My dog growls at guests over chews. How to stop resource guarding?

Question

I have a 1 year old Pomeranian/Chihuahua who is showing food aggression with his chews (Dried pigs ears and other things he carries around for a while). He doesn't show it with his regular food or treats and he is only showing the behaviour with people other than me. I am able to take away the chew with no issue but when other people go near it he growls at them. But if I am not in the room they are able to take it. How should I deal with this behaviour? Me, telling him off doesn't seem to help. Pet's info: Dog | Pomeranian | Male | neutered | 1 year and 5 months old | 8 lbs

Jessica Keay, DVM · Accepted Answer

I am sorry to hear about Koji! I would encourage you to work on training him with the "leave it" or "drop it" command, and once he is reliably doing the command with you then have a friend try it. You can read in more detail about resource gaurding at https://drsophiayin.com/blog/entry/treatment_of_food_possessive_dogs_is_about_finesse_not_force/ and while her description talks about gaurding food bowls, the same can be applied to other items. Until Koji is reliably using this command, I would not give him chews when others are present in your house to avoid interactions where he demonstrates this behavior.

My dog growls at guests over chews. How to stop resource guarding?

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