Factors associated with canine resource guarding behaviour in the presence of people: A cross-sectional survey of dog owners

Abstract

Resource guarding (RG) involves the use of specific behaviour patterns to control access to an item of potential "value" to the dog. Of particular concern are patterns involving aggression, due to safety concerns, but other patterns of RG behaviour are prevalent and include avoidance (i.e., positioning of the head or body to maintain item control, or location change with the item) and rapid ingestion (i.e., rapid ingestion of a consumable item). Current research has not investigated the etiology of RG aggression in depth, nor have the additional patterns of resource guarding been considered. Dog owners (n=3068) were recruited through social media to answer questions regarding dog- and household-related factors, as well as their dog's current and past behaviour around resources in the presence of people. Participants were screened for their ability to identify different forms of resource guarding from video, and were removed from the study if they incorrectly identified any of the videos provided. This resulted in a final sample of 2207 participants representing information for 3589 dogs. Multiple multi-level logistic regression models were developed to determine the association between independent variables of interest and each pattern of resource guarding. Dogs with higher levels of impulsivity were more likely to display avoidance, rapid ingestion and aggressive RG (p<0.001), and dogs with higher levels of fearfulness were also more likely to display RG aggression (p<0.001). Neutered males (p<0.01) and mixed breeds (p<0.05) were more likely to be RG aggressive compared to dogs of other sexes, neuter statuses, and breeds. Teaching dogs to reliably "drop" items when requested was associated with a reduced likelihood of RG aggression (p<0.01) and avoidance (p<0.001). Furthermore, the addition of palatable bits of food during mealtime was associated with an increased likelihood of less severe RG behaviour (p<0.01), whereas removal of the food dish during mealtime was associated with an increased likelihood of expressing more severe or frequent RG behaviours (p<0.05). Relationships between the three types of RG patterns were varied, suggesting that RG behaviour patterns are flexible when humans are involved. The results highlight various factors that might predispose dogs to RG behaviour and potential methods for prevention of RG aggression, and can serve as a basis for future longitudinal RG research to establish causation.

Desexing Dogs: A Review of the Current Literature

“…Two studies based on owner questionnaires of n = 2207 dogs found that desexed males were significantly more likely to show both dog-directed and human-directed resource guarding aggression than all other demographics [227,228].…”

Abilities of Canine Shelter Behavioral Evaluations and Owner Surrender Profiles to Predict Resource Guarding in Adoptive Homes

“…For dogs assessed as non-guarding at the shelter, two adopters reported growling or snarling when they approached their dog at a favorite sleeping site and one reported snapping or biting. 1 Percentages represent number of dogs reported by adopters to either not show or show visible signs of aggression divided by number of dogs put in each situation (e.g., For Q1, one adopter of a dog classified as resource guarding at the shelter and two adopters of dogs classified as non-resource guarding at the shelter did not take toys, bones, or other valued objects away from their dogs and for Q2, two adopters of dogs classified as resource guarding at the shelter and five adopters of dogs classified as non-resource guarding at the shelter did not take food away from their dogs). Visible signs of aggression included growling, snarling, snapping, or biting.…”

“…Canine 1 A response of yes to owner-supplied information indicates the following: (1) In response to the question, "Why are you surrendering your dog to the shelter? ", the owner circled the option behavioral problems (other options also could be circled); (2) In response to the question, "What does your dog do when you or someone else go near the food bowl or try to take away toys, rawhides, or anything else of value?…”

“…Resource guarding aggression represents a suite of behaviors, such as growling, freezing, snapping, and biting, shown by some domestic dogs that are possessive of food, toys, or sleeping sites [1]. According to one survey of 77 animal shelters in the United States, most shelters test for food guarding during behavioral evaluations and about half consider dogs identified as food aggressive to be unadoptable and therefore candidates for euthanasia [2].…”

“…Based on the evidence presented by Marder et al [5], we predicted that about half of dogs that showed food-related guarding during shelter behavioral evaluations would show food-related guarding in their adoptive homes, and that about a quarter of dogs assessed as non-food guarding in the shelter would show food-related guarding in their adoptive homes. Given that resource guarding appears sensitive to context, setting, and type of resource [1,2,5], we did not expect an assessment of food-related aggression in the shelter to be associated with the guarding of sleeping sites in the adoptive home. Owners may under-report problematic behaviors at the time of surrendering their dogs to shelters [11], so the predictive ability of owner reports might be lower than that of shelter behavioral evaluations.…”