Why Don’t Dogs Share? Understanding Resource Guarding

Dogs rarely enjoy sharing. photo: AdobeStock

December is usually a time for giving and sharing with our loved ones and with those less fortunate than ourselves. But if you could ask your dog what they think about sharing, they’d probably tell you they’d like to keep it all for themselves.

Resource guarding is a label that describes a set of behaviors that dogs use to keep people, dogs, and other animals away from something they find valuable. This could be as simple as a dog wanting to prevent you from approaching their food bowl while they are eating or it could manifest as a dog that growls when you approach them while they are resting in their favorite spot on the couch. If your dog is exhibiting resource guarding, congratulations, you have a dog who is doing normal dog stuff. In fact, the tendency to guard resources from other social beings is a normal canine behavior, as long as it’s not taken to extremes.

Dogs may guard anything they find valuable. This could be their regular dog food, special treats, or high-value chews, as well as anything that has been associated with those items, such as the food bowl, the treat cabinet, or the area under the buffet table at your holiday dinner. They might guard toys or things they perceive as toys such as sticks or pinecones. They may also guard space such as the living room couch where they rest, a certain room or the threshold of that room, their crate, or their bed area. 

Some dogs guard important social connections from others, such as guarding a coveted person or another dog. They may guard things that are particularly valuable to them, such as an especially delicious found piece of garbage or ground squirrel hole. 

Genetics, breed, learned behavior, and training history can all contribute to your dog’s behavior around sharing resources, and resource guarding may present in many different ways. Some dogs will take their favored object and not allow you or another dog to come near them by actively avoiding you and trying to create distance. Other dogs may remain firmly planted with their item and exhibit stress behaviors when you come too close, such as “whale eye” (showing a lot of white in the eye), turning their head away from you, hard staring, lip lifting, snarling, growling, barking, lunging, and even biting. Some dogs will guard things from a distance and this often presents as a dog charging the perceived threat.  A dog may also quickly move to their guarded item to block access.

While resource guarding behavior is a normal dog behavior, there are times when it becomes a problem in the human world. If your dog’s resource guarding has been intensifying and escalating over time, it’s appropriate to seek training help to stop it from becoming worse. And if your dog has exhibited any aggressive behavior toward a human or dog, it’s time to get immediate help from a qualified behavior specialist. 

In cases involving aggressive behaviors, it is crucial to seek out a certified, ethical, evidenced-based trainer who can consider your individual circumstances when creating a behavior modification plan.  Many different maladaptive behaviors can look like resource guarding behavior to the unsuspecting dog owner. Having a qualified behavior professional assess your situation is essential to understanding what your dog is actually trying to communicate and why.

Dogs may guard for different reasons. For example, a dog who is worried about access to their resource is likely experiencing fear. The training solution is to help the dog feel differently in these situations so they don’t have as strong a desire to guard a particular resource. 

While problematic resource guarding is often maladaptive, that’s not always the case for all dogs. Certain dog breeds were purposely bred with guarding behavior as the breed standard and those dogs may also experience strong emotions when their resources are threatened.  In such cases, the behavior may not necessarily be fear-based. That’s why understanding your dog’s breed(s) and genetic make-up can help you make a good decision about what sort of dog you’d like to share your home with. Owners of guardian breeds must understand this and set up their dog’s environment to prevent problematic guarding behaviors from being practiced and rehearsed.

Resource guarding is also heavily influenced by the relationship between dogs. When two dogs are just getting used to each other, set the stage for success by removing any resources from the environment that could potentially cause conflict. This might mean picking up all the toys and chew items and then only introducing those items back into the environment after the dogs have a positive history together. It’s also perfectly fine to use a permanent management solution and simply not have toys out at all during dog/dog interactions. 

If you have more than one dog, prevent guarding behavior of food by always feeding the dogs separately during meal times, even if you’ve never had a problem. And please leave your dog alone when they’re eating. One of the fastest ways to create a resource guarding problem is to pester a dog who’s eating by touching them, placing your hand in or near their food, or taking the bowl away. Let your dog eat in peace.

But what to do if you absolutely need your dog to give up a valued object? Always start by trading them for some higher value food treat, the more irresistible the better. Chasing your dog or yelling will only encourage them to run away from you or show more problematic guarding behavior the next time around. Yelling "No!," scolding, or forcefully taking the item may make a dog show increased aggressive behavior and tends to degrade the relationship further. It can also teach a dog to swallow the object as quickly as possible before you approach to pry it from their mouth, not a behavior you want to reinforce. 

Given your individual dog’s behavior, you may want to arrange your environment so your dog doesn’t have access to certain items. This may look like using a baby gate to prevent your dog from having access to the kitchen. Or getting a garbage can with a sturdy lid so the dog can’t help himself to stolen food trash whenever you turn your back. 

But for all dogs, you’ll want to focus some of your training time on teaching a reliable drop-it cue. On a walk, teach your dog to walk on a loose leash around distractions, to leave a distraction alone when cued, and to respond to a solid drop-it (you’ll also want to address any underlying anxiety that is causing your dog to scavenge excessively). At home, teach your dog to go to their bed when cued, and also work on cues for “up and off it” and “backing up.” For off-leash time, you’ll absolutely need to train a solid recall and make sure it is generalized for any distractions you might run into when out and about. 

Finally, help your dog to read other dog’s social cues appropriately and provide the support they need by positively interrupting and redirecting at the first signs of trouble before things escalate. And just for fun, teach your dog to retrieve an object, trade tug toys back and forth, and put their toys away in the toy basket. 

Living with dogs is a rewarding and wonderful experience that most of us wouldn’t trade for the world. Understanding resource guarding as a natural dog behavior is essential for setting your dog up for success, just as it is for the multitude of behaviors dogs use to communicate with us every day. 

Proactively teaching your dog skills to deal with coveted resources will allow you both to coexist peacefully with each other and with others. Dogs will be dogs, after all, and it’s our job to help them live successfully in our human world.