Content
- What is resource protection? How to identify a jealous and possessive dog?
- Protection of resources in other species
- jealous dog with everything
- How to prevent resource protection in dogs
- 1. Train him to drop objects on command and ignore things
- 2. Avoid resource protection with toys
- 3. Avoid protecting resources with people
- 4. Avoid protecting resources with food
- Don't forget that...
- What to do if my dog is jealous and possessive
- What to do when the dog growls at you?
- What to do if the dog bites you?
The dog that suffers from the protection of resources is the one that "protects" through aggression the resources he considers valuable. Food is perhaps the resource most often protected by dogs, but it is not the only one. So there can be what we might call dogs jealous of food, places, people, toys, and just about anything imaginable.
Resource protection has always been used to train property watchdogs. In fact, territoriality, which causes a dog to act aggressively towards strangers, is a particular form of resource guarding in which the dog protects a certain place. However, this is not a typical form of resource protection, as the dog only protects the territory from strangers.
In this PeritoAnimal article we will detail for you what a jealous dog and the protection of resources and how you should act to eliminate this behavior that can become very dangerous.
What is resource protection? How to identify a jealous and possessive dog?
In typical forms of this behavior, the jealous dog or resource protector reacts to proximity to both acquaintances and strangers.
If you've ever met a dog that doesn't allow no one approach your tutor, then you've met a jealous dog with resource protection (in this case, the resource is the guardian). It's similar to the situation when you can't approach a dog when he's eating or has a toy in his mouth.
This overprotective strategy, combined with aggression, is very common among dogs, and allows them to defend their possessions when other dogs try to take them away. When a dog has taken possession of a resource (food, toy, etc.), others generally respect this situation., even if the first dog is smaller. However, if another dog tries to take this feature away or come closer, the first dog will react with a growl or aggression. And that characterizes resource protection.
Of course there are cases where a larger dog can take a resource from a smaller one, but these cases usually only occur when the availability of that resource is very limited and the resource is essential for survival.
Protection of resources in other species
Although it is best known in dogs, resource protection is not unique to this species. On the contrary, is a typical behavior of all social animals. Many years ago, when I was still in college, I could see this behavior while doing an ethogram of a group of jaguars in captivity at the zoo.
This (completely unnatural) group consisted of 12 ounces and they were all fed at the same time. When a piece of food had no owner, jaguars would fight for it. But when one of them took this food, none of the others tried to take it away (with rare exceptions). This had nothing to do with dominance or other similar interpretations, because even Cindy, the weakest and smallest jaguar, was respected when she ate her food.
However, if a jaguar approached another jaguar that had food, the latter would start a series of aggressive displays. If the first continued to approach, the common result was an attack to protect their food.
jealous dog with everything
While protecting resources is a natural behavior for dogs, it can become dangerous for humans and especially for children. In fact, it is often young children who discover that their pet dog is a saver of resources, because they do not assess situations well when they approach him and often end up suffering the consequences of this, such as growling or even aggression.
To make matters worse, the dog that is protecting a resource can generalize this behavior to various features. Thus, a dog that starts to protect its food can start to protect its toys, the sofa, a certain person and other resources that are valuable to it. In the end, you will have a dog that is jealous and possessive, as well as aggressive, with everyone who approaches anything.
Of course, a resource-protective dog can also generalize its "victims" by attacking humans, other dogs, and even objects. But can also discriminate, attacking only individuals of one species (eg, only humans), individuals of one sex (male or female, but not both), individuals with certain physical characteristics (eg, only males with beards), etc. Therefore, it is common for many tutors to say that they live with an extremely jealous dog.
The good news is that it's relatively easy to avoid a puppy becomes a resource saver and it is not that difficult to eliminate the behavior in most cases in adult dogs (although there are some cases that are more complicated than others).
How to prevent resource protection in dogs
If your dog is a puppy and has not yet shown signs of developing resource protection, you can prevent the problem from developing with the following tips:
1. Train him to drop objects on command and ignore things
Both exercises teach you self-control, which reduces impulsive reactions, and they also teach you that giving up resources (toys, food, etc.) can have very pleasant consequences (rewards, praise, etc.).
2. Avoid resource protection with toys
To avoid having a dog jealous of toys, the ideal is to work with him teaching him to let go of objects. Toy recovery must be a fun activity in which we offer the toy to the dog regularly, retrieve it and offer it again.
The important thing in this case is that the dog does not feel that we are "taking away" his precious toy, but that we are sharing a fun activity with him. Nor should we try to take the toy out of your mouth. Visit our article on teaching your dog to drop objects.
3. Avoid protecting resources with people
This is, without a doubt, the most important part of protecting resources. If our dog considers us (or someone else) as his resource, that's not a good thing, it can take us seriously. aggression problems. For this reason, we will work meticulously on the dog's socialization when he is a puppy so that we don't have an extreme jealous dog.
As we've already mentioned, socialization involves animals, people and the environment. In this case it will be important to introduce him to people of all kinds (adults, children, teenagers...) and let them caress you, offer you snacks and treat you correctly.
If this process develops properly, our dog will not suffer from the protection of resources with people, as he will understand that humans are friendly and good to him (and to you).
4. Avoid protecting resources with food
Avoiding this problem is relatively easy. To do this, we will start offering pieces of feed directly from our hand to our puppy to reward you in training or in the behaviors we like him.
We will then start offering him food from our hand before we put his food in and we must make sure that he watches us as we empty the food into his bowl. This insight will help you understand that we are the ones who provide the food generously. This will help you not to protect this resource from you, as it is very common to find jealous dogs with their own food.
When we see that he trusts us completely, we can even bring our hand close to the bowl when he is eating. Especially if he is a puppy and has never shown any kind of aggressive or possessive attitude before, no problem should arise. Never give him the special food if he shows any signs of aggression, in which case you will be reinforcing the aggressive behavior.
If no problems occur during this program, you should continue prevention until he is an adult. To do this, you can simply give him food from your hand occasionally, and the rest of your family will do the same. This usually happens during the training of obedience, as you will be using a lot of tidbits during dressage, so there is no need for a special program.
Don't forget that...
All the exercises we explain should be applied to puppies, never to adult dogs that already suffer from resource protection. In this case, and mainly to avoid aggression, we must go to a professional.
What to do if my dog is jealous and possessive
Generally, jealous dogs suffering from resource protection warn us before attack with growls, a light and constant sound that alerts us not to continue with our intentions. If we still get close, he'll probably bite us.
In other more serious cases dogs bite directly, that's when we should work on bite inhibition, a complicated issue when the dog is an adult and this should always be done by a qualified professional. behavior problems.
What to do when the dog growls at you?
When the dog growls at us, it's warning us of a imminent aggression. At this point, mastery and other training criteria based on punishment become totally dangerous, as they can provoke an unexpected reaction on the part of the dog.
Furthermore, we should never reprimand the dog, as this could invite him to think that it is preferable to attack than to "warn". A behavior that, although bad, is good. the growl is part of the dog's natural communication.
The ideal is not to force the situation and be careful with the limits that the dog accepts and adapt to them. In these cases, especially if we are not knowledgeable about dog training, the best option is to go to a professional who will explain how to train our dog, what guidelines we should follow for our specific case and some exercises to deal with the resource protection, like teaching a dog to release objects or practicing to improve the food possession habit.
What to do if the dog bites you?
Again, let us repeat that it is not advisable to scold or punish the dog. We must avoid at all costs aggressive situations that, in addition to being very dangerous, stress the animal and seriously worsen the relationship with us. In these serious cases, we must immediately resort to a professional.
Now that you have a better understanding of how the issue of resource protection for a jealous dog works, we continue to talk about the topic in specific situations in the following articles:
- My dog is jealous of the baby, what to do?
- How to avoid jealousy among children and dogs
- Jealousy between cats and dogs
And also in the following video:
If you want to read more articles similar to Jealous dog: possessiveness and resource protection, we recommend that you enter our Behavior Problems section.