Pippin is mostly Springer – with some Cocker Spaniel in the mix. Like so many for the Spaniels I work with, he has had resource guarding issues since a puppy.
With previous help they have improved things greatly. they have done this largely by distracting him and management.
The behaviour escalates as the day progresses
Pippin is generally a highly-strung nervous dog. The two young ladies’ problems with him escalate as the day progresses. His arousal levels peak.
There are various things that cause this build-up or ‘trigger stacking’.
These include watching out of the window and barking at passing dogs and people. He barks when someone comes to the door and is worse if it’s a man who is visiting them. Ball play gets him going – he’s obsessed with the squeaky ball. He barks for play and it works, particularly with one of the young ladies.
This is relevant. The other lady is at home all day with him, working. She gives him much less attention and little exciting play. The other lady comes home from work and is basically a ‘play-machine’. Pippin gets more and more excited and barking, ending in wild zoomies.
Influenced by the human’s own behaviour
The exciting young lady is the main target of Pippin’s space-guarding. She is the one who he has bitten. She is the one who gets him most excited.
He sleeps in this young lady’s room, under her bed. He may jump up onto her bed in the night.
The problems start if she wants to get up in the night. If he’s on the bed but she isn’t, he may attack her. If he’s on the floor but not in his spot under the bed, he may rush and bite her.
The most recent bite was last week at her mother’s house. Pippin is unable to get under the bed so was on it. The young lady entered the room to get something off the bed. Pippin bit her.
(The young lady and Pippin are staying with her mother over Christmas. There will be a houseful and, after the biting incident in the bedroom, she’s worried).
The root of the problem
We discussed various strategies to deal with the space-guarding head-on. It will be specific to Pippin so I won’t share them here. This doesn’t get to the root of the problem though.
The root cause, I believe, is over-arousal on top of his genetic tendencies.
There are several areas where they can help him to become calmer and more confident. Most particularly to adjust the young lady’s exciting play on demand when she gets home.
She will hide the ball. She won’t respond to barking.
She will instead offer play in advance of Pippin barking to demand it. She will initiate activities of her own choice.
We discussed activities that will help to calm him down instead. These are things that use his brain, his nose and his jaws.
Because of the guarding chews will be consumable.
Clicker
I introduced them to the clicker. This uses his brain.
They can ‘click for calm’. In the evening when he usually goes wild, they can ‘mark’ with a click the moment he does anything that is calm. Behaviours such as standing still, sitting down or quietly just looking at the young lady.
An example of how else they can use the clicker to engage his brain: the young lady asks him to lie down: ‘Go Down’. He will only do it if bribed with food.
Now she will say ‘Go Down’ once. Only once. No repeating. Then wait. And wait.
He may go down and if so she will click as he hits the floor. If he doesn’t lie down she will go and do something else.
Then she will come back to it ten minutes later and try again. I would guarantee that after a few sessions he will lie down immediately. He earns the click then food. He uses his brain.
This teaches him the behaviour that they do want. The clicker is a bridge for communication between the lady and Pippin.
