Resource Guarding
Bruno
Bruno’s owners initially got in contact when he was a puppy, as they wanted to give him the best start in life. They signed him up for a Puppy Package so that we could work together at home before he started his classes.
We spoke about the standard puppy behaviours of biting and toilet training, as well as helping Bruno to settle in the night and prevent separation anxiety from forming. He absolutely smashed puppy classes and was an attentive learner!
Half way through his course of classes, his owners mentioned that he had been resource guarding. When he was given a high value treat (in this case, a cow’s ear) and they went to take it off of him, he snarled, showed his teeth and snapped. This really took his owners aback because he had never shown these tendencies before.
We spoke about how to handle if Bruno ever had an item that he shouldn’t have, rather than chasing him. We also looked at how to teach him to ‘trade’ and how to distract him when he has something he shouldn’t. It was also important for us to work on Bruno seeing his owners approaching him when he had his. cows ear as a positive thing that was going to add to his experience rather than a negative that was going to take away.
As with all his training, Bruno picked this up very quickly and his owners have had no further issues with his guarding behaviours.
Squitchley
This French Basset Hound is cute – and he knows it! But his behaviours were making life at home difficult for his owners. Squitchley would bite his owners hands, feet, clothes (whatever he could get hold of!); steal and destroy high value items (including a designer handbag!) and become aggressive if his owners attempted to take it away; mount people’s legs, backs, arms; pull on the lead, bite the lead and would not recall to his owners. There was a lot for us to work on!
First port of call for us was to look at the routine that Squitchley had as it was clear that he was over-stimulated. We looked at implementing a routine where Squitchley had ample opportunity to sleep, relax and have quiet, calm time. We also spoke about how enrichment could be used to increase Squitchley’s calmness.
Next, we looked at introducing some impulse control exercises and well as basic obedience so that Squitchley could control his urges and listen to his owners, rather than tuning them out completely. This massively reduced his biting behaviour whilst increasing his ability to listen out on walks.
We spoke about how we needed to manage our behaviour to set Squitchley up for success and discussed how to best tackle his resource guarding. This was tricky for his owners as the items that Squitch was prone to stealing were so high value to us – glasses, tv remotes and even a steak knife!
Squitchley’s owners were 100% dedicated to his training and he is now a different dog. He is calm at home, no longer bites for attention, rarely feels the need to steal items and is able to listen to his owner and behave beautifully on his walks.
This training journey took us three months from start to finish, with 6 sessions in total – his story really is a testament to the power of positive training. A very big well done to Squitchley!
