and the behavior of the person or dog who's approaching. So let's kind of break this down and tease this out a little bit. First, the pet parent may be highly valuable to the dog. You may be the person who feeds the dog. You may be the person who provides comfort. You may be the person the dog sleeps next to, you may be the person who gives affection, walks the dog, gives treats, plays with, and really where the dog identifies feeling safe and being safe. For some dogs, being close to that person becomes extremely important. If another dog or person approaching predicts interruption or loss of access, crowding or conflict, the dog may start using behavior to prevent that approach. Secondly, the behavior may also be reinforced. Now, this is a huge one. Let's say that your dog is laying next to you on the couch, your other dog walks into the room, the guarding dog growls, the other dog backs away. From the guarding dog's point of view, the growl worked. Or your spouse walks towards the bed, the dog barks, your spouse pauses or steps back, the bark worked. Or a visitor walks towards you, your dog lunges, the visitor retreats, the lunge worked. When a behavior successfully makes something move away, that behavior can become stronger. That's called negative reinforcement. The dog's behavior removes or delays something the dog finds concerning, intrusive, or unwanted. And over time, if the dog learns that subtle communication doesn't work, but bigger behavior does work, the dog may escalate faster. This is why people often say it came out of nowhere. But many times it didn't come out of nowhere. The early signs were there, they were just subtle, or they were ignored, or they were punished, or they worked so quickly that nobody realized the pattern was forming. Now, third, anxiety and insecurity may be involved. A dog who guards a pet parent may not be confident. This is important. A lot of people assume that a barking, lunging, growling dog must be confident, must be bold, must be dominant or pushy. Well, not necessarily. A dog can look intense and still be anxious. A dog can sound scary and still be afraid. A dog can move forward because moving forward has worked, not because the dog feels emotionally secure. Some dogs guard a person because that person feels like a safety base. The dog may feel safer near the pet parent. Then when another dog or another person approaches, that safe space all of a sudden is threatened. And the dog reacts. All right, fourth, the household context matters. In multi-dog homes, guarding a person may be part of a broader pattern. Maybe the dogs already compete over the couch. Maybe one dog crowds the other. Maybe one dog is socially pushy. Maybe one dog gets excited and rushes into the pet parent's space. Maybe the pet parent unintentionally gives attention to the guarding dog every time the other dog approaches. Maybe evenings are worse because everyone's tired. Maybe the couch is worse than the kitchen. Maybe the bedroom is worse than the living room. Maybe the dog only guards when the pet parent is seated or lying down. All of that matters. And fifth, pain or medical issues can lower the dog's threshold. If a dog's painful or uncomfortable, maybe an older dog or a dog that's stiff or sore, or maybe a dog that's neurologically compromised or dealing with an underlying medical issue, they may have less tolerance for close approaches or movement or touch or crowding or having to be moved or removed. Mills and colleagues in 2020 discussed pain and problem behavior in dogs and cats, and the key clinical takeaway is that pain is often underrecognized in behavior cases. So when a behavior is new or worsening or inconsistent or happening around resting places, handling, or movement, medical factors need to be considered. Now, let's talk about what I like to call the invisible boundary around the pet parent. One of the most important ideas in this entire topic is distance. Many dogs who guard a person have an invisible boundary. Outside that boundary, they may look fine. Another dog can be across the room, no problem. A spouse can walk through the hallway, no problem. A child can be playing ten feet away, maybe no problem. But when that individual crosses a certain distance, the dog changes. Maybe at twelve feet the dog notices. At eight feet, the dog becomes still. At six feet, the dog closes the mouth and stares. At four feet, the dog leans forward and blocks. At three feet, the dog growls. At two feet, the dog lunges. That distance is the dog's threshold zone. And that threshold, that threshold isn't fixed. It changes. It changes depending on context. The dog may tolerate another dog approaching when everyone is standing in the kitchen, but not when the pet parent is sitting on the couch. The dog may tolerate a spouse walking through the room, but not approaching the bed. The dog may tolerate a child across the room, but not running directly toward the pet parent. The dog may tolerate another dog nearby when there's no food, but not when the pet Parent is eating, holding treats, or giving affection. This is why good behavior modification doesn't begin at the growl. If the dog's already growling, we're too close, too intense, or we're too late. We want to work at the distance where the dog notices the trigger but can still eat, can still think, can still respond, can disengage. And when you're looking at the body language, the dog remains loose. That's where learning happens best. What person-directed resource guarding looks like when you're doing the work is important. Let's talk about what this looks like because one of the most important things is early recognition. A lot of pet parents are waiting for the obvious signs. They notice barking or they notice growling, they notice lunging, they notice snapping, but by then the dog may already be over threshold. The early signs can be a lot quieter. You might see sudden stillness. You might see the mouth closed. You might see a hard stare. You might see the dog turn the head slightly, but keep the eyes locked on the approaching dog. You might see whale eye, where you can see the whites of the eyes. You might see lip licking. You might see the dog shift their body between you and the approaching individual. You might see the dog lean into you. You might see the dog climb higher onto your lap or press against your body. You might see the dog lower the head and stare. You might see the tail become stiff. You might see the dog stop taking food. You might see the dog refuse to move. You might see freezing during petting. This is one that gets missed all the time. A dog may be lying next to the pet parent being petted, and then another dog walks in, the pet parent continues petting, but the dog freezes. The body goes still. The eyes lock. The dog is no longer relaxed. That freeze matters. Freezing is not calmness. Stillness is not always relaxation. A dog can be still because they're comfortable, but a dog can also be still because they're preparing, monitoring, or suppressing movement in a tense situation. Then we also have the more obvious signs, right? The growling, the snarling, the barking, the air snapping, the lunging, chasing the other dog away, biting, fighting, blocking a person from entering a room or approaching the pet parent, snapping when someone reaches toward the pet parent. And I want to stop for a moment on growling. A growl is communication. A growl is not disrespect. A growl is not the dog being stubborn. A growl is not the dog challenging your authority. A growl is the dog saying, I'm uncomfortable, I need distance, this situation is not okay for me. The growl is the alarm. If you punish the alarm, you have not fixed the fire. You may have only disconnected the smoke detector, and that's dangerous. Now, let's talk about common situations where this typically happens. Let's talk about the places this commonly occurs. The couch is a big one. A lot of dogs guard pet parents on the couch because the couch is loaded with value. It's comfortable, it's warm, it's close to the person. It may be part of a predictable evening routine. The dog may have physical contact. The pet parent may be less mobile. The dog may feel like that space is easier to control. The bed is another major one. Bed guarding can be especially serious because people are often lying down, movement is restricted, lighting might be low, and people may be less alert. A spouse or partner approaching the bed can become a trigger. Another dog jumping onto the bed can become a trigger. A child climbing into bed can become a trigger. Then there's lap guarding, right? People often associate lap guarding with small dogs, but any dog can guard close body contact. A 60-pound dog leaning into a pet parent can guard that person just as much as a 10-pound dog sitting in a lap. Then we have affection guarding. This is when the dog reacts because the pet parent is petting another dog, hugging a person, greeting a visitor, or giving attention to somebody else. Then there's guarding from children. And this is serious. Children move quickly. They make sudden sounds, they run, they climb, they reach, they hug, they stare. They may not recognize early canine warning signs. And a dog who guards a pet parent from a child should always be treated as a significant safety concern. Then we have guarding on walks. The dog may bark, lunge, or block when another dog or person approaches the handler. Now that may overlap with leash reactivity, fear, frustration, or even territorial behavior. But if the dog is positioning between the handler and the approaching individual, or if the reaction is specifically about approach to the handler, guarding may be part of that picture. The key is not to get hung up on the label. The key is to understand the function. What is the dog trying to make happen with that behavior? What is the dog trying to prevent? What changes in the environment after the behavior? Now, let's talk about why punishment is risky. All right. We have to talk about punishment. And I want to be very direct here. Punishment and confrontational handling are very risky in aggression cases. Heron Schofer and Reisner published a study in 2009 looking at confrontational and non-confrontational training methods in dogs that were presented for behavior problems. Several confrontational methods, including hitting or kicking, growling at the dog, physically forcing release of an item, alpha rolls, staring the dog down, and similar techniques, elicited aggressive responses in at least one quarter of the dogs in which those methods were attempted. That matters because in resource guarding, if a dog growls when another dog approaches the pet parent and the pet parent punishes the growl, the dog may learn several dangerous things. The dog may learn that the approach of the other dog predicts punishment. That can make the other dog's approach even more threatening. The dog may learn that warning is unsafe. That can reduce early warning signs if that happens. The dog may learn that subtle communication doesn't work. That can increase the chance of faster escalation. The dog may become quieter, but not safer. And that is the part that people miss. A dog who stops growling is not automatically a dog who feels better. Sometimes the comfort remains, the dog may skip the warning and go straight to snapping or biting. So when somebody says, I corrected the growling and now the dog doesn't growl anymore, my next question is, but does the dog feel safer? Is the dog un is the dog's underlying emotional response changed? Or did we just suppress communication? Did we just suppress warnings? Because those are not the same thing. Punishment may stop a visible warning today, but it can increase risk tomorrow if the dog still feels threatened when the trigger occurs, but now the dog has fewer safe ways to communicate that they're uncomfortable. All right, let's talk about management. Management comes first. So what can we do? Well, first we manage. And I know management is not the exciting answer. People want the training plan, they want the behavior modification protocol, they want the fix. But management isn't optional. Management is what keeps everybody safe while we teach the dog something different. Management's not failure. Management prevents rehearsal. If your dog guards you on the couch, then for now, the dog may not get free access to the couch when other dogs, children, visitors, or family members are moving nearby. If your dog guards you in bed, the dog may need a separate sleeping location while we're doing the work. If your dog guards your lap, well, lap access may need to stop temporarily when triggers are present. If your dog guards you from another dog in the home, the dogs may need baby gates, separate stations, separate resting spaces, separate enrichment areas, and structured turn taking. If visitors trigger the behavior, the dog may need to be safely separated before visitors enter. If children are involved, the child should not have access to the dog's guarded space. Management may include baby gates, closed doors, exercise pens, crates for dogs who are already comfortable being crated, tethers used carefully and safely. Make sure you're always supervising if you have a tether, leashes used only as safety lines, stationing, and other environmental planning. Now, what we don't do, we don't test the dog. Do not keep letting the other dog approach to see what happens. Don't let the child approach to teach the dog to get used to it. Don't have visitors reach toward the pet parent to see if the dog reacts. Testing is not training. Testing usually rehearses the behavior, and rehearsal makes behavior stronger. Also, please do not let dogs work it out. That phrase has caused so much harm in multi-dog homes. Dogs do not need to settle this through threats, fights, or intimidation. The goal is not to see who wins. The goal is to prevent conflict and teach safer patterns. Now, let's talk about behavior modification or changing what the approach predicts. Once our management is in place and we've got safety and we're stopping the dog from rehearsing that behavior, then we can begin behavior modification. The goal is not simply to stop the dog from growling. The goal is to change what the approach of another dog or another person predicts. Right now, for the guarding dog, another dog approaching the pet parent may predict loss of access, crowding, conflict, threat or uncertainty. We want to change that. We want the approach to predict safety, distance, predictability, and good outcomes. That is where counterconditioning comes in. Let's walk through a very simple exercise. Let's walk through a very simple example. The guarding dog is near the pet parent, but not physically glued to the pet parent. The other dog appears at a distance where the guarding dog notices but doesn't stiffen, doesn't growl, doesn't do a hard stare, doesn't lunge, doesn't stop eating. Basically, the dog notices, but there is enough distance where the dog doesn't care. The moment the other dog appears, your job is to make sure that the guarding dog gets a high value food reward. Then the other dog moves away and the food stops. The approach predicts high value food rewards. The retreat ends the high value food rewards. Over time, the approaching dog becomes a predictor of good things. But this only works if the setup is easy enough. If the other dog comes too close, too fast, or behaves too intensely, the guarding dog may go over threshold. And once the dog's over threshold, well, we're no longer doing clean counter conditioning, we're rehearsing the problem again. So the distance matters, the speed of approach matters, the duration matters, the body language of the approaching dog matters, the position of the pet parent matters. Whether the guarding dogs on the couch, on the floor, in the lap, or on the mat matters. A lot of people make the mistake of jumping into the hardest version of this resource guarding first. They say, okay, we're gonna train this. I'm gonna sit on the couch. My guarding dog will sit next to me, and my other dog will walk right up. Well, that's probably too hard. Start easier. Maybe the pet parent stands instead of sitting. Maybe the guarding dog is on a mat, not pressed against the person. Maybe the other dog appears ten or twelve feet away. Maybe the session lasts only 30 seconds. Maybe the approaching dog only takes one step and then leaves. That's how we build success. We do not prove that the dog's gonna fail by setting the dog up for failure. We arrange the environment so the dog can succeed. Now, we also need to teach alternative behaviors. Changing the emotional response is one part. We do that through counterconditioning. The other part is teaching the dog what to do instead. A dog who guards a pet parent needs alternative behaviors that are safe, clear, and ones that are reinforced. One of my favorite foundation behaviors for this is stationing. Teaching the dog to go to a mat, to go to place, to its bed, to a platform, a specific location. But here's the most important part: the mat or the place or the bed, the station should not feel like exile. The mat or the station or place should not feel like punishment. It should become a place where good things happen. If the dog guards the couch, we might teach the dog that a mat or its bed or place several feet away from the couch predicts high value reinforcement, high value food rewards, calm attention, and safety. Eventually, the dog can learn when another dog enters the room, I go to my station, I go to my place, and good things happen. That's much safer than the dog clinging to the pet parent or controlling access through growling or lunging. Another useful behavior is a hand target. The dog learns to touch the pet parent's hand with their nose. That gives the pet parent a way to move the dog without grabbing the collar, without pushing the dog, or escalating the conflict. A recall away from the pet parent can also be extremely helpful. I say it all the time. One of the most important foundational behaviors you can teach your dog and practice every day, and practice in a variety of different locations and settings is getting your dog to come when called, teaching that recall. Because again, a recall away from the pet parent can be extremely helpful. The dog learns that moving away from the person does not mean losing everything valuable. In fact, moving away predicts reinforcement. We can also teach subtle behaviors, relaxation routines, and calm turn taking if we've got a multi-dog household. In multi-dog homes, the approaching dog needs training too. This is a common mistake. People focus only on the guarding dog, but the other dog may be rushing, staring, crowding, pushing into the pet parent, or maybe they're ignoring subtle signs from the other dog. That dog needs skills as well. Maybe that dog needs to learn to go to a separate mat or a separate place or station. Maybe that dog needs to learn to approach slowly. That dog needs to learn not to shove into the guarding dog space. Maybe both dogs need structure, turn taking, for affection. The goal is not forced sharing. Let me say that again. The goal is not forced sharing. The goal is safe, predictable access, and reduced conflict. Some dogs may never need to lie together on the couch with the pet parent. That's not failure. Success is safety, lower stress, and better emotional responses. Now, let's talk about special caution with children. Okay? We need to talk specifically about children. A dog who guards a pet parent from a child, that's a huge, huge, serious safety issue. That does not mean that the dog is bad. Let me say that again. That does not mean that the dog is bad. It does not mean that the dog cannot improve. But it does mean that we need to be very careful. Children are unpredictable from the dog's point of view. They run, they squeal, they climb, they reach, they hug, they stare, they fall, they move quickly, they may approach directly, they may miss warning signs, they may not understand that the dog's uncomfortable. If a dog growls, blocks, snaps, or lunges when a child approaches a pet parent, the child should not be used in training setups unless a qualified professional has designed the plan and determined that the risk can be controlled. In many cases, the child should be completely separated from the training process at first. The adults should manage the environment. The dog should be protected from being pushed into defensive behavior. And the child should be protected from risk. A growl at a child is information. Take that seriously immediately. Do not wait to see whether the dog really means it. The dog already means it, the dog's uncomfortable, and that's enough to act. All right, let's talk about medical and pain considerations. Now, I want to come back to medical issues because pain can change behavior. Pain can lower tolerance. Pain can make dogs more irritable. Pain can make resting places more valuable and interruptions more threatening. If a dog suddenly starts guarding a pet parent, a couch, a bed, or a resting space, I want medical issues on the radar. We need to be thinking about that. If a behavior is new, worsening, inconsistent, or associated with movement, touch being moved from furniture or resting, veterinary evaluation's important. Things like orthopedic pain, dental pain, gastrointestinal discomfort, skin disease, ear infections, endocrine disorders, neurological changes, sensory decline if we have an older dog, and sometimes medication side effects. Those things can all influence behavior if a dog's taking medication as well. Mills and colleagues emphasize that pain is often underrecognized in problem behavior cases. So we do not want to assume that this is always purely a training issue. Behavior is always happening in a body. If the body hurts, the behavior can change. All right, now let's talk about when to get professional help. So, when should a pet parent call a professional? If the dog has bitten a person or another dog, call a professional. If the dog has caused punctures, call a professional. If the dog guards a pet parent from a child, call a professional. If the dog has attacked another dog in the household, call a professional. If the dog guards multiple resources, call a professional. If the dog blocks access to rooms, furniture, beds, or people, call a professional. If anyone in the home feels unsafe, call a professional. If the behavior is increasing in frequency or intensity, call a professional. If multiple dogs are involved and there's growling, snapping, lunging, or fighting, call a professional. And I want to be specific about what kind of help to look for. You want someone who understands behavior, not just obedience. You want someone who understands aggression, emotional conditioning, body language, antecedent arrangement, consequences, safety planning, management planning, and humane behavior modification. You do not want someone who comes in and says, your dog is dominant. We need to correct that. You do not want someone who recommends shock collars, prong collars, choke chains, alpha rolls, forced exposure, flooding, intimidation, or letting the dogs work it out. Those approaches can increase fear, can increase conflict, and increase the risk of aggression. A good professional is going to look at the whole picture. What happens before the behavior? What exactly does the dog do? What happens after? How close is the trigger? What's the dog's body language? What's the bite history? What's the medical history? What are the household routines? What is the environment like? What is the other dog doing? What are the people doing? That's how a defensible behavior plan is built. Now, let me go through, as we always get them, and this is a good place to do this. Frequently asked listener questions. Now, I want to answer some of those. So let me pull some of those up. All right. The first question is why does my dog guard me from my other dog? Well, usually it's because access to use become valuable. And the other dog approaching changes something. The dog may worry about losing space, losing attention, being crowded, being pushed off, or having conflict. The dog may also have learned that growling or blocking makes the other dog go away. So the answer is not your dog is just jealous. The better answer is your dog is using behavior to control access and distance around something valuable. All right, let's go to our next question. Um, is my dog protecting me or resource guarding me? Maybe it looks like protection, but if the dog is reacting to safe, familiar people or familiar dogs approaching you, especially on the couch, the bed, lap, or during affection, resource guarding should be strongly considered. True protection from an actual threat is not the same as growling at your spouse for walking toward the bed. All right, let's go to the next question. Should I punish my dog for growling? No, no, no, no, no, no. Do not punish the growl. Respect the growl. Increase distance, reduce pressure, identify the trigger, then create a training plan. Punishing the growl may remove the warning and leave the discomfort the dog's feeling. And that doesn't make anything safer. If anything, it makes things less safe. Never punish the growl. That's the warning that happens oftentimes before the bite. We don't want to inadvertently teach the dog to bite without warning. All right, next question. Should I let my dogs work it out? Well, we talked about that. No, especially not when one dog is guarding access to a person. Letting them work it out can lead to rehearsal, it can lead to injury and worsening aggression. You need management, distance, reinforcement, and structured routines. All right, next question. Can this be fixed? Yeah, many cases can improve significantly, but I'm always careful with the word fixed. The goal is reduced risk, better emotional responses, safer routines, and alternative behaviors. Some dogs may always need a little bit of management in certain contexts, especially when there's been a bite history, if there's been severe intra-dog conflict, if there's children in the home, if we've got a dog with pain, or if we've got a dog where there's multiple guarded resources, improvement is absolutely possible. But success depends on safety, consistency, threshold control, and the right behavior plan. All right, next question. What should I do first? Well, first, prevent the situation from repeating. If the dog guards you on the couch, change couch access. If the dog guards you in bed, change sleeping arrangements. If the dog guards your lap, stop lap access when triggers are present. If the dog guards you from another dog, use gates, dog beds, place stations, and separate resting areas. Then start observing. When does it happen? Who approaches? How close do they get? What are you doing? Where's the dog? What is the first body language change? That information is gold. Then begin behavior modification. Ideally, with professional guidance, if there is an aggression risk. All right, next question. Is this a dominance problem? No, resource guarding is not best explained as dominance. It's better understood through access, distance, emotional state, learning history, and consequences. When people call it dominance, they often reach for punishment. When we understand the function of the behavior, we can build a safer plan. All right, let's let me give you a simple example. Let's say that we've got a dog named Milo. Milo rests beside his pet parent on the couch every evening. When the second dog in the household enters the room, Milo becomes still. It only happens when the other dog comes within about six feet. It doesn't happen the same way when the pet parent is standing in the kitchen. It doesn't happen outside. It doesn't happen when the dogs are separated by a gate. So we have a very specific context. Pet parent seated on couch, Milo close to the pet parent, the second dog approaches within six feet. Milo stiffens, stares, growls, and lunges. Now we can make a plan. First, management. Milo no longer has unrestricted couch access when both dogs are loose. Each dog gets their own station or resting place. Milo learns that his mat or resting place predicts great things. The second dog learns to go to his own mat or resting place instead of rushing the couch. Then we work on controlled setups. The pet parent may begin standing, not sitting, because sitting on the couch is perhaps too hard at first. The second dog appears far away, Milo gets high value food rewards. Milo gets high value reinforcement. The second the dog leaves, the food or the reinforcement stops. Over time, the second dog's appearance becomes less threatening and more predictable that good things are going to happen. Then we very gradually make the setup more realistic. The pet parent sits in a chair. Then near the couch. Then on the couch. But Milo's on his mat. Then the second dog appears at a distance. Then maybe the second dog takes one step closer. We don't rush this. It's a very gradual, systematic approach to desensitization. We don't force them also to share the couch. We do not wait for Milo to growl and then correct him. We teach a new emotional response and a new behavior pattern. And that's the difference between managing aggression intelligently and just reacting to it after the dog's already over threshold. All right, let's go through some of the key takeaways for all you listeners. So if you've been listening to this and you're thinking, well, that sounds like my dog. I want you to take away a few important points. One, dogs can resource guard people. Two, it's not always protectiveness, and it's not best explained as dominance. Number three, early signs matter. Watch for stillness, hard staring, body blocking, leaning, freezing, and refusal to move. Four, growling is communication. Don't punish that. Five, management comes first. Prevent rehearsal of the behaviors. Six, distance matters. Work below the dog's threshold. When you start exposing and pairing high value food rewards, high value reinforcers to the trigger, work at a distance where the guarding dog can see the trigger but doesn't care. We call that below threshold. Number seven, change what the approach predicts. The approaching person or dog should begin to predict safety, high value food rewards or high value reinforcers, distance, and good outcomes. Number eight, teach alternative behaviors, stationing or going to place, hand targets, the come command, recalls away from the trigger. And structured turn taking with the dogs. All of that can help. Number nine, children require special caution. Children require special caution. Number ten, pain and medical issues must be considered always. And eleven, if there's biting, fighting, children involved, multiple dogs involved, or anybody feels unsafe, get qualified professional help. Resource guarding a family member or a pet parent is not acute sign of loyalty. It's a behavior concern involving access, distance, emotional arousal, learning history, and perceived threat of loss. A dog may guard a person because that person is highly valuable to them. The dog may guard because another dog or person approaching feels unsafe. The dog may guard because the behavior has worked in the past. The dog may guard because pain or discomfort has lowered its tolerance. Often it's a combination of factors. The solution is not intimidation. The solution is not punishment. The solution is not forcing the dog to tolerate approaches. And the solution is not letting the dogs work it out. The solution is safety, structure, observation, management, humane behavior modification, and when needed, qualified professional help. Our goal is to teach the dog that people and dogs approaching the pet parent are safe, predictable, and not a threat to access or security. That's how we reduce risk, and that's how we help the dog. And that's how we create a safer home for everybody. I hope this was helpful. Do me a favor. If you love what we do, hit the like button, hit subscribe, give us a five-star review, tell your friends and families about the podcast. I'm Will Van Gura. Thanks for joining me for another episode of Dog Training Today. Until next time, I'm out of here.