I have, in the last two weeks, had a nine month old bitch returned to me as her owner, in her own words "can no longer cope with the severe resource guarding problem which has led to me being bitten several times.."

To cut a very long story short at the beginning of March I was asked to support the owner as she felt the puppy had "mental issues". Over the course of the next month I visited twice (at my expense) and offered advice and support to address unwanted behaviours (which I never witnessed myself, although I spent several hours there at each visit). We also discussed socialisation, training and diet. I called daily to check that all was well and then suddenly received a call asking me to collect the puppy as she had bitten her owner. I again made the 2 hour trip to be told that she had changed her mind and would persevere with the training and routines I had given her. As the owner would not pay for a professional behaviourist I funded this; he stated that the puppy had a resource guarding issue and gave the owner an action plan to follow. Two weeks later I received another call stating that the puppy had bitten again and I ended up collecting her.

She has now been part of my family for two weeks. She follows our house rules and has a very stable routine. She has been introduced to my own girls very carefully and she mixes well with the existing "pack". She has shown no aggression to any humans, at any point, but does show apprehension and slight fear around men. I have witnessed two small episodes of food resource guarding (but she is very underweight) and two episodes of floor/space resource guarding, which I have addressed through a simple technique.

I have a couple (with no children) that would love to offer her a forever home. They know the breed very well and I know them very well. They already have two existing dogs: a mongrel bitch aged 13 & a dog of the same breed as my girl who is 2 years old.

My questions are:

1} how long should I keep her in my home before being able to confidently say that she is a "safe bet"?

2} am I seeing her true colours, or have I been lulled into a false sense of security?

3} can an older puppy's resource guarding simply stop when they are introduced to a new home?

There was a feeling of tension in her previous home and I wonder if this fed the anxiety which in turn led to the resource guarding? If you have lived with a dog with resource guarding issues I would value any thoughts you may have. If you have ever had to rehome an older puppy in a similar circumstance please share your experience.

I feel that I should add that I am in no rush to rehome her, she is the priority. I am just worried that if stays too long in my home it will cause her greater upset and anxiety when (and if) she leaves for her forever home. (If staying with me is her best option then she will always have a home here.)

Did you ask them how they tried to deal with the resource guarding?

I ask, as there has been a great deal of copying of the methods of a certain TV trainer of late, which would only lead towards an insecure dog feeling even more insecure, and upping the stress levels.

I would like to know more too. Define "bitten" -was the person actually injured, was it bruising or broken skin? And above all, how did it happen? What caused them to get bitten? Surely if a dog is resource guarding you use common sense and leave well alone if they have something they don't want to give up, hence you don't get bitten. And yes, what did they try to do, if they used CS methods it's no wonder they got bitten.

As for the length of time, I don't think there is a clear answer, but having had two dogs back myself as adults I can say that after just 2 weeks we saw very little indeed of their true nature. We THOUGHT we did but it did take a lot longer for both of them to really be themselves and be the dogs they are today. Months in fact. (One was a bitch aged 14 months when she came back, the other a dog who was aged 20 months when he came back. Both have stayed with me permanently so I have really noticed the difference.)

I think this really depends on breed and individual dog.
I bred a large, guarding breed.  I once got a pup back at 10 months as he got too much for the owner to handle.  He stayed with us for almost 2 months before I finally let him go to the home that was waiting for him as I wanted to get to know him properly and get some training into him with his new owners.
I breed another small, trainable breed who came back to me.  Turns out he was going crazy in his home because he wasn't being exercised properly and when they took him out, he was so over-excited, they couldn't enjoy any walks.  He came to me and I took him out with mine for a couple of weeks and he was fabulous.  He just needed more exercise.  He was homed straight away.
What I mean is, the first breed, I couldn't take a chance with any mistakes but the second was a much easier breed so I was confident to let him go earlier.

Can you name the breed?

Two weeks is not long enough to see the true extent of the problem IMO/E, especially when stress is involved - it really can skew things and as it can take a fair while to drop, some things get hidden for a long time.  An extreme example I'll grant you, but Phoebe was here for months before I was able to identify some of her triggers.

What was the action plan set out by the behaviourist?  With her underweight that will be seriously exacerbating any guarding issues - a dog I fostered briefly went on to bite his new owner badly over a food bowl because he was basically starving slowly, she was drastically underfeeding him and once he was in a new foster home and up to weight, the guarding and bad behaviour around mealtimes disappeared by itself.

If the potential new owners are experienced or at least very willing to learn and follow a good plan to the letter, then after some more time to get her settled and up to the right weight, I would certainly consider them.  Phoebe's last owners were amazing, they followed my instructions to the letter despite her huge guarding problems - the only reason she's here is because the environment itself was not suitable (too noisy for a noise phobic dog).  If not, then I'd wait for a better home - but be aware that with an aggression issue, this can take a long time.

Agree after just two weeks the pup will still be on it's best behaviour - it could take two or three month to really know if the pup will revert to the 'old' behaviour once it regains confidence.

If the new owners live near could they and you workout a programme so you could share the assessment of this pup's progress, may be they take care of the pup and you are given access every week for three months with the option to hand over ownership if in the view of all concerned the pup is going to be in what at the time at least is a forever home.

One has to bear in mind that different people have different levels of acceptance what to one may be unacceptable guarding behaviour to others will not be a problem at all - some people just extrude a level of authority and the pup will accept they do have the right to expect to be obeyed and other just don't have any natural authority and they are likely to accept a naughty puppy because they are not used to being obeyed.

Initially the owner did not recognise it as resource guarding. Occasionally when she walked past the puppy it would growl at her and she chose to just ignore it and carry on as normal. It was only when the puppy bit her that she decided to seek help. The puppy was fine until the owner went away for a week. She states that when she returned she saw a marked change in the puppys behaviour but thought she would just settle back down.
She had not dealt with the resource guarding at all until the bite, which in my opinion, has allowed the problem to escalate. By the time I arrived the puppy was guarding food and floor space. I asked her to change the pups food and increase the quantity as she was very underweight, I also advised that at least one meal per day should be fed totally by hand, organised 4 training sessions they could enjoy together every day (based on removing something with the phrase "can I have that please?" and replacing it with something better), gave tips on appropriate exercise, and told the owner to always have a treat bag attached to herself so that every time she approached the puppy she could offer a fab treat so the puppy always saw her approach as a positive experience.
Unfortunately the owner was not consistent in her approach (by her own admittance) so she saw very little change.

The owner described it as "the puppy lunged at me, biting my arm twice, causing broken skin and bruising. It was a series of several attempts to bite me, some of which caught me and others which I managed to avoid."

At the time the puppy was stretched out in the hallway and she went to walk past. She admitted the puppy had been growling at her for several weeks in this area before the biting occurred, but she had chosen to ignore the puppy thinking it was "just a phase".

The owner had taken no action until she had been bitten, at which point I was involved.

What a shame -you gave such good advice which could have made all the difference in the world! Judging by the way things turned out though, if it was MY pup, as the breeder, I would wish to keep it for at least 2 months before I would feel okay about rehoming it.

The plan included very much what I had already suggested:

Change food to high quality kibble and increase quantity

Attach a house line and have the puppy sit & stay before access to other areas is granted

3-4 training sessions per day to learn that when things are removed they are replaced with something better and that humans always have something better to give them than the thing they are guarding.

Hand feeding at least one meal per day

Time out zone

I have introduced all that the behaviourist suggested

Hats off to a superb breeder darwinawards.  You really went the extra mile to help support the initial owner and likely ended up quite out of pocket.  And you are clearly doing everything you can to smooth her transition to her forever home.

I hope anyone considering breeding reads this thread just to reinforce what commitment to the pups you breed might mean . . .

Thank you for a brilliant idea. The new family live within an acceptable distance for me to travel weekly to spend time with them all and continue to support the pups progress once in her new home. They are more than happy to follow any programme or guidance I give.

After feedback from others I do believe she needs more time in my home for me to truly assess the extent of her guarding so that we are all fully prepared for the challenges ahead. I have agreed with the new family that she will stay with me for at least the next two months so that I can continue to guide her through her adolescence and they will visit once per week to build a connection with her. We will then review her progress together and it will give them the opportunity to see and assess the responsibility they will be committing to.

The new family have met her once and are totally in love with her; they fully understand that the journey with her is not going to be an easy one, but there is mutual trust between us and they have agreed that they will take her when we all believe that she is ready. My only remaining concern is how to stop myself falling totally in love with her whilst she is with me.

If anyone has a dog that resource guards I would love to know of any techniques you have used successfully; also those techniques that were a disaster so that I can avoid those ones....

Thank you to everyone that has responded so far.. "the journey is always easier when someone takes the time to walk by your side a little"

Not sure of the size of the breed but that does matter because there are breeds that will hurt even if you are wearing protective clothes. Now I have this sort of experience with GSD's and One Elkhound and I have never allowed the behaviour to develop over any one situation, if food then it is moved to a different area each time or hand fed, it depends on if the dog is dog aggressive or people aggressive. If it is space or toy the area or toy is removed immediately from the dog so that objection have the opposite result to that wanted - in other words the growl leads to loss of the desired object.

Depending on the type of dog you may need protective clothing to actually deal with the removal of the dog from an area or remove the object being guarded I believe you need to be able to scoop up the dog or the object quickly, smoothly and without comment and there are dogs that even when pups require the trainer to wear  protection - the old sleeve of a heavy padding jacket sewn at the wrist to make a sort of long mitten is often enough to mean the dog will grab the sleeve and not the arm or hand. This sort of action is only necessary if the dog is really intent on doing damage but it is important that you are not hurt as it is important that you always "win".

Now of course if you can cure the problem with praise, titbits and distraction then that is the best way but there are times that this is not possible, and the only way is to teach that humans have the final say no matter what and do so without confrontation or physical chastisement over and above the removal. If honest I have resorted to feeding a food guarding puppy outside with a confident adult, a bitch that will not have any truck with a pup no matter what age, they teach them to get on with their own food or lose it (you would think this would teach guarding but it seems to teach the minding of ones own business and get on with eating because when the adult bitch has finished you will be pushed off your food and no amount of retaliation will stop the thief. Strangely these bitches would never treat another adult who was eating peaceably like this, only a dog making a fuss got the 'don't tell me what to do' treatment and loose their dinner for their trouble.

Realize this may not be the moden method but it works, does not mean you have to punish the dog just be in charge of the situation and you will get results without confrontation.

> If it is space or toy the area or toy is removed immediately from the dog so that objection have the opposite result to that wanted - in other words the growl leads to loss of the desired object.

This is an extremely risky strategy for most people to follow because it tends to result in escalation of the problem - and such situations as you describe which require the use of protective clothing.  No dog should be put in a position where it is feeling so threatened that such clothing is needed - if the guarding is that bad, then all access to guardable things or spaces should be restricted to prevent it happening to begin with, and the problem worked on initially in controlled setups.  The dog guards an item or space because it thinks it is going to lose that space, taking the item or space away just confirms to the dog that this is going to happen so they up their efforts next time.  I've had many people find exactly that response when they take an item away - Linc guarded the sofa ever so slightly from his last owner when first asked verbally to move, the owner then tried to actually remove him and nearly got bitten for his efforts.

I have people do swaps with higher value items, in controlled circumstances - so starting with giving the dog something low value that they won't guard, then swapping that for something slightly better, gradually increasing the value of both things.  So as has been said, the dog learns that the owner will always have something better.  If it's done thoroughly, the dog will give up something higher value in anticipation of something better, even if you've only got mediocre treats.

Space guarding in the dogs I've had with that problem has been a trust issue, so I work on teaching the dogs that I will heed any warnings they give - that actually lowers the warning responses because they relax and learn to trust me, and trust that I won't just ignore them and carry on making them uncomfortable.  I teach movement cues (pointing a direction to walk in, an 'off' cue, 'out' for leaving the room) outside of a guarding situation so that if such a situation does arise, I can move the dog calmly and without confrontation.

You may be right I have not done it in a professional capacity for many many years but have to say all the dogs I had to 'sort out' went on to live a happy life in a forever home along with the couple I own myself.

We had a golden retriever bitch who guarded 'her stuff' from an early age. She was my moms long awaited pup who came from a good breeder, however, she would growl/ snap from around 9 weeks. The breeder was very helpful and offered for her to come back but she stayed :) We used to stand outside the kitchen door ( her comfortable distance before she began guarding ) say her name and throw a yummy treat towards her bowl, eventually getting closer, as she realised good things happened when humans were near her bowl...eventually we could put the treat into her bowl. We did the same with her bed, dropping treats as we went past so instead of guarding she began to look at us for the treat. She was never an easy dog to live with and just when we began to trust her (at around 3 years old) she ran down the garden and snapped at my brother as he came outside because she had a ball. I have to admit I lost my temper with her, grabbed her collar, took the ball while giving her a proper 'what on earth do you think you're doing' talking to and marched her to the bin and threw the ball away...her face was a picture and she never really guarded after that!! We were always aware she might do something though so we took precautions, we had a room she could be in if my brothers friends or other children came ( who might forget the rules!) and she never had bones (too high value for her) She died last summer aged 13 and despite her problems we loved her to bits and she lived a happy life.