Help with resource guarding

[ianvincent]

I have a beautiful 9 month old Australian Cattle Dog I adopted about 5 months ago. Sometimes during the day while I’m working, she stays at my mom’s house with four smaller dogs and loves her time there. Recently, if I stay at my mother’s house for dinner she has begun to snap at the other dogs if they go near me or her food bowl. If I am sitting at the table, she will guard me and explode out of nowhere if one of the other dogs comes to me to be pet. It’s literally 0-100. I don’t know where this behavior came from. It’s only developed in the last month or so. She also has no problem with the other dogs being near her food if I’m not there. It also seems to not be an issue when I’m standing up, only when I’m sitting down.

Does anyone have a similar experience they were able to work through? I would love some advice. The behavior is very out of character for my sweet girl.

Also please note she has never attacked or bit the other dogs, so far it’s just aggressive barking and tooth gnashing.

 

[grace53]

@ianvincent Keep her in another room or crated when you eat. At mealtimes for the dogs, also feed and crate her separately.

Resource guarding is not uncommon for herding breeds, and ACDs are notorious for this. Management is definitely your friend here.

 

[skupi]

@ianvincent I'd also cross post to r/puppy101

I don't have much advice, but you definitely need to work on that situation not being able to happen. Best thing to help with resource guarding is to mitigate it completely

 

[ianvincent]

@skupi Thank you! Will cross post when I have a chance!

 

[followingjesusdaily1975]

@ianvincent My sister’s dog had issues with resource guarding and after watching trainer videos on TikTok she started hand feeding only. This does not include putting your hand in the bowl as she eats, in fact they strongly advise against that. Took a few months of that and her dog no longer resource guards. Been about a year since and still no issues at all.

 

[gdssldier]

@followingjesusdaily1975 Please read the sub rules and posting guidelines, particularly regarding trainer recommendations.

 

[followingjesusdaily1975]

@gdssldier My apologies!! Just corrected!

 

[chosenremnant]

@gdssldier Shut up

 

[ianvincent]

@followingjesusdaily1975 Thank you!

 

[eront]

@ianvincent Feed her away from the other dogs and keep them away from her food.

Guarding is natural, and it's instinctive. It's likely to worsen rather than improve unless you allow her to have her food where other dogs aren't present.

 

[ianvincent]

@eront The food bit isn’t the biggest problem, we’ve already begun to feed her separately from other dogs. The larger concern is that she won’t let any dog approach me while I am sitting - I’d really like to nip that behavior in the bud.

Also just to clarify, she does not exhibit this behavior if my mom feeds all the dogs together, it is only in my presence.