# Severe resource guarding with bad biting... Help!!



## df1992 (Jan 6, 2020)

Hi there,

This is my first post and after reading what seems like the whole forum I was hoping to reach out for some advice. I have a 5 month old male toy cockapoo who is the cutest little guy. He's been going to puppy school and is well trained now and we have what I feel is a really strong bond.

He has however bitten myself and members of my family quite severely (4/5 puncture marks on both sides). It seems like he has quite a severe case of resource guarding. When it comes to him taking a sock out of the basket we don't make a big deal of it and give me a treat to distract him and generally that's fine. But its when he has something he shouldn't have in his mouth for instance picking up a cigarette butt whilst walking or tissue he's found and chewing. For instance yesterday he found a plastic floss (really not sure how) and it looked like he was going to choke on it so I was very worried and wanted to get it out of his mouth which ended in a serve bite to my hand with a deep bite mark/bleeding etc. It's just makes me very sad because we've had a few of this issues which have result in very bad bites to the family and trips to the doctors.

We had a trainer come in to the home last week to help with the resource guarding and I rang her after the incident and she said I did all the right things to try and get it out of his mouth. 

I guess the advice im looking for is have any of you had this same problem and what have you done to correct the behaviour? It's starting to become a real issue in the home and we are putting in so much effort to train him but I feel like with this we are getting nowhere (but with all the other things he's amazing).

Any advice what be greatly appreciated.


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## 2ndhandgal (Aug 29, 2011)

I took on Molly at 18 months as her owners could not cope with her behaviour. Her main problem was resource guarding.

It is great that you are getting some help nice and early and hope things start to improve.

The main thing I would say at this point is to really puppy proof your house and choose your battles. The more you try and take things off her the more worried she will be and the more likely to bite. You need to try anything you can to avoid taking things directly from her to stop her practicing this behaviour. Not sure what a plastic floss is but I suspect she was not actually going to choke and you would have maybe been better ignoring and maybe scattering some treats on the floor or a high value toy - distraction rather than confronting all the way.

The main thing to realise is your puppy does not want to bite you - she is just very worried about losing the item she has which is precious to her and she will only bite if pushed too far.

The good news is Molly is now 10. She was very well practiced at guarding when I got her so still reverts to guarding if stressed but it is very low level and not serious stuff these days and mostly she is just my nice girl.


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## Janeymac (Apr 19, 2020)

We had a cockapoo that did the same thing. Unfortunately dogs cannot un-learn biting. The previous poster is correct, they don’t want to bite you, but If they have bitten a few times already, they will again, as it’s now a learned behaviour.
If it progresses further with other situations like possessiveness of people or areas, then I would recommend speaking to a dog behaviourist for further advice.


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