Resource guarding - what's acceptable

[Midas]

Hi,

I'm not talking about with people here but in households where there is more than one dog what do you think are acceptable levels of 'resource guarding' people have between their dogs as acceptable communication...My mum's dog is very protective over the sofa and will growl if her other dog comes near to it and will not allow her up there, a couple of times he has launched himself at the other dog, not bitten but alot of menancing growling going on. I sometimes find it a bit distressing but know all dogs will do this with each other, however, sometimes I think it might be going a bit far.

What do you all think?? Any ideas on managing this? (apart form banishing him from the sofa- which I think could make things even worse!)

[Black Red + Yellow]

I think you have to come to a decision what you find is acceptable and what you find is not....that is your personal choice and then become consistent in sticking with it.

It's hard when dogs don't completely get on, I have the same.  We got Alfie 2 years ago (the ginger boy) and Finn was far from pleased....and he let Alfie know for quite a while...it was touch a go whether we would could Alfie to be honest.

We found that Finn just needed his confidence to be built up and trust that we would deal with the situation - we showed him that we would intervene if Alfie was in his face or stealing his stuff and once he realised it was us that decided who got what, he relaxed with Alfie.

I can only comment as to what we have done - it might not be correct but the boys haven't had a fight in months, if they are cross with each other now, it's just a bit of posturing and a growl so I think we have it right for us.....You need to be as un-reactive as possible if a situation arises because if you add shouting into the pot, you increase the heat.   If the boys have words, we stop the situation calmly and lead them into a different frame of mind by diverting them away -  20 minutes later, they will be licking each other

If the boys growl at each other on the sofas, they are immediately put down onto the floor and we walk away from them....they've learned the sofa is for peace.

Certain situations will never go away, you just have to manage them.....Finn likes to try it on and steal Alfie's bones.....we calmly retrieve and give back to Alfie, pick up Finn's bone and put it straight in his mouth to re-affirm this one is yours.

It's very hard trying to keep the peace...good luck

[fizzyntiffy]

I'm sure someone will be along who knows what they're talking about.  But just to say if either of mine are on the sofa and growl at the other who's on the floor they get turfed off the sofa straight away with a toneless 'off'.  The sofa is mine, and I'm the one who says who can go on it iykwim.

The other night Sasha who's 1 was sitting on the back of the sofa, she growled at Tiff who's 6.5 - and in the blink of an eye Tiff had Sasha pinned to the wall behind the sofa, lots of growling etc, I didn't react at all, and within 30 seconds (it felt like 5 minutes) Sasha had slunk off and Tiff went stomping back to her pillow in triumph      

They do have occasional set to's - Tiff will guard my DD if she's eating chocolate, and woe betide Sasha if she wanders too close.  Yet they'll sit side by side in front of us if we're eating our dinner on a tray, and scavenge together for dropped food without a peep.

I think what Black Red & Yellow says is true really, you need to decide what is and isn't acceptable - & once you've decided, be consistent.

[Midas]

I really agree with both of you, I think if we aren't comfortable with it we need to draw the line, just so worried about intervening sometimes as think it may flare it up even more, and when they are so close o each other and all the growling is going on I worry that splitting them up may provoke one of them to bite the other one. 

Anyway, like you said, think boundaries need to be made clear, just need to work out the best way to split up calmly and let them cool down without much fuss??

aaahhhh!!!! Its so hard with dogs sometimes!!

[Top Barks]

my lot guard stuff from each other all the time and it is not all one sided, i think if it was all one sided then i would be proactive and take steps to minimise the triggers, but in my house I pretty much let them get on with it unless it effects me in some way(IE i want a certain dog to sit next to me and another is guarding the spot) In that case that dog gets sent from the sofa until the other dog is up and then it is re invited up.
remember guarding resources from other dogs is a pretty normal behaviour for dogs and their pretty used to their own form of communication whether that be growls snarls etc or appeasement gestures and calming signals
As others have said it all depends on how much your dog being a dog impacts on you as the owner as to whether you feel the need to intervene.
I also think we can sometimes cause more problems by trying to impose some sort of hierarchy onto our dogs.

[Hurtwood Dogs]

I'm extremely lucky with my two as they are work very well together. Normy grumbles at Dave all the time but just because he smells and he's a boy more than because she means anything by it - she's never done anything other than groan and grumble Dave never growls at her but he guards his stuff from her and will spend ages plotting how to get stuff off her (cocker law). She's pretty pathetic and lets him take things then comes and cries to me or gets in a huff so I do occasionally take her things back off Dave and give it to her - but more so because I'm a sap than because I think I'm doing anything in particular.

The only time I've experienced it more severely was with a working Lab that I used to look after when I had Trev. The lab would guard me from Trev and snap at him, which I couldn't handle seeing.. so the lab got shut out I'm afraid and softy Trev got his place back on the sofa with me