Articles about PitBull Terrier
Resource guarding
Resource guarding is not abnormal behavior, it is adaptive and it does not necessarily make a dog an overly dangerous animal. Posturing, growling, staring, freezing/stiffening, and other ritualized behaviors are the appropriate way for dogs to say "this is mine and I want it, or I want to be by it/on it... you need to back off". In most case, dogs limit their behavior to warnings through vocalization and body language, but if the warnings are not heard they can move to snapping (also a warning) and escalate in a bite if the dog continue to be pushed. Resource guarding is not limited to food , but you may use food guarding, which is very common, as the main example.Food guarding is displayed by an increase in distance (dogs takes bone and runs away), increase speed in the "chewing time" (frantic chewing, swallowing food before it is chewed) , threatening/warning behaviors (growling, freezing, head held low, staring, snarling etc) when the owner or present person is moving closer to the guarded food or into the dog's space.That type of food must have significant value to the dog.It is possible that a dog is not displaying these behaviors when the owner reaches into the bowl of kibble, but the same animal might not be willing to have the owner approaching a marrow bone,kong filled with goodies, raw meat etc. The worse way to approach this problem, and also unsafe, is to get into some kind of competition with the dog because we want to make it clear that we "own the food" and "Cesar Millan said this is the way he rolls"....to continue reading this article please click on here...
