Resource guarding is defined as “the use of avoidance, threatening, or aggressive behaviours by a dog to retain control of food or non-food items in the presence of a person or another animal”. This means that our dogs could feel threatened by humans as well as other animals in the family.
As pet parents, these behaviours may seem confusing and even unnecessary to us. We always ensure an abundance of resources for our dogs-food, water, shelter, treats, toys, and much more! It may make us wonder, is there really a need for our dogs to feel possessive towards any of these resources?

To understand this behaviour from our dogs’ perspective, however, we have to look back at their ancestors, the non-domesticated dogs and the lives they led. In the wild, where resources such as food and water were scarce and the competition for them was high, our dogs developed resource-guarding behaviours as a crucial survival instinct. Going beyond barking and growling, they would often have to resort to physical aggression to protect their resources, to ensure their survival.

While this behaviour may have been critical to our dogs’ very survival in the past, in the contemporary setting, it may in fact be detrimental towards the same. Dogs showing resource-guarding tendencies may pose a threat to their as well as their family’s (human or non-human) life. An increasing number of dogs are also being abandoned or surrendered to shelters due to a behaviour issue that can be resolved.