Resource guarding

Questions
#1

My dog just bit my husband.
My dog was chewing on some thread like stuff in the balcony. My husband had gone there to wash his hands. Pattani growled at him. They both came from the balcony and Pattani looked a lil restless. Ny husband asked me to remove the plastic thread like stuff, I was trying to talk to pattani. My husband was trying to get back to work so took one step forward and Pattani bit him. My husband got very very angry and he is very upset that our dog bit him inspite of being taken care off. He feels this is because my husband is the one who takes him to the VET. Im just very stressed out now. :frowning:

Could you please tell us what we should do? My dog seems upset and my husband is also upset. How can they improve their relationship and trust?

#2

I am so sorry, this is very unfortunate and creates a lot of tension in the home.

Let’s understand resource guarding and then how to deal with that.

Resource guarding is natural in dogs, but giving respect and letting go of the resource is also natural.

So, when do they guard their resource and when do they let go?

If you observe puppies in their natural habitat you will see them fighting with each other over a resource, and it is very natural for them to fight and claim, this is their way of living.

But you will also observe them surrendering in front of an adult or assertive energy. They just drop the object, lie down and show their belly whenever a dog moves toward them calmly but assertively.

Most humans do exactly the opposite, if they want to take any object from the dog, they either get tensed or shout or they lift their hand or they move very fast toward the dog or all of these.

Dogs do not understand that you care for them in the past, they only understand the association you have with the dog and the energy you are projecting at that moment.

So we need two things here:

  1. Creating Respect in the relationship
  2. Learning to project assertiveness

Creating respect in the relationship:

Taking to the vet doesn’t create respect, actually, it creates an association of fear from the dog’s perspective, if you want to create respect then the person must take part in following the five rituals of dogs

Learning to project assertiveness:

This is crucial and needs practice, at any moment if you feel that you don’t have time or patience then you should not practice it.

In your case, you could have used the leash instead of talking. Use a slip leash so that you can get the leash in the neck without bringing your hand near to his neck, once the leash is in the neck you can move the dog to a different place or start walking him so that he will forget what he was doing and then you can take the object.

The dog will create an association with the leash and whenever you do this he will drop the object and eventually just you getting up and moving towards him will be enough for him to drop the object.

Resource guarding is not an adult thing, it emerges during the puppyhood and if not addressed it keeps on intensifying, so during the puppyhood, we have to practice taking the objects from the puppy so that he can learn that humans can take the object and he has to give it peacefully and soon it becomes a habit.

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