I may need a little help

[Meg's mum]

After a difficult week for the household, I thought I'd take Meg to an off leash dog park for fun. Meg interacts with dogs all the time in the highly controlled environments of our doggie daycares and training facilities. She greets dogs on walks elegantly and sweetly.

 

I went to the opposite side of one of the large feilds and tossed her frisbee and ball. Dogs came up and she greeted them. They wandered off.

Then came an old Beagle. Meg kept her distance. I'm rather fond of beagles (believing I may have been one once) so I did something idiotic. I handed the beagle a bit of puppy pepperoni. Meg attacked the Beagle, she railed in and snapped at its snout. It responded in kind and I stomped between them and shouted "Stop". They did.

 

The owner of this dog was way off on the outskirts walking like a robot on the trail encircling the feild. The beagle went off and came back I body blocked it from access to Meg and it dove in and stole the bag of pepperoni.

 

Later I had put water for Meg and a dalmation/boxer?mix trotted toward Meg while she was resting near me and before it was even 8 feet away she went out on rails, in a snap and growl.

 

I have never seen or heard of her having ever displayed this behavior. I can and do pull things out of the back of her throat, stick my hand in her food bowl, etc. The cat nibbles her snacks and gets little more than a paw over the shoulders and an ear lick.

 

I don't know if she's just unsettled about bears etc or her having turned 8 months old, marks a sea change in her behavior. She's been particularly fearful since her spay.

 

I'd like to chaulk this up to an adventure and simply stay vigilant. Is this too non chalant?

[mosstheboss2000]

Sounds like she is resource guarding to me.. not fear.. food , water... maybe you

[Meg's mum]

That's the most comforting of thoughts.

[Cheri McDonald]

Our Rob is a resource guarding brat as well and that is what this sounds like.

 

But Heidi you said Meg is only 8 months old? Maybe someone else can advise, but could she be going through a puppy fear period about that age too?

[sandra s.]

Sounds like normal resource guarding to me, too.

 

Give her a pat for not walking up to other dogs and "persuading" them to give her their toys like my oh-so-sweet little cutie likes to do

[Allie+Tess&Kipp]

My two resource guard me (not from each other but they do from other dogs, Kipp from any dog, Tess from dogs she knows) but only if there is food in the picture. This is even if I am not the one with the food. So, when we go to parks and stuff, if I have treats, I put them away when other dogs come near and all is fine. "Putting them away" is just not having any in my hands for my purposes.

 

I have explained countless times to my mother-in-law that if she does not want my dog to beat up her dog, she cannot give out treats when they are all together. I have given up explaining this, as she obviously does not care if her dog is cowering under a chair somewhere.

 

I have found that if I mostly ignore dogs that come up to me, my two do not care one way or the other about the approaching dogs.

 

I have found that dogs with polite dog manners are treated politely by my two. This is very easy for me to spot, they are the dogs that lay down as soon as they spot my two. Kipp is always looking a little defensive but curving around, and Tess is doing her submissive things. If the dog lays down, I know everyone will be fine. If the dog does any calming signals, I know all will be fine. If not, I call my two to come with me and we go the other way.

 

Allie + Tess & Kipp

http://weebordercollie.com

[Meg's mum]

Thanks. This all makes sense to me. Sometimes I wish I had you all in my pocket, but I s'pose I have to make some undefined number of mistakes before I'm even a little wise.

 

If Meg understood, she'd thank you too.

[Tassie]

My Kirra resource guards too - food, her crate, her personal space say under a chair - but it's not totally consistent. Sometimes she'll allow things, and sometimes she won't. The more tired she is, the more snarky she gets. She usually doesn't guard against known dogs (her extended pack) - but occasionally she does.

 

What I do about it depends on the circumstances. I guess if I see it coming, I'll warn other people off - like if she's tired and in her crate or under a chair at an agility trial. I'll intervene when she does it to my Fergus.

 

A more pro-active thing friends and I do is to do what we call a "line-up" - have our various dogs sitting together in a rough sort of line or semi-circle - depends how many dogs, and wait nicely for a treat. Each dog gets a treat - sometimes from one handler, sometimes another - and the order we treat in is always different, or randomised.

 

A friend's Border Collie bitch resource guards her owner - but again, not consistently, and usually not from known and trusted dogs. Like me, she'll tolerate a warning growl, but not any overt aggressive action.

 

All of that said, Meg could be in a fear period now, so I would be trying not to expose her tofearful or stressful experiences - and if they happen, be sure to treat them very matter-of-factly as far as possible. (Yeah, right - easy for me to say when we don't have bears in this country!)

[Keegan's Mom]

I'm a little confused what she would have been resource guarding during your rest? I usually see resource guarding as staying close to the spot of the resource...not charging a dog that is still 8 feet away. However, Heidi, I may be misinterrupting your description above.

 

This is what I see in my dogs...Keegan the "dog aggressive dog" and Tess the resource guarder.

 

I say dog aggressive dog lightly because I have only seen Keegan "charge" another dog on less than a handful of ocassions...once with Becca's Ann and once in our neighborhood and maybe another time I could be forgetting.

 

Keegan and I used to go to an unofficial dog park with a group of friends and socialize very well...until between 12 -14 months. At first, it was around 12 months with just dogs that were inappropriate with him then at 14 months with all new dogs. Now I can have him off leash around most other dogs, but he prefers to not be bothered...so I cannot take him to a dog park situation. If a dog tends to come near him then he will turn his head and give a warning growl to be left alone. On several ocassions he has gotten into fights but it was hard to determine who started it.

 

Tess is my resource guarder. She could care less about the cats and Keegan around food. She gets highly upset when some dog she doesn't know gets near her food bowl...however, she is civil during treat time with other dogs and she waits her turn. The thing she is most protective over is water. She thinks the water is hers. The way she resource guards it is that keeps her head low in the bowl or she plants herself in the water bucket and if another dog comes near she air snaps at them...then back to thing she is guarding. She never strays from the object she is guarding. This is why I don't necessarily believe that Meg was resource guarding she strayed 8 feet away from the object.

 

However, this is my observations of my dogs. The

"aggressiveness" can develop as they get older but remember there are different levels of aggression too...like Keegan doesn't usually go looking for a fight BUT he doesn't appreciate visits from other dogs either.

 

Hope this makes sort of sense.

[Meg's mum]

Barb,

Meg's a soft BC and her little life has been subject to all kinds of stresses. She gets lots of dog time during the week so adding off leash parks may have to wait a bit. It would be nice to find one segregated by age. She's only just eight months. Thanks for the suggestion.

 

Rachel,

I will take your distinction to heart and be vigilant. Meg didn't go out eight feet to the approaching dog. She charged out about two feet from where we were sitting at her waterbowl when the dog got to about eight feet away. It backed off before she engaged. Still...I'll keep aware.

[Beth G]

I have seen Poppy guard his water from other dogs. I never knew that they did this. I only thought that they did it with food. He may have been guarding it because I brought the dog bowl from home and it was his. I don't know. He hasn't guarded me from other dogs.

 

However, I have had dogs that do this. I sometimes think a little of it could be jealousy too.

[Keegan's Mom]

Beth...I'm not sure they distinguish a bowl from home from any other bowl. Tess guards water almost everywhere she goes. When we were at Julie's a couple weeks back...Tess tried to keep Keegan from getting in the same wading pool she was in. I don't think there is a difference.

 

And yes - dogs do resource guard anything they find valuable...in Tess's case it is water!!!

[Beth G]

Lol.... well when Poppy guards the water from Pepper, she simply flips the bowl over with her paw and walks off like she is saying,

 

"Enough of you!"