Shelter Playgroup Alliance occasionally receives questions about using food and toys in playgroup from people concerned about resource guarding. We understand. Resource guarding can be scary. Fortunately, our slow introductions and protected contact greetings give us a pretty good read on who is appropriate and who may not feel comfortable with resources in close proximity. Our slow introductions include the use of food from the beginning and we often use so much food that there is no scarcity for dogs to be concerned about. Afterall, dogs who choose to eat from their enrichment stations or engage with the handler doing clicker training are making a choice. Our protected contact greetings with parallel enrichment yards setup allows for us to actively test whether a dog wants to engage in playgroup. Some dogs are a clear “yes!” to the other dog, ignoring high value food to interact (pro-socially) with the other dog. Some are clear “hell no” either by displaying aggression or actively avoiding. Most dogs are somewhere in the middle. All choices are actively honored by the handler in the dog’s best interest.
Treating introductions for potential playgroup involvement like real world interactions allows for better data gathering and communication to future adopters. It is unreasonable to assume that a dog who is going to live with another dog will never encounter food in the home they share together. It is equally unrealistic to assume they will never share toys or water bowls or resting stations. Many of our dog-social dogs are adopted by people hoping to take their dogs to parks and coffee-shops and friends houses. By treating playgroup like the real world we can pass that information on to future adopters. Clifford may show interest in interacting with other dogs but his preference for eating is higher (in this environment). Berry is very concerned about other dogs in close proximity but is able to eat and do training things like LAT and BAT. Lobo would choose playing with another dog over eating breakfast and is comfortable eating in close proximity to other dogs but is not comfortable sharing his toys. Resource guarding is a natural behavior that is displayed to keep resources and happens at low levels in all animals (writing your name on your lunch in the communal fridge counts). It does require a high level of fluency in dog body language to be able to read and interpret low level resource guarding behavior before it escalates. And, good news! We can help with that with our CORE and BEAR programs! Click here to learn more!
Dogs who resource guard in playgroup are not benefitting from playgroup. Active resource guarding suggests the dog is concerned about their resource being taken. That stress around the resource is not beneficial for the dog to feel nor for the behaviors to be practiced. Therefore, dogs that exhibit overt resource guarding should not be in playgroup for their own mental well-being. This obviously includes dogs that guard resources from people as well as from conspecifics. Using food and toys in playgroup does give us a good picture of the type of home best suited to these dogs though. If a dog is uncomfortable around other dogs and resources we may convey to the adopters that he’d be best in a home without other dogs, or needs to be confined when eating or chewing. Knowing it is within the dog’s behavioral repertoire could be the difference between an adopter being prepared and an adopter returning the dog.
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