Dog Community

Resource guarding

Posted : 5/15/2006 9:07:22 AM

We have a 4 year old boxer/lab mix, Maggie, and a 2 year old golden/lab mix, Mac. Both are fixed. We had an incident this morning that I'd love to get some insight on. Let me give you some background. Maggie is our alpha, and Mac generally recognizes that. When he was going through adolescence (8-12 mos.) he occasionally would challenge Maggie over resources. His attitude was "what's mine is mine and what's yours is mine, too!". She generally let him have what he wanted for a while, but we had a few scuffles as they would both go for a toy at the same time. We worked on that by never leaving toys or bones lying around the house, and reinforced Maggie as the alpha by always feeding her and petting her first. We also worked on NILIF with both dogs but especially with Mac to reinforce our status as pack leaders. He has come SO far in the last year. He now defers to Maggie all the time, like if we put a plate on the floor for them to lick, he always lets her have first go at it and won't even approach until she's done. If we're playing fetch (we always will have two balls), he will let her get her ball first before getting his. Great. We haven't had any problems for about 8 months or so. They're normally best buddies.

This morning, I fed the dogs, and Maggie finished her food first. Mac sometimes will take a few pieces of food from his bowl and walk to the carpet to eat it. Today, since Maggie was done, she kind of hovered close by while he did this. I saw her walking toward him and told her to stop, but the next thing I knew they were going at it. My husband and I got them separated and they only have a few scratches. But this has never happened before over kibble. Mac has never displayed any resource guarding with us, my husband and I can easily take anything away from him. So I'm wondering, how do we deal with this? Today, Maggie should have left him alone, but he initiated the fight. I have read about hand-feeding to help with resource guarding - do you think I need to do that with Mac? Obviously, we need to make sure they eat separately. I already make them sit before they get their food. We probably need to work on the "leave it" command with both, especially Maggie.

So Mac's issue specifically seems to be guarding what he considers "his" from Maggie. Any suggestions on how we address this? Thanks.

luvmyswissy

Posted : 5/15/2006 11:00:35 AM

Hand feeding and techniques as this are used when you and your dog have a problem with resource guarding and leadership issues between you and your dog. What you are experiencing is normal pack dynamics and rivialry within a multiple dog household. Some multiple dog households have little problems with this wheb managed properly. When it comes to the dogs in the house, someone has to be Alpha and someone has to be Omega - for it to work. And dogs are happy with either providing they know which one they are.

Here is an excellent site explaining these dynamics and how they should be handled. [linkhttp://www.petpublishing.com/dogken/articles/topdog.shtml]http://www.petpublishing.com/dogken/articles/topdog.shtml[/link]

loveukaykay

Posted : 5/15/2006 11:03:30 AM

Just my two cents. Mac seems to totally recognize Maggie as alpha, and abide by that. The fact that he lets her lick plates first, and she gets everything first... Now, I could be worng, but even though he sees her as alpha hes got to draw the line somewhere. She went for HIS food. Seems like he was just trying to say OK your alpha but you CANT just walk all over me! Like that she went over for his food maybe was just too much and he had to do something. I think the whole alpha thing is going to be established between them in their own, regardless of what you do, and I kinda feel bad for him always being treated like second in line. Maybe try to treat them equally, have your husband help you and give the food to them at the same time. You are the leader and after that is their business....

Kayla was BY FAR, BY FAR! the alpha dog around here, but she got her food last because she was the only one who would patiently wait for it. Lucy and Minnie gobbled it up before you hit the ground, Kayla would never do that, just sit in her spot and wait patiently. Also with treats... Minnie was such a hog and Kayla never fought over it, just let her have it instead of racing her to it on the ground, she just waited for you to give her another one. But she was very bossy to them in other ways... they didnt mess with her. I think they had it all figured out because a fight hardly ever happened. My point is that maybe you are causing some jealousy, and he jut got tired of it. Dunno, just a thought.

Another thought... even though they are always best friends and do have the line up worked out, they will periodically get annoyed with each other and possibly get into it. Its just natural. Just get on each others nerves sometimes...

Welcome!

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Posted : 5/15/2006 3:28:15 PM

I think that both of the previous replies are great insights. I think that the issue that you are facing is pretty much normal ad you have a great grasp on the situation already.
I'm no proffesional but I just wanted to add that with my girl I notice that if I start to let up on her or be leniant she walks all over me. It sounds like you have put a lot of time into the NILF program and other types of training. I say just keep at what you are doing and good job for being aware of the "pack mentality" our dogs possess!

cakana

Posted : 5/15/2006 3:33:24 PM

We have a 4 year old boxer/lab mix, Maggie, and a 2 year old golden/lab mix, Mac.

There's a good chance that Mac, at 2 y.o., is hitting a time in his life where he's going to try to exert some influence and not be quite the submissive young pup he once was. I have two females that fight over resources, and separating them when they eat was the first (and easiest) problem solver. I wouldn't take a chance of this happening again. Not only because of the damage they can do to each other, but anything you can do to prevent a fight, is advisable and this is one of them. Hopefully, the resource guarding won't continue with other things, but I'd keep a close eye on them and I wouldn't allow them to have bones or those types of treats while they're near each other, especially if you're not there to supervise.

Xerxes

Posted : 5/16/2006 1:22:15 PM

When we had 3 headstrong dogs ( 2 pekes and an akita) mealtime was doled out in three very specific and seperate areas. This led to very little food aggression. The only time we ever witnessed any food aggression was when the akita was on prednisone and had an appetite to kill for, actually it was more of a food obsession. And he tried to go for the female peke's food. She set him straight pretty quickly, but did end up taking a paw to the head in the process.

So I'd suggest perhaps you'd consider seperating the dogs at mealtime.