12/07/2025
Resource guarding can be a big struggle for a lot of owners, and is something that needs to be taken seriously as it does create a bite risk for anyone around the dog. However, like lots of areas in dog training, there is conflicting information online about how this behaviour should be worked through, with some schools of thought suggesting messing with the dog's food in order to gain compliance. 😓
So what does the science actually say??
Well, a 2017 study into resource guarding found that messing with a dog's food bowl actually created an increase in resource guarding behaviour, rather than the decrease that dominance based training states, and it was adding food TO the dog's bowl rather than removing it which created a decrease in the behaviour.
Why does this work? 🤔
Let's imagine you are eating your dinner and someone comes out of the blue and takes it away. You would quite rightly be quite annoyed, and if this started happening on a regular basis, once you saw this person approach when you had your dinner you would put steps in to stop them taking it. Perhaps putting your arms around it, holding it closer, yelling at them to go away, or putting your body between them and it. However, if this same person turned up and offered you your favourite food in return for what you currently had you would start to have a different emotional response to their approach. Every time they turned up you would get excited, associating them with bringing positive options for you rather than loosing the one option you had. This is exactly what it is like for our dogs! They do not know the logic and reasoning why we may want to remove something from them, just that we are, and so will naturally learn to defend objects should this become a regular occurrence. But if we are adding something positive to their experience, they will start to feel happy and safe in our presence instead.
So, if your dog is showing signs of resource guarding I would always recommend to contact a qualified trainer to show you the safest and most effective way to work on the struggle for your individual case. But what the science shows is messing with your dogs food is certainly not the answer. 🐶
You can find the study quoted in the graphic here: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0167587717301253
