Is my dog resource guarding me? I recently adopted a chihuahua mix female that is estimated to be 2 years old from a shelter a week ago. She had lived in the shelter for 8 months prior to that. We also have 2 male chihuahua mix dogs at home who are about 4-5 years old. In the week that we have had her, Mitzi has started barking and growling at the other two dogs as well as my husband and my 9 year old daughter. She won’t let my husband or daughter get near her or pet her. She is perfectly fine with myself and my 3 year old son. She follows me constantly and is never not in the same room with me. When I take a shower she sits outside the glass door and waits for me.
Yesterday I returned from being out of town for 2 days – while I was gone she was perfectly fine with my husband and daughter and the other dogs. He said she never barked or growled at any of them. Now that I’m home, she’s doing it again. I have a dog trainer coming over in 2 days but just looking for any thoughts you may have on what I can do about this? Is my dog resource guarding me? What do you think? Thanks in advance for your time.
Is My Dog Resource Guarding Me?
It’s great you are having a trainer coming in the next two days because sometimes you really need to have an in-person evaluation to really have a feel on what dynamics are going on. From a keyboard miles away, I will try to give my insight, but it won’t be as accurate as a professional coming into your home and observing what’s happening first-hand.
If your dog was resource guarding you, I would expect her to be putting herself in between you and your other dogs, and between you and husband and daughter. In other words, anytime, the other dogs or your husband and daughter would get close to you, she would bark at them and possibly lunge to “send them away.”
The barking and lunging would therefore be a distance-increasing signal, a way for her to put distance. Once the other dogs or your husband/daughter would move away, the barking would decrease and stop.
Resource guarding behavior tends to be strongly contextual, meaning that it tends to appear the moment the dog is feeling threatened and feels a need to guard his favorite person, bone or sleeping area and it tends to momentarily stop once the threat is over and the other dogs or people move away or the owner moves away and the dog is left with nothing to guard. However, there may be cases where dogs connect the dots and start associating triggers and the behavior generalizes and takes place in other circumstances.
[adinserter block=”4″]
From your description, it sounds like she is resource guarding when you say “In the week that we have had her, Mitzi has started barking and growling at the other two dogs as well as at my husband and my 9 year old daughter” but here I am missing one important key point… if your dog was resource guarding you, I would expect you to continue the sentence and add this fine detail: ” when they approach me.”
Afterward you mention: “She won’t let my husband or daughter get near her or pet her.” Again, I would have expected here for you to add this fine detail “when she’s around me.”
Now, if you are near her when she does this, I would assume she would likely be resource guarding you, but if Mitzi won’t let your husband or daughter get near her when you are in another room, I wouldn’t feel ready to classify that as resource guarding. To classify as a resource guarding, I would expect you to be near her, and that her behavior would be evoked by your daughter or husband approaching you. The approaching you is what should trigger the barking so to prevent them from getting near you.
So we are missing an important resource guarding element if this behavior happens when you were not around. Please correct me if I am misinterpreting the behaviors you have described me.
Not Feeling Comfortable
So if she was barking at your daughter or husband when you were at a distance or another room, why would she be acting this way? It is difficult to say, but here are a few assumptions. Please keep in mind that she is in a new place and has been at the shelter for quite some time, so imagine all the fear and stress hormones circulating in her body right now.
It takes time for a dog to de-stress and settle in a new home and it’s expected to see some nervous behaviors in the meanwhile, especially if your household has several family members and other dogs and lots of things going on. Lots of new sights, sounds, smells, etc going on! It can get overwhelming for a small dog.
It could likely be that she felt intimidated for some reason by your husband and daughter, perhaps they did something that may have startled her it could be anything, a sneeze, dropping something, talking in a loud voice. It could be she is seeing you as her safety anchor, a person she trusts more. If you picked her up at the shelter she could have seen you as her protector.
Now, I must say, there is always a chance that when dogs form strong attachments to one person they might feel compelled to resource guard. The sensation of safety can be valuable to dogs, just as a bone or food bowl!
A Matter of Trust
Seeing the behavior happen in first person can provide a more accurate assessment on whether she is resource guarding you or just sending people she doesn’t trust away. But as mentioned, the key element here is whether this behavior happens only around you or even when you are not around.
To make things further complicated, consider that sometimes behaviors put roots the more they are practiced, so there is also the chance that she may have initially started resource guarding you, and later managed to make the barking a default behavior to use to send your husband and daughter away just because she’s not totally comfortable around them. Sometimes dynamics as such happen too.
It’s interesting to hear though that when you were away for those two days, she mellowed down. One would assume that she started to trust them more and learned that your husband and daughter were taking care of her (feeding her, walking her, etc) and therefore she accepted them as part of the family.
[adinserter block=”3″]
But since you mention the behavior is back now that you are back, it could be you are truly dealing with a case of resource guarding or perhaps a case of a dog who just happens to feels more confident in your presence to send distance increasing signals to people and other dogs she is not totally comfortable with, but that in your absence she was forced to somewhat accept.
So again, I think having a clear set of eyes on the exact dynamics is invaluable, so hopefully your trainer can provide you with the best insight and can help you implement a safe and effective behavior modification program. I hope this has helped you somewhat, let me know if I can be of any further assistance.
Follow -Up Question 
Thanks so much for getting back to me – I really appreciate your answer. I asked the trainer: “Is my dog resource guarding me?” and the trainer said she barks due to “fear aggression.”
Also, based on your answer, I think it’s probably NOT resource guarding because she will happily sit next to me and my daughter/husband/other dogs. The barking mostly happens when my husband or daughter walk through the house.
I’ve also come to find that a lot of exercise helps her bark less. I’ve walked all 3 of the dogs for about 40 minutes every day since the day she came home but now I’ve taught her how to play fetch with a frisbee and that really wears her out which means less barking.
So with time I’m sure she will get better but I guess my follow up question would be – what are some ways to redirect her barking? At my family members and also when somebody comes to the door.
Although I respect the trainer’s opinion, he wanted to take her to his training facility (for a month) and I just don’t feel good about that.
Redirecting the Barking
Thank you for the update. Your details “she will happily sit next to me and my daughter/husband/other dogs” and “The barking mostly happens when my husband or daughter walk through the house” are important pieces of information and this helps me get a better insight into the situation. I must therefore agree with your trainer in that you are likely dealing then with fear barking.
This is not uncommon. As mentioned new dogs often need time to get accustomed to their surroundings. While some dogs may settle after a few days or weeks, some need more time. But here’s the thing, barking is highly reinforcing, and it is likely to remain unchanged if no intervention takes place.
Exercise may help reduce the barking because it may help relieve tension. Basically, as her body and mind tires, her threshold for being reactive likely lowers. Exercise is always an important piece of the puzzle when solving behavior issues such as fear and reactivity. Brain games can also help increase confidence.
If you presented me with your case, I would personally not really consider taking her to my facility for board and training. While I used to do board and training, I found this benefited the most dogs who needed to learn basic training and become more responsive, but for cases like yours, where barking occurs in a specific circumstances, I doubt that board and training could be productive.
In a case like yours, I would find coming into the home and working on the issue directly more productive. This is not to say the trainer you are consulting with isn’t helpful, it’s just that I feel that board and training has a certain place for certain circumstances, but not for this specific type of issue.
Behavior modification in a case like yours would entail creating positive associations. Here’s an example of work done with a dog called Molly : help my dog barks when somebody enters the room. Molly had a similar problem like your dog.
If you can find a trainer or behavior consultant that can guide you through a similar program, to get your dog used to your husband/daughter getting up from a sitting position/walking around or coming inside the home, I think you can see good progress. Also, may I suggest a great read? The Cautious Canine by Patricia McConnell.
As positive associations are formed, you can then move on to using her kibble instead of high value treats and asking her to perform a behavior like a sit or down followed by the treat to thank her for barking and alerting you of noises. You can even use a game of fetch or tug to redirect her. I hope this helps!
Disclaimer: If your dog is acting aggressively, please see a professional for safety and correct implementation of behavior modification. Behavior modification can come with risks. By reading my answers and articles you automatically accept these disclaimers.
[adinserter block=”5″]