05/02/2026
Resource guarding isn’t about your dog trying to “be dominant.”
It’s about emotion, fear, and value.
This post does a great job explaining it and how we can prevent it—definitely worth the read 👇
I think it’s really important to talk about how we describe and approach behaviours like this.
I saw a post earlier about a young adolescent dog being described as “demanding all the resources”
and in many cases, what’s actually being described is resource guarding.
Resource guarding is when a dog feels the need to protect something they value, such as, food or chews, toys, a bed or resting spot, a person, or space
It can look like, hovering or controlling access, freezing or going stiff when approached, taking things and running off, growling or snapping
From an educated trainers perspective, this isn’t about dominance or a dog trying to be in charge.
It’s usually rooted in,
▪︎ Anxiety about losing something
• Not feeling safe around their resources
• Normal behaviour (especially in puppies and adolescents)
So when a dog is guarding, they’re not being “difficult”, they’re communicating:
“I’m worried this will be taken from me.”
This is also why it’s so important that we listen to the early warning signs, especially the growl.
A growl is not “bad behaviour”, it’s communication. It’s the dog giving us a chance to back off and change what we’re doing.
When we introduce things like “psychological pressure”, using body language, space, or intimidation to control the dog, we risk doing the opposite of what we want.
Instead of teaching the dog they’re safe, it can:
• Increase anxiety around their resources
• Make them feel the need to guard more strongly
• Suppress warning signals like growling
And when those warnings are shut down, we don’t fix the problem, we remove the safety signal.
That’s how you can end up with dogs who:
• Stop growling
• Seem “fine”… until they’re not
• Go straight to snapping or biting without warning
That’s what people often mean when they say a dog “bit out of nowhere”, but in reality, the communication was just suppressed.
That’s why approaches that rely on punishment, pressure, or making behaviour “unacceptable” can be so risky. They may stop the behaviour in the moment, but they don’t change how the dog feels , and can actually increase anxiety.
When we focus on changing the emotion, we get safer, more lasting behaviour change.
A positive approach looks like:
• Building trust around resources
• Teaching that people approaching = good things happen
• Trading instead of taking
• Reinforcing calm, relaxed behaviour
Resource guarding isn’t a dog being “bad”, it’s information.
And when we listen to that information, we can support the dog in feeling safe, rather than just trying to stop the behaviour.
