09/01/2026
We address dogs resource guarding against humans, but we do not address dog-on-dog resource guarding in the original Puppy Culture film (link in comments👇) For two reasons:
Dog-on-dog resource guarding has a much stronger genetic component. Dogs that show aggression to humans very rarely make it into the gene pool, but we are more tolerant of dogs who are not indefinitely patient with other dogs. We do give protocols for the basis of dogs getting along together, but in our experience dog-on-dog guarding will still sometimes emerge and may or may not be modifiable.
It's really tough to come up with dog-on-dog RG protocols. If you've ever worked with a resource guarding or reactive dog you know how exquisite your timing and body language has to be. Even when dealing with puppies, Jean Donaldson and I go to great lengths in Puppy Culture to explain exactly how your posture and body position should be, how and where you should hold the food, timing of events, etc. The problem with dog-on-dog protocols is you really can't control the second dog, so often times the second dog is giving the wrong signal at the wrong time and making it worse.
All that having been said, here are five tips:
🦴In the weaning pen, always make sure that there is way more of whatever food or resource than the puppies could possibly eat or use. Put in double the number of meaty bones as puppies. There also should always be food left in the dish. This will not help with adult resource guarders, but it can sometimes prevent triggering it in very young puppies.
🦴When you are holding one puppy or dog on your lap or arms, feed the ones who are not on your lap or arms.
🦴Protect your dogs’ interests, and they will be less likely to squabble amongst themselves. To that end, I take the puppies out individually with my most solid big dogs. The big dog gets a treat, then the puppy gets a treat. The puppy develops a happy CER to seeing another animal get a treat because it predicts that they will get a treat. I throw the last treat for the big dog away so the big dog moves out of sight range for the puppy and then feed the puppy, so both the puppy and the big dog get the feeling that they have had the last treat. This prevents the big dog from having negative feelings when the puppy gets a treat because it signals the end of treats.
🦴It's not fair to expect dogs to share all the time. Have realistic expectations. We never put down a high value toy or bone when there is more than one dog in the room. We never feed two dogs in the same room. Lots of dogs can't share, and those dogs do great in only dog homes.
🦴I have tried using a manners minder (remote treat dispenser) to create a happy CER to having another dog walk past the puppy's crate. I have to say I had mixed results. In the litter on which we tried this, 8 of the 9 wound up with zero crate aggression but one wound up running into any open crate and guarding it if another dog walked into the room (that dog has ZERO dog aggression, by the way, and accepts any and all dogs into her house without hesitation - it's just the crate she guards). So, once again, genetics probably play a very strong role, and of course the big dogs would sometimes turn and look when the manners minder dropped the treat into the crate so for the more genetically pre-disposed-to-resource-guard puppies, the wrong CER was created.
🐶Advice for breeders
If having dogs that never resource guard from each other is of deep importance to you as a breeder, you need to make that a top priority and select for it. I am in NO WAY saying this SHOULD be your top priority. I’m just saying that it is totally unnatural for dogs NOT to resource guard from each other. NOT resource guarding from other dogs is a highly abnormal behavior for which we have bred for thousands of generations. And it still shows up. So be aware it’s got a very strong genetic component that’s not easy to select against.
Jean Donaldson told me that one of the most vigorous resource guarders she ever had was a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel. I’m sure that’s highly unusual for that breed, but the point is that this is how strong that genetic pull is, it will show up randomly in the most docile of breeds.
Also, it really depends on your breed and what is available in your breed's gene pool. As you’re selecting against animals who resource guard from other dogs, you’re excluding other dogs with excellent health, type and breed virtue. It’s always a balancing act, you can’t select for everything at the same time, something has to give.
Lack of dog-on-dog resource guarding is a valuable thing and worth having in your sights as a virtue. I will say as a breeder of a breed that is notoriously bad with other dogs and someone who has done rescue in that breed, it's just much easier to place dogs that can get along with other dogs.
But breeding for a virtue is different than excluding any dog that does not have that virtue.
Breeding for this as a virtue means I would be more likely to breed a dog that does not resource guard from other dogs and more likely to breed them more often if they produce that trait.
It means that a dog that is really terrible about resource guarding from other dogs (as in, attacks a dog 20 feet away if they have even a low value object) would have to have some incredibly stellar trait for me to breed that dog…such as some gene that is lost to the gene pool in a breed where cancer or heart defects or other health issue is a fixed trait.
But no dog that resource guards from other dogs would be off the table, I would just have to weigh what the dog can offer in my breeding program against the possibility of dog-dog resource guarding.
Photo is of one of our litters in a "Raw Meaty Bone Garden" - twice as many bones as puppies
