A Puzzle

[SkySoaringMagpie]

A dominant bitch resource guards her main handler from other dogs in the house. This results in displays of aggression, but she has never caused a puncture wound. It's mostly sound and fury signifying not a lot but bad manners. The main handler has no trouble getting compliance from her, nor does the other human in the house, except on this one issue.

When the main handler leaves the house for more than 24 hours, the resource guarding behaviours stop and things are much more peaceful. This is how the other human (ie, me) would like things to be all the time.

What questions would you ask? What would be your initial hypothesis given that she is quite biddable when humans ask her to do something? The behaviours occur outside the house too which mean that one day she could well end up on a dangerous dog report despite the fact that she is highly unlikely to actually injure the other dog. This is another impetus for getting on top of it.

I have a working hypothesis but I'll save that for now

[Aidan]

Hi SSM, I've noticed you've not had a reply. I suppose the question I would ask is "when are you planning on seeing a qualified behaviourist about this?"

I would also want to know if any of the other dogs in the house are upset or displaying any obvious avoidance around the bitch in question? If so, do they bloom when either separated from the offender for a few days, or if the main handler is gone for a few days?

The basic process is to identify the antecedents (triggers), then safely manage the offending bitch and immediately begin work towards bringing her under effective control in those situations. Also to address her need to resource guard, for e.g being patient when handler giving attention to other dogs will be reinforced with attention.

[SkySoaringMagpie]

I'm not planning on seeing a qualified behaviourist. If Ian Dunbar or Shirley Chong were available to do local consults I'd consider it, but practically speaking there isn't anyone in Australia that I personally would bring in. Particularly not locally. However, good call on expert advice - I am going to shoot someone an email tonight and I hadn't even thought of asking her about it.

The other dogs seem to realise that she is mostly all talk, including the bitches, and bounce back from her mouthing off quickly and then happily run about and play with her. She on the other hand becomes noticeably depressed when the main handler is gone. If I was going to anthropomorphise, I'd also be tempted to say she loses confidence that she'll get away with it when the main handler is gone as well.

The antecedants are hard for me to identify because I'm usually not there - not being worthy of being guarded myself - LOL! But you're right about the value of identifying them.

[Nekhbet]

It's owner mediated behavior.

The owner is enabling the behavior and a new routine needs to be set with this dog. She will be showing blocking and guarding body language which is when she should be stopped, not allowed to get to the stage to bite. Sounds like too little too late when it comes to being stopped.