Hello!

I was hoping for some advice or insight into whether or not neutering will help with resource guarding. Gus is a rescue, and he is 7mths old, not neutered yet. He used to have to fight his brother for food in his first home and so he has always been a food guarder around other dogs. Around humans, he is an angel. I can take food right out of his mouth and he has never snapped or growled at me once. With the food guarding around other dogs, I always feed him separately, and when giving out treats, I make them take turns. However, he has snapped at a couple dogs for sniffing the treats in my pocket. I have since stopped bringing treats out with me on walks!

But recently, he seems to be guarding his toys when we go to the park now. In the past 4 days, i have noticed that he guards his ball if another dog comes into the park. At one point, I put the ball away in my bag, so there was nothing to fight about. Instead, he ran over to the spot where we were playing fetch, and started frantically looking for his ball... i'm assuming to guard from the other dog. Once the other dog left, he was still frantic and trying to chase after the dog. The weird (or maybe not?) part is that the day before this, he was happily sharing a stick with this same dog. Just laying in the grass together and chewing on the same stick like best buds.

He only recently started becoming interested in playing fetch and chasing after balls though. So I'm wondering if this is just his new obsession? Or could this be partially due to the fact that he is hitting that age where he is starting to feel the need to guard his things?

Also, we are planning on getting him neutered in a couple weeks. So i was wondering if it would be a good idea to just not have toys around him when other dogs are around until then? My theory is that if this toy guarding is due to the hormones, then if I prevent the urge to guard before he is neutered, then maybe he will not learn this behaviour and it will be easier to deal with after the neuter.

I know better than to have food and toys lying around if another dog comes over to our house. But it is a different story when we're at the park, and someone else brings a toy. I always take it away from Gus if he manages to get his hands on it. But then he just becomes completely fixated on this toy and goes crazy trying to pull towards it (I have him on a leash).

Any advice or experience would be really appreciated!! Thank you!!

Helloooo? Anyone?

Just wondering if anyone noticed a difference in resource guarding after a neuter. I am planning to neuter regardless, so it's not really a question of should i or not. And of course, I plan on continuing his resource sharing training too so i'm not neutering him just because i don't want to train him.

I'm sure someone will chime in, but I don't think resource guarding is related to hormones or neuter.

You can look through some of these threads that may help: https://www.itsahuskything.com/search?search_keywords=resource+guarding

It may be best to not have toys or treats while you're around other dogs with Gus until you are able to work on his RG, but in the situation where another dog has toys I'm really not sure.

Thanks for the reply! I really appreciate it.

Yah, I am very careful with him at the park when there are other dogs around, whether toys are involved or not. So I will keep doing that. I was away this weekend, and had him in a boarding facility. I told them about his recent toy guarding, but their update email said he was playing very nicely with the other dogs. And i know there are toys all over the place during group play. So maybe it is just with SOME dogs, and not all dogs, or with SOME toys, and not all toys. What a silly boy.

Thanks again!

I love your username!

I can only share my own limited experience but Caper seemed to have stopped resource guarding after neutering. I don't know if it was due to the neutering or if he just realized that there is an abundance of food to go around and he doesn't need to guard, but he had stopped barking at the other dog when they were getting treats and food. He would even only watch as the other dog stole his chew toys...

But last night I think he had enough with her constantly stealing his stuff and really gave her a scolding. I don't know if this is considered guarding or just being pushed over the limit. Even a human being would react the same way to constantly being robbed.

haha thanks!

Gus is ok with sharing food as long as it is a person handing it out (like a treat). But if it's a bowl of food on the ground, then he'll guard that.

I've read that for rescues, SOMETIMES, they eventually stop guarding food once they realize that they will always get a meal. But i don't know... everytime it's meal time, Gus acts like I've been starving him for weeks!!!! He goes INSANE! When we do have a dog come over to our place, we put all food and toys away. Pretty much anything he could possibly guard, including his kennel and bed, we put away. And i have never had a problem with playing inside the house. So i guess he's at least not territorial haha.

I'll keep you posted after the neuter!

I will definitely be watching along as you go through this, because I am in a very similar situation with my dog Balto. I do notice that sometimes it is only certain toys and sometimes only certain dogs with us as well. Very strange! Haha.