#181 1st Time Offender

Ever wonder why your perfectly trained dog suddenly "forgets" all commands when you enter a new environment? The answer lies in understanding how differently dogs experience the world compared to humans.

Chapters

• 0:00 Watermelon Puppy Incident
• 0:39 Discovering Resource Guarding
• 1:40 Diffuse, Don't Engage
• 3:22 Distraction Techniques
• 5:40 Handle Now, Fix Later

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:03

So there's this video going around right now. It's a young puppy, maybe five or six months old, lying on the floor playing with a big old watermelon. It's really cute. But then someone leans down to pick up the watermelon and the puppy shows clear signs of resource guarding, and you can hear the surprise in the person's voice. My guess that was the first time they realized that their puppy might guard objects, and that's exactly what I want to talk about today.

Speaker 1: 0:39

Resource guarding doesn't usually announce itself with a warning flyer taped to your dog's butt. It shows up in the moment. Maybe you go to pick up a bone or move your new rescue off the couch or, in this case, try to grab a watermelon and boom, the dog stiffens up, he growls, snaps, maybe even air bites, and suddenly you're thinking what just happened? And that's how most people discover that their puppy is a resource garter by accident, and unfortunately these moments can get heated fast. Your adrenaline spikes, you're a little panicked, the dog's already amped up and things can escalate in a way that makes it worse for next time. So here's my piece of advice if this ever happens to you, if you discover that your dog or your puppy is a resource garter, don't try to fix it. In that moment, when you experience your dog's resource guarding behavior for the first time, that's not the time to try to problem solve. Why? Because if we push, if we try to grab the item or raise our voice or corner our dog, we run the risk of teaching them to guard harder next time. We run the risk of teaching them to guard harder next time. They learn oh, when I growl they still try to take it. Maybe I need to escalate, or they might learn look, the growling worked. Guess I know what to do next time.

Speaker 1: 2:20

So the goal in that moment is simple Diffuse, don't engage. And here are a couple of things that you can try. First, act casual, disengage immediately. Don't make eye contact, don't say their name, don't look at your dog and say I can't believe you're a resource guarding. Any attention we give him while he's resource guarding only reinforces the guarding behavior. And don't worry, we can come back and address the behavior later when calmer heads prevail.

Speaker 1: 2:54

But for now our goal is not to make resource guarding a rewarded behavior. So instead of asking how do I get the watermelon away from the dog, ask how do I get the dog away from the watermelon. That's the goal Get the dog away from the item without escalating the situation or inadvertently rewarding it escalating the situation or inadvertently rewarding it. So instead of trying to wrestle the object away from your dog or stand there and say drop it, drop it, drop it over and over and over again, maybe casually, head to the toy box, sit on the floor, squeak a toy, roll a ball, just start being fun somewhere else and let your dog choose to disengage. But this is very important Do not look at your dog. Don't look and say, oh look, I have a toy, come get it. Remember any attention that we give him while he is resource guarding, the more likely we will inadvertently reward the behavior. Our goal is to create just enough intrigue for him to willingly disengage from what he's doing and to come see what we're doing.

Speaker 1: 4:11

If you've got two people at home, start a mini game of fetch or tug again away from the guarded object. If your dog leaves the object to join the fun, great, engage him in play and when you get the opportunity, calmly pick up the guarded object and put it away. But again, don't look at or talk to your dog. Just let him decide that what you're doing looks like more fun than what he was doing.

Speaker 1: 4:43

And you can also use the old fridge trick. This is the one I do when my own dog doesn't want to get out of bed and go outside. I'll go to the fridge, I'll open that noisy sliced cheese drawer and I will start crinkling a sliced cheese wrapper, make it sound exciting, keep crinkling until you hear the dog moving your direction. No eye contact, no saying come here, get your cheese. Just be casually doing something else. Just be casually doing something else.

Speaker 1: 5:22

And when your dog leaves his guarded item and comes over to investigate, toss a couple of tiny pieces of cheese across the floor away from the guarded object. So they scatter and he runs around gathering them up and while he's busy, go back, grab the object he was guarding and put it away. So if your dog ever guards something a toy, a couch, a watermelon and it surprises you, don't react emotionally, don't try to fix it right. Then Just diffuse, back, off and distract. Come back to it later when everyone's calmer. Off and distract, come back to it later, when everyone's calmer. Because how you handle that first moment often sets the tone for whether guarding gets better or a whole lot worse.