Hello everyone... here is our current situation. We have a 1.5 yr old chocolate lab named charlie and we just got an 8 week old husky named Scarlett. They seem to get along pretty good (as our lab is a complete wimp and not dominant at all). My question here is... how do you tell the different between puppy playing and resource guarding/ food guarding?

Scarlett plays with Charlie, but at times when it comes to toys and antlers she will take something from him and when he comes to play with or try and take it back from her she snaps at him... or pounces/lunges at him.

I know she is really young and is still learning what type of play is acceptable (my lab has whimpered a couple times when she goes for his ears or bites too hard on his mouth). I just want to make sure it isn't something we should be stopping or correcting.

Whats the difference between puppy (husky) playing (as i know it can be rougher), and guarding?

Hope that makes sense... and any help / insight would be helpful!

Thanks!

I'm definitely NOT an expert on behavioral issues, but Danzig has done this to our GSP Wyatt. They are both boys and it's Danzig's way of trying to establish dominance. We've let it play out and they have gotten in fights, but once they established their roles in the "pack" it hasn't been too much of an issue.

Again, I'm sure someone else porbably has better advice than me, but with my boys, the issue seemed to resolve itself.

For me personally, I can hear the difference. Even if you've never heard a dog's tone switch before, when you do, you'll know. We've got three dogs running around here. Callie's the puppy and the bully. She's constantly stealing toys from our 1 year old lab and if he tries to take it back, she growls or barks but I know it's in the play sense.
When she's got her Kong Wobbler or her dinner (she's fed raw = really high value), she growls if the other two come too close. This is a different growl though and I know she means business so I call the other two off.

I think usually when it's more serious guarding, it's like everyone freezes and all you hear is this low, long note of a growl. Watch the lips too. Playing, they usually won't curl their lips back. Guarding they will.

I don't really do much about the dogs guarding with each other. None of them show any guarding problems with people so I figure I'll let the dogs be dogs. If they're going to ignore warnings, they're going to get what they ask for. Now if she's guarding with you, that's a different story.

For the rough play, we also usually let this go for a little bit before we give our command that means to stop biting basically. Our lab used to gnaw on arms, legs, feet, anything so we assigned "shield" to let him know okay, it's time to stop. We use the same thing when the dogs get too rough with each other. They know it means to back off for a little bit and then they can play again.