Hi,
I have 3 boys. Rosco who was my "first born" who is 1 now, Lemmy my middle child a rescue we think is 3-5, Stewie my baby a rescue we got at about 5-7 months. Rosco was the "only child" for about 5 months before Mr. lemmy came to live with us, all was fine no guarding, no growling, nothing, all was sooo perfect, a 3rd would be great right? Wrong. About 2 weeks after Stewie became a permanent fixture Rosco decided to take up the lovely habit of resource guarding. Not food agression you could go up to his bowl, touch him, take the bowl with no response. If he had an item he decided was worth guarding, he guarded...I mean snarling, snapping, deep, angry barking. It seemed he definitely would have bit if we weren't quicker than he was at that point. It was hard to figure out what to do, since he didn't always guard the same items. When we did get the item from Rosco he would take out his frustration on Stewie, very scary! I was in a panick! I read many, many books, I highly recommend any by Brenda Aloff and Jan Fennell. It only took about 2 weeks to "rehabilitate" Rosco. I would tether him to a doorknob so that he would stay in one place and get him to guard an object, I would then tell him to "leave it" or "drop it" or tell him "that's mine" depending on the object he was guarding, when he complied he would get a FANTASTIC treat!!! Leave it and drop it commands allowed me to make the reward getting that particular object back, it I said that's mine, he NEVER got that item back. Every day 3 times a day we went through this process until I could walk up to him and he would drop the item without a command. I did learn early on not to engage in a chase or tug competition for the item. I would calmly walk up to him (heart pounding because he was pretty scary) and grasp the item still in his mouth, if he pulled I did not pull back just remained where I was and kept a firm grip on the item (VERY HARD not to pull back), eventually I would win the battle of wills and he would drop the item. If he looked like he was about to lead me on a merry chase the puppy game, I would turn my head away and yawn to signify that I was not a threat, once he accepted me being close while he had the item, I would then grasp the item and give a command. I also made sure my other 2 boys were safely out of the vicinity of any redirected aggression. I am happy with the results and am no longer afraid of my boy!!! Every now and again when I need a piece of trash that he has picked up on our walks I get a dirty look and very rarely do I get a growl, but with a dirty look of my own we are back onto neutral territory.
My one mistake with this is that I was the only one who ever trained him, so if my husband tries it, he gets the whole show and calls me in for back-up, I have also seen him give the show to my best friend...so beware have other people do some training with you.
I also called it a show, because as it turns out it is all just VERY LOUD and LOOKS TERRIBLE, but one time I needed to get in between Stewie and Rosco before the clash of the titans began, and what I assumed would be a horrid bite turned out to be NOTHING, no marks on my skin, no pain, nothing just an open mouth on my arm. Is that because he knew it was me, or because it was all show? Who can tell?
Hope this helps, I know it helped me.