Behavior Challenges: Resource Guarding

You may have been told to never disturb a pet while they are eating — this is great advice! It’s natural for animals to want to safeguard a limited resource like food, so this is when we most commonly see resource guarding behaviors.

But what is happening when your pet is growling at you and no food is around? This could still be a form of resource guarding, where your pet tries to prevent others from accessing anything they consider valuable: a warm spot on the bed, a toy, a bone or even their favorite person.

Your pet may be thinking others will take what they have, and this activates their survival instincts. Resource guarding is a natural behavior in humans and animals, but if we don’t address this behavior in our pets, it can become dangerous.

Resource guarding can be genetic or can develop based on an animal’s past experience. For example, a person reaches into a puppy’s mouth 100 times to take objects away.  On the 101st time, the puppy sees this as a challenge and begins to fight back. With careful training and trust-building, you can help your pet better manage these behaviors and decrease the severity of their reaction when a trigger is present.

Your pet may be resource guarding if, when you approach them, they show the whites of their eyes, have a stiff body, hold their head lower than their shoulders, lick their lips, stare directly at you or growl, snap or bite.

You can also tell if they are resource guarding by their behavior. They may get up, take their resource and move away from you, eat faster, not allow you or a partner on the bed or couch, growl at anyone or any pet who approaches you, snap at a hand that wakes them up from a nap or hold their head over their resource while growling or showing the body language described above.

If you see any of these signs, it’s important to immediately move away and never enter the power struggle. Trying to assert dominance, pick them up or push them off the bed can provoke a negative response, such as a bite.