Dogs are fabulous communicators and many will work through the following order of events in order to warn us off our thievery. Some dogs may skip some warning signs or escalate faster, but in general, this is the step-by-step we see in resource guarding cases:
- Freezing, sometimes accompanied by side-eye
- Accelerated consumption
- Growling
- Snarling (showing teeth)
- Snapping
- Bite without damage
- Bite with damage
Let's look at some videos and try to spot the subtle signs and the not-so-subtle signs:
TRIGGER WARNING: VIEWER DISCRETION IS ADVISED
Let's look at some videos that range from appropriate to severe resource guarding. I will narrate these videos so that you can see what I see: