[Sudden Resource Guarding, Considering Returning]

11 hours ago, HeyRunDog said:You don't say where you are as someone on this forum might know of a good trainer/behaviourist in your area.

 

You don't say where you are as someone on this forum might know of a good trainer/behaviourist in your area.

We’re in Minnesota, the Twin Cities area!

10 hours ago, MerseyGrey said:

As I understand it, you were trying to take his lead off him when he was eating a treat?

No, his lead stays on him at all times since he’s not yet potty trained or trusted to not try to get into anything he’s not supposed to. That way if we need to lead him away from something or rush him outside, we have a safe way to do so instead of grabbing his collar which a lot of dogs don’t like.

All I did was sit down next to him, which I do every night when he gets that particular treat. Didn’t reach out towards him or move to take it or anything like that.

 

[Sudden Resource Guarding, Considering Returning]

1 hour ago, greysmom said:

And resource guarding is manageable to live with if you follow some very simple rules.  Number one being don't ever try and take any high value item from him without paying for it.  We call that "trading up."  Use a higher value treat than the one you're trying to take from him.  Lure him away from the item, or toss the higher value treat far enough away that he has to leave the item, and pick the item up and put it away.  Easy Peasy.

In our house, we also severely limit the number of high value items we give our resource guarder - no treats that take longer than a minute or so to eat, no high value toys.  She will growl and snap at humans and other dogs, so we just don't give her the opportunity to get started.  When we first adopted her she was *very* difficult in this regard, but during the four years we've had her she's gotten much less "guardy" about certain things.  

I guess a concern that I have is that I don't know what's high value for him. The things he guarded were not newly introduced things. We'd played fetch multiple times this week with the toys he guarded and he'd happily dropped them when asked. The treat (a dentastix) is something he's been getting since almost day one, again never with any sort of guarding behavior prior to Thursday. I think that's where some of our anxiety comes in because we just don't know what he's going to react to or when he will react to it. The unpredictability of the entire thing is honestly scary and one of the big concerns I have with having people or children over. What if he decided to guard something he's never guarded before, just like these items. We have been practicing drop it, leave it and trading up since since he came home a month ago, yet still this is happening and seems like it might be extending into other things. Today when I gave him a piece of kibble for coming over to me in the house when called (kibble is his low value reinforcer treat), instead of eating it there like he usually does, he took it and then walked back across the room to his bed to eat it, which I know is a lower grade show of resource guarding.

 

2 hours ago, greysmom said:

Good call on not calling Barkbusters.  They are a punishment based "training" organization and shouldn't be used for greyhounds (or any dogs in my opinion).  Ask your vet if they have a recommendation for a certified animal behaviorist in your area, and make sure they only use positive reinforcement techniques before letting them near your greyhound.

My vet is the president of the adoption group we went through and his wife, the adoption coordinator, is the one who gave the Barkbusters recommendation, so I doubt he'd have anything different to give me. I've been doing some research of my own into trainers in our area, but honestly I just feel so overwhelmed and upset by this whole situation and there's just this constant voice in the back of my head that just keeps saying "What if we're not the right home for him?"

[Sudden Resource Guarding, Considering Returning]

We got our first greyhound almost 4 weeks ago and he’s been pretty good up until now. A couple of days ago, out of the blue, he has three resource guarding incidents (two with toys, one with a treat) and growled at me when I tried to touch his front leg to get him untangled from his leash.

These are all things he’s never had issues with before. We’ve been training drop it, leave it & trading up since day 1, have played fetch multiple times with him happily dropping the toys on command and have similarly been positively reinforcing touch on various parts of his body, all of which he has done incredibly well with (even let me trim his nails with no issue!). 
 

I’ve had dogs before but never a greyhound and never a resource guarder. My boyfriend has never had a dog before and both of us are very rattled by these incidents. We’ve found ourselves extremely anxious, scared and uncomfortable around our grey and have him muzzled currently because we just aren’t sure why he’s being set off by things that are not new. I contacted the adoption group and felt very unsupported as the only thing we were told is to do the training we’ve already been doing. They did mention contacting Barkbusters but the trainer in our area isn’t credentialed or certified, which has given me pause.

We’ve talked about possibly returning him because I’m so scared that it will escalate and result in a bite since my boyfriend is still learning about dogs and dog body language and doesn’t always see the signs he needs to yet. I also know that I want kids at some point and have young nieces & nephews and I feel nervous about the possibility of having children around a potentially unpredictable resource guarder. I worry we might not be the right home for him to help him work through these things.

This was long but I guess I just don’t know what to do and am looking for advice and support.