Partners-in-Canine

02/09/2026

I posted a few days ago about a young dog at my local dog park resource guarding its owners, I'm going to talk a little more about it as I was back there on Monday. The picture is Tora with a different dog, but one with a very similar behaviour profile.

I suspect what's happening with this young dog is a developmental phase as opposed to true resource guarding. Why do I think that?

I've seen the dog (a female) playing with some bigger dogs, and there is definitely a combination of some dominance and insecurity going on, I've also seen her avoid people who have tried to reach out and touch her. There's a few mixed signals coming from her having seen her playing and that's pretty normal for puppies around 4 to 6 months old, especially those of the more protective / guardian / fighting breeds, which she is.

What's quite interesting to see is that she will only get a bit nasty with dogs that have shy temperaments or don't like to play rough, no matter the size. When she encounters a dog that likes to play rough or is confident, none of the annoying behaviours present.

So in effect the owners are doing it right by taking her to dog parks where the other dogs are teaching her how to be a dog. She will get put in her place at some point, and yes I think she needs a bit of that. My two both did at that age.

This pup hasn't met Tora, I'm going to try and sort that out this week, I'm interested in how she'll react to a big confident dominant adult female. I'll film it too. The picture is a good example of what it looks like when an insecure bully meets confidence. I'm expecting something very similar with the young dog when she meets Tora.

She's met Rollo, and as so often happens with that boy of mine, it was immediate submission and love at first sight. She trotted over to him and just rolled over on her back, legs akimbo. After a brief inspection by Rollo, she got up and spent the next minute trying to lick his mouth, which he wasn't interested in. He didn't correct her or anything, it wasn't that annoying, he just ignored her.

02/09/2026

Emotions are the precursor to behaviour.

For reactivity and aggression in particular;

Before any muscle moves, your dog has detected something in the environment, the brain has processed that thing and has begun reacting to it by either:

1) Ignoring it because it's a known non-threat or is not interesting
2) Begun the fight or flight response by dumping adrenaline and cortisol into the nervous system and bloodstream

In the case of point 2, this ranges from mildly concerned to potential death threat panic / offence is the best form of defence.

This is the fundamental underlying reason why techniques such as redirection, counter conditioning or punishment based corrections or other dog training things do not work to solve the issue in the long term. They all fail to address the cause - the emotional reaction.

To change the behaviour, first we have to change the feeling.

Changing the feeling can only be done by voluntary confrontation of fears and positive experiences as a result.

31/08/2026

Building trust with your dog is not something that can be forced, it has to be earned.

Earning trust takes patience, dedication, forgiveness and most importantly, offering trust first.

This is difficult because our brains are constantly trying to predict the future based on previous events.

That's why fixing reactivity and aggression problems always have to begin with fixing the human first before the dog.

28/08/2026

I saw this in a public group here on FB - see photo.

This was my reply to the person. Feel free to ask me any questions on my reply.

Hello! I have guardian breed dogs too. Tibetan Mastiff's to be specific. What you are going through sounds really difficult. I wouldn't want to be in that situation, so let's see if we can start to unpick a few threads and give you a little help.

The first thing I would be seeking is the answer to why the dog has started doing this. All behaviour has a cause. That's an iron unbreakable law of behaviour. So something changed and the result is what you are seeing.

In my experience, there isn't a single cause of the issues you're seeing, it's a build up of multiple factors compounding on top of each other until you get the visible explosion.

You have quite the serious mix of dog there, a Great Pyrenees and Cattle Dog. So a powerful guardian breed with the added spice of being bitey and controlling.

I can see you've mentioned multiple previous rehomes and pro trainers in the past. Flock guardian breed dogs are famous for not liking change, and this dog has known nothing but change, that's definitely sub-optimal in terms of setting him up for success. It's also common for up to 6 months to go by after a rehome for problem behaviours to show at full strength.

That begs the question, does your dog ever get to do the job(s) he was bred to do? There is so much goodness to be had for a dog's physical and mental wellbeing in having dogs do the job they were meant to do, with your guy, it's basically mandatory for de-stress and fulfilment. If that's lacking and he's constantly under control and management, his stress levels won't ever get to be released.

You do have in some senses a paradoxical dog - the GP is extremely independent and smart and expects to be left alone to do its job. On the other hand you have the Cattle Dog that is a lot more human attentive and needs the human to tell it what to do, but not how, and is also very smart.

That's the type of dog that generally benefits from being treated more as a partner than a pet. They have a very strong sense of self, and being allowed to make decisions is something humans have bred into them for 1000's of years. Take that away and you generally end up with stressed & nervous dogs that start trying to control some aspect of their life in desperation just to feel like they have some control, and that will escalate to violence if pushed far enough.

I see you've mentioned psychotropic medications. The side effects from those are a potential explanation on their own. I'm absolutely not a fan of these meds, though this is not the place to go into that topic.

Just as a thought experiment, put yourself in the dog's shoes and ask what would it take for you to exhibit the same behaviours, and see if any of those conditions are present for your dog.

I suspect there's more to this back story that would require far more discussion than comments on a FB post, but hopefully I've given you some food for thought.

Cheers, Pete at Partners-in-Canine

26/08/2026

Dogs resource guarding owners from other dogs

I was at my local dog park earlier this week and one of the regulars had brought a new puppy along. She's 16 weeks old.

Interestingly the puppy was resource guarding her owner from other dogs. Every time another dog got close to her owner she'd come trotting over from wherever she was and start growling and snapping and try to body block or climb onto the back of the offending dog.

The owners, thinking they were doing the right thing would always interrupt their dog and grab her, tell her off and keep her with them for a number of seconds as the other dog skipped off on its way.

There are a number of things going on in this scenario that need considering simultaneously in order to determine what the best course of action is to prevent a dog from doing this unwanted behaviour.

Firstly we need to establish the "why". There is a reason the dog feels like this is the behaviour required in this situation. For such a young dog it could just be a developmental phase. It could also be the owner is not showing the puppy leadership, it could also be the puppy does not get the right amount of attention at home (it's in a multi dog home). It could also be that the puppy has not been corrected by another dog for stepping out of line. I don't know if it's a rescue puppy or not, so there could be other factors at play in the very early experiences of this puppy.

I will say upfront that sometimes stepping in and stopping this behaviour is the right thing to do, that has to be judged on its merits with the size and power of the other dog. What has to be remembered is that no lesson is learned by doing this because the root cause is not addressed, so the behaviour will continue next time the situation presents itself.

I am a big fan of dogs correcting dogs, there's lots to be learned that way, but this is one of the scenarios I don't advise that course of action, again because it does not address the root cause. It also risks increasing the level of insecurity and therefore guarding behaviour. Nobody wants that.

In my experience, the most common cause is insecurity. Dogs that resource guard their owners from other people or dogs are sensing and reacting to something in the relationship with their owner that they perceive as insecure. That can be something momentary, like a mood change the dog detects in the owner, or, it can be something more long term and structural with the relationship such as the human not being viewed as the leader and so the dog fills that leadership vacuum and begins to control access to what is sees as its property, which is the owner.

The goal in fixing all this is for the dog to change its perception of the owner from a resource that needs controlling, to the leader. This occurs through establishing a calm and respectful authority. The most obvious and easy win is (each and every time) the dog begins to resource guard the owner in any environment, the owner should calmly remove themselves from the area where the dog is, go and do something else where the dog cannot reach with the person / dog that was being guarded against. In a dog park, that could mean putting the dog on a leash tied to the fence whilst the owner then interacts with the other dogs.

This is a direct consequence for the behaviour, a negative reinforcement to give it its technical term, and it puts the responsibility for change onto the dog.
Consistency is key, as is the demonstration via human behaviour that any and all attempts at controlling access to the owner human results in the human no longer being available to their dog - the resource is out of reach for a while.

This is just one quick example - I’m not giving all my secrets away here. But it is all about how the person conducts themselves. They must not get angry or frustrated or shout at the dog or “correct” the dog. They just calmly do something which is a consequence the dog doesn’t want, which in my example, is to leave. There is no need to even speak. Leadership, remember.

25/08/2026

Here's a great example of the physical manifestation of a problem - the problem being this dog, Roadie, does not have a job, so he's under stimulated and under exercised.

He's desperate to get on the treadmill and get rid of some energy.

All dogs need a job, or they'll create their own and that is always a situation that leads to problems.

23/08/2026

I don't know how to say this without coming across as blowing my own horn, so I'll just come out and say it and people can take it how they choose.

This minute clip where Rollo checks in on me twice involved zero words, and zero gestures from me.

This is not done by training. This is the result of what I preach to clients. This is the product of a true mutually trusting and respect based relationship.

You're watching an off leash guardian breed dog in public. It is not a common sight.

Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content, and share it all with friends, family, and the world on YouTube.

21/08/2026

Today I saw a great illustration of why using food treats with dogs does not build a dog's trust in you.

I had both my dogs with me this morning and we bumped into a couple of different people with dogs we've never met before.

The first person was interested in my dogs, they were relaxed and so was their dog, the person was talking to me as they approached and both of my dogs allowed themselves to be touched by this stranger.

The second person (actually a husband & wife couple) we met had an off leash dog that was walking right next to them, but these people both had treats in a pouch. My dogs very quickly worked this out and both of mine freely offered a "sit" in front of these people in the hopes of obtaining a treat, which I allowed.

When the treats had been eaten, both husband and wife tried to pet my dogs, both of my dogs said "no" and moved out of the way to prevent contact. Rollo actually went back and repeated the behaviour and got another treat in the process. Still didn't allow himself to be touched. Tora wasn't having anything to do with the people after the first uninvited touch attempt.

So what was all that about? The treats just served to alert my dogs to a potential manipulation. A treat in exchange for petting; but it's a contract my dogs didn't agree to, they sat for a treat, end of contract. That is the dictionary definition of a transactional relationship, and the moment the people tried to go beyond the scope of the contract they got told "no".

Contrast that with the person both my dogs allowed to touch them (a man) who had nothing to offer them but was just relaxed and curious. Both my dogs were happy to oblige. Why? Because there was no ulterior or complicating motivations. The actions of each animal were honest and could be taken at face value.

Relationships are so much clearer and fundamentally honest when the actions of all involved can be taken at face value. That is where we should be with our dogs and other people's dogs. Oh, and yes, with people too.

18/08/2026

I had a live chat with Chris Rose of Bone-a-fide K9 earlier, my copy hasn't recorded the audio properly (you can't hear me at all) so here's a link to the chat with Chris on his channel - which on YouTube is ‪dogpoundinitiative‬ ​

Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content, and share it all with friends, family, and the world on YouTube.

17/08/2026

I'll be talking with Chris Rose of Bone-a-fide k9 on his YouTube channel DogPoundInitiative.

Roughly 40 minutes to go.

See you there!