Brand New Foster Resource Guarding?

[Guest DiforDan]

We have two male dogs and have decided to have another dog.

 

We are in the first few hours of an informal(for now) fostering arrangement with a lovely brindle bitch called Posie. We have been allowed to "try her out" with our two boys because we do a lot of fundraising for the Rescue and we are well known to them.

 

This bitch is a kennel dog who has only been over here from Ireland for two days. She has never known a home life. Everything was going so fabulously well, my boys were keen to sniff her (a lot, as she is a girly!) and she and they were incredibly chilled together.

 

Then she found a stuffie. She was really killing the stuffie, then my lovely (blind with PRA) and fun-loving dog Pingu came back into the room and because she has a stuffie she really growled then went for him, teeth bared. We separated them and put her muzzle on, then Pingu approached again and she got very nasty with him again and was quite obsessive about the stuffie and was still grabbing it through the muzzle as if she was claiming it as hers.

 

This is sad because up to then she had been adorable with us and with our boys. As it is such early days (hours!) should we just calm down and accept that they had a little skirmish and this is to be expected in a multi-dog household? Or does this tell us that she is not for us, and my poor Pingu might be attacked?

 

So many of you do fostering and have loads of dogs, I would really value your opinion on what we should do. I think maybe we should not have brought a kennel dog home, but waited for one of the dogs who has been fostered and whose personality is better known?

[NeylasMom]

I think it's really very early to tell what the dynamic will be like a while from now. I've seen a lot of my foster dogs resource guard right off of the track only for it to go away on its own. If you think about it, these dogs have never had access to such great toys so initially toys are very high value. As they realize that the toys aren't going away, the value decreases and so does the desire to guard them. On top of that, stress levels for the new girl are really high right now, which makes it more likely she will react that way in a situation where she might not otherwise and that too can go away with time.

 

Having said all of that, there are plenty of dogs who are guardy over food, toys, space, etc. My first female Neyla certainly was. She was pretty mellow about it, a little growl was all that was usually needed to tell the other dog to back off and it was never an issue for us because the other dogs respected her, but that's the way she was. You can do some work to train the behavior away, but if this girl is generally going to be a guardy dog, a home with a blind dog may not be the best fit.

 

I would say only time will tell, but from the way you phrased it, it sounds like you may be fairly intolerant to the idea of a new dog coming in and being pushier than the existing dogs in the pack, in which case you might want to consider adding another male, or a very young female to your household.

Edited March 27, 2012 by NeylasMom

[djsgreys]

In my experience, resource guarding is NOT at all unusual with brand new to home life hounds. Most of them have never had toys, never had bones etc and if they have, it has been while in the secured environment of their crates so they have not learned to share. I don't give stuffies or bones to new fosters until they have really settled into the pack and found their "comfort" place in the house. Usually it does take a week or two.

 

Another note, the muzzle truly is your friend and the best safety tool ever invented. I muzzle everyone when I am not right there to supervise whenever we have a new foster.

 

 

 

 

[Guest DiforDan]

 

I would say only time will tell, but from the way you phrased it, it sounds like you may be fairly intolerant to the idea of a new dog coming in and being pushier than the existing dogs in the pack, in which case you might want to consider adding another male, or a very young female to your household.

 

That is very perceptive of you and you are right. We do not know a lot about this bitch, as we said she has only been over here two days and her full details are still being looked into. Her age is between 2 and 3. That is very young isn't it?

 

Are you saying that because in your experience bitches tend to be bossy / guardy?

[Guest DragonflyDM]

I know that bitch is just a term for a female dog...but it is not common to my vocabulary and has always been used as a pejorative...so it just really sounds like you are gangsta to me! LOL.

 

 

Let's say that there isn't any preference to the animals in the house and your "female" is demonstrating resource aggression. My question is-- are you willing to accept that is something that happens and work with the animal or are you worried about keeping an animal that may always have some of that?

 

If you look at the energy flow, animals guard and become aggressive because they feel insecure and lack confidence. If they are confident that no one is "taking" from them and that there is plenty to go around-- the animal can relax and let things be. Many people confuse defensive behavior as aggressive behavior.

 

Don't tolerate aggression but deal with it as a calm confident leader. Redirect their attention and reassure the female that they are in a safe place with a strong caring alpha. Don't overly pet or coddle (that is usually not alpha behavior). Think the stoic strong king who inspires his men to battle.

 

Then get a trainer to help you with defensive aggression.

 

Whatever you do-- don't punish a dog for being scared (which they are), be patient, don't discourage growling (growling good-- biting bad).

[MaryJane]

Keep the muzzle on and give it a a week or so and see whether the behavior settles a bit. As already noted, this is probably the first stuffie that she might have ever seen and played with and she just wants to keep her "toy" and is giving a warning to the other dogs that it's hers.

 

You might want to pick up all the stuffies and put them away - you don't want to have any aggression coming out when you are not prepared to deal with it. Take the girl outside, assuming you have a fenced in yard, and throw the stuffie for her and let her play with it and then at the end ... take it away. Note, that you will need to be careful taking it away because she might not want to give it up so you also want to have some treats in your pocket to do a "trade-up.

[NeylasMom]

I should have posted this in my first response. Here's a great article about resource guarding amongst dogs and how to manage/address it.

 

 

I would say only time will tell, but from the way you phrased it, it sounds like you may be fairly intolerant to the idea of a new dog coming in and being pushier than the existing dogs in the pack, in which case you might want to consider adding another male, or a very young female to your household.

 

That is very perceptive of you and you are right. We do not know a lot about this bitch, as we said she has only been over here two days and her full details are still being looked into. Her age is between 2 and 3. That is very young isn't it?

 

Are you saying that because in your experience bitches tend to be bossy / guardy?

It's a huge generalization, but yes, I think you are more likely to see that type of behavior more consistently from a female than a male based on my observations over years of fostering. Really big generalization though and honestly, I haven't encountered many dogs who remained big resource guarders after settling in. Dogs are dogs, which means any dog will growl, snap or even bite if presented with the right circumstances and dogs are individuals, meaning some males can be particularly prone to being guardy while other females absolutely are not.

 

My female is a perfect example. She's not yet 3, generally a loving, affectionate sometimes underconfident girl (if you even look at her out of the corner of your eye she is splayed on her back hoping for a belly rub). No signs of being possessive, perfectly happy to do whatever you want so long as she thinks she's doing what you want and will get some love and pets. Until the day she got raw tripe for the first time, at which point she did everything she could to keep me away from it and eventually snarled and snapped when I stupidly didn't listen. Raw tripe = REALLY high value to a dog who has only been raw fed for a couple of months.

 

There have been greats suggestions so far. The additional training tip I could give you if you are worried about her guarding with you is to teach a "give" cue, also known as trading up. You are accomplishing 2 things: 1) you're teaching her that giving up items results in good things happening, not bad, therefore eliminating the need to guard in the first place and 2) you're teaching a "cue" that allows you to safely take an object away from her if needed.

 

Teaching it is pretty simple. Give her something that she will find valuable, but not super high value (so perhaps for her start with a toy, not a bone). Have really high value treats in your pocket (think cooked chicken, cheese, bits of hot dog, that sort of thing). Say "give" one time, then toss the treats to the side. Toss them far enough away that she has to get up to get them, but make sure she sees you throw them. You may initially have to drop a trail of treats so the ones closer get her attention and then she follows the trail to get the rest. In the process, she will drop the item in her mouth to get them and when she is getting the treats that are farthest away, you can safely pick up the toy. When she comes back, immediately say "take it" and give it back to her. Not only was she rewarded for giving up the item, but she got it back! In other words, in her mind absolutely no reason not to give something up when asked because she'll get it back and she'll get some really yummy food in the process.

 

Once she's got the hang of that, you can very gradually start to toss treats closer, but only when you are certain she is comfortable iwth your presence around the toy. I would watch for signs of stress - wide eyes, reluctance to leave the toy, etc. Those are all signs she isn't comfortable yet and you don't want to take the toy until she has willingly dropped it and moved away. Eventually you'll be able to say "give" and drop the treat directly in front of her, and then move toward just holding the treat out after you say "give". The ultimate is that she just responds to the cue, at which point you immediately reward with the food then tell her to take it.

 

Finally, never take an item away without trading up unless it's an emergency and practice this training exercise periodically to reinforce the cue.

 

Take the girl outside, assuming you have a fenced in yard, and throw the stuffie for her and let her play with it and then at the end ... take it away. Note, that you will need to be careful taking it away because she might not want to give it up so you also want to have some treats in your pocket to do a "trade-up.

Agree except to say I would not take the toy away. I would either let her play until she's finished or trade up.

Edited March 27, 2012 by NeylasMom

[Guest DiforDan]

DragonflyDM, your comments about the word "bitch" really crack me up! I am British and not very "gangsta" at all, and we invented the language in the first place, and bitch does indeed mean female dog!

 

And there is no way I will slap this bitch up either! I would never punish a dog for being scared or anything else, but perhaps a few firm words or growling of my own!

 

She did not growl. Our other dog, Slinky, does that warning growl thing. This was definitely lunging and baring teeth.

 

However she has been adorable the rest of the time and I now realise I was silly to relax my guard and let her play with the stuffie - I should have seen that one coming, her being so fresh off the track and all. We will move onwards and see how we get on.

 

If she has serious ongoing guarding issues we may have to decide she is not for us, we need a relatively easy dog this time as our other two have been a bit challenging. Hopefully this was just me not being diligent enough on her first day.

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[NeylasMom]

That seems like a reasonable approach to me. Honestly, I'd be the first person to tell you to do some training and try to stick with it, but if she truly is a dog who will have issues with space or high value items, the mix with a blind dog may not be the best, especially if she isn't going to give subtle warnings. And your group shouldn't have an issue with it if you went into it with a fostering sort of arrangement.

 

However, I will say that she still was warning, just more forcefully. If she had wanted to hurt your other dog, she would have.

[Guest DiforDan]

Thanks. I have just had a message from someone over in Ireland where she comes from, to say that she was being fostered over there for 3 weeks and she had to be muzzled "on some occasions" because she was aggressive with other dogs. This news has made me quite nervous to have her in the house with our other two. The other one is blind in one eye, very spooky, and we suspect a bit deaf too. next time we will do more homework I think. Shame as she is so pretty and affectionate with us.

[NeylasMom]

Can you separate her from the other dogs when you're not home until you have a better feel for her personality? Either by crating her or by babygating her into one room? Sounds like she's been bounced around a bit lately so stress levels are likely high for her. You can also muzzle all of them when you leave (if you're going to muzzle one, technically you should muzzle all of them), but separating them woudl be safer and would allow you to leave her unmuzzled with something to do, a stuffed kong or something like that.

[Guest DiforDan]

Sadly we took Posie back to the kennels today as we simply can't cope with another problem dog. I have had 5 dogs in my lifetime and all of them have been "problems" in one way or another, and at the moment we just can't cope with another one, and can't risk our gentle boys being attacked.

 

Hopefully she will find a fosterer who can cope with her behavioural issues and get her right for her forever home. In every other way she was a dream, but I have found from experience that aggression is the worst trait to have in a dog and the hardest to cure.

[Guest DiforDan]

Just to say that Posie is still, I think, up for adoption and we are hoping she will go into foster with someone who can deal with her resource guarding, or into a home where there are no other dogs.

 

Happy ending for us - sort of! We ended up adopting Pixie, who has been just lovely with us and the other dogs, and it's all going very well. But you know we said we couldn't cope with yet another problem dog? Well Pixie is fine except she has been diagnosed with hip dysplasia, which I understand is pretty unusual in a greyhound to say the least.

 

But when we, and our Pingu and Slinky, had already fallen for her, what could we do? So we have happily adopted her so we have our third dog and so far it is all working out very well.