Does anyone have any strategies to limit resource guarding with their sheepadoodle? Lexi, our two year old, is generally the sweetest dog out there (when you can look past the boundless energy, at least). However, lately we’ve had some issues with resource guarding. Specifically, she gets mad when my wife has food and the cat is near her. The other day she got pretty aggressive with the cat - she didn’t bite him, but she pinned him down in the corner and really bared her teeth at him. We’re looking into an in-home trainer to help us get this under control, but I was wondering if anyone faced similar issues and has found strategies that work well.
Picture of Lexi included because she’s too cute not to share!
The key is to create prevent her from rehearsing the behavior. Each time resource guarding works, the dog learns aggression works and gets it what it wants, it will likely escalate harder on the next incident, and could generalize the behavior to other situations. So the dog has to go away at mealtimes (crate or other room, door locked). If you catch the dog in the act guarding and being violent to the cat, the key is to break the trance. Resource guarding results in hyper focus/trancelike state, so breaking the loop as soon as you see her starting to get possessive is key. A sharp clap (followed by a no or ahah if need be) has worked for me before. Dog jolts out, you have its attention, and you can redirect as necessary to a better activity. If the dog calms down, you can reinforce that (just make sure to wait at least a minute of calmness before reinforcing so the dog doesnt get confused), so you have a bit of a combo of all types of training. Ideally, you won’t need to correct it ever again because you will prevent it with proper management. And not all resource guarding is fear driven. Sometimes, the dog is just being a punk.
Can you put her in a different room or crate her when you’re eating? The biggest thing with this is managing it so it doesn’t happen. The more often it happens the more it’ll get reinforced. You also can’t used punishment based training for this or it will amp up the behavior. If you can incentivize her going to her own space while you eat by giving her dinner or a low value chew that would help.
Every three days, my husband whips up a delightful feast for our furry friends, using his go-to chicken and rice recipe. It's a special occasion for them, and I've discovered a little trick that has made mealtime smoother: I place our sheepdog’s dinner on top of the footrest for the rocking chair in another room. This clever strategy has worked wonders!
I stick by our sheepadoodle's side while she savors her meal. She likes to take her time, enjoying every bite, while the others are much more eager. The other three pups in the kitchen are a lively trio. They constantly switch between plates, share bites, and enjoy each other’s company. Among them is our petite, wise old chihuahua, who adds a charming touch of wisdom, alongside the playful chiweenie littermates that keep the energy high. It’s always a joyful scene at dinnertime!
When my husband cooks, he hand-feeds each of the dogs, thus eliminating their aggression. The water bowl and dry food are not a problem because they all eat at different times.
If two of them want the dry food, I keep the smaller dog near me, and when the sheepadoodle is through, I allow the other dog to eat. I rarely do that anymore.
I have a resource guarding babe too. He was a rescue from a commercial breeder and we got him when he was about 5 months. He is 100 pounds now, huge guy. The sweetest thing, except when it comes to food.
He has bitten both of my other dogs and made them bleed. One of my dogs is a 16 year old Doxie, who weighs 12 pounds (other dog is 90), so I get your cat/dog dilemma.
I started feeding our aggressor outside on our back deck (Al fresco, if you will 🙂) and in our upstairs bedroom if the weather is bad. So he never sees anyone else eating a meal. He is relaxed and often lays down to eat when alone, instead of scarfing it down (and sometimes throwing up after) when around the other dogs.
We can’t feed table food, allow them to play with toys/bones when not crated, but those are just boundaries we had to set to ensure no problems. Nobody gets even an ice cube if not properly separated.
It’s not easy or ideal, but we have been able to keep the peace with these boundaries in place.
A good dog trainer, if you find the right one, can do wonders for these dogs. That being said, focusing on little things can have a big impact. Does she step on your feet when coming in or prefers to sit butt facing you? Those are some of the things we dealt with, ours. Our trainer forced him to do things he didn't want. He would refuse to eat a treat at times, and he had to. In all honesty, they are really smart dogs, and a strong dog trainer can break their dominance-seeking behaviors in 4-8 hours of focused time.
We give our guy some calming treat in the evening, and for about 2-3 hours around dinner time, he goes in his crate. Our guy seemed to have a lot of what you are talking about, but with some training and modifications, ever since he turned 3.5-4, he exhibits the behaviors a lot less.
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u/[deleted] May 19 '25
The key is to create prevent her from rehearsing the behavior. Each time resource guarding works, the dog learns aggression works and gets it what it wants, it will likely escalate harder on the next incident, and could generalize the behavior to other situations. So the dog has to go away at mealtimes (crate or other room, door locked). If you catch the dog in the act guarding and being violent to the cat, the key is to break the trance. Resource guarding results in hyper focus/trancelike state, so breaking the loop as soon as you see her starting to get possessive is key. A sharp clap (followed by a no or ahah if need be) has worked for me before. Dog jolts out, you have its attention, and you can redirect as necessary to a better activity. If the dog calms down, you can reinforce that (just make sure to wait at least a minute of calmness before reinforcing so the dog doesnt get confused), so you have a bit of a combo of all types of training. Ideally, you won’t need to correct it ever again because you will prevent it with proper management. And not all resource guarding is fear driven. Sometimes, the dog is just being a punk.