resource guarding V protection proper - Page 1

is the difference semantics if a dog guards you like you are it's property?

the behaviours appear identical replace the dog's food bowl with a human, what am i missing?

A dog shouldn't guard (you his owner or family) at all absent a threat.  Under threat it depends on his training.

Resource guarding is undesirable other than in the various ring exercises

more referring to the natural inclination of a dog before training is inserted.

do resource guarding and protection come from the same place?

No.  Resource guarding is self serving and can be indiscriminatory.  It can be aimed at other dogs, people,other animals and even the human members of the family.

Natural inclination to protection is almost always aimed towards strange people not of the family.  Ways of expressing this are highly varied and not every dog that exhibits this behavior is a strong dog.  Weaker nerved dogs do this more naturally than strong nerved dogs. 

good points, i don't get the self serving bit, do you think your (universal your) dog can have any other motivation in it's animal brain?

the other problem i got with your (specific your) explanation is the bit about "aimed towards strange people not of the family"; 

the difference according to your def is;

if aggrsion is aimed at something outside the pack it is protection; if it is aimed at something inside the pack it is resource guarding?

I don't think so.  Resource guarding is a dog taking possession of something that he covets.  The only motivating factor for that behavior that I have ever seen is self serving by the dog.  I have seen bad training make minor resource guarding a very real and dangerous situation to where the dog became overly aggressive.

I've not been clear enough in my descriptions.  Resource guarding to someone outside of the family is still resource guarding and is undesirable.  Who the guarding is aimed at doesn't change what it is.

Protection is almost always aimed outside of the family towards strangers.  As I think about it, there are exception to this rule too, but it is generally true.  The main difference is that the protection behavior is not self serving.  The dog is literally putting himself in harms way to protect another. 

That I would think would be a good way to differentiate the two.  Resource is self serving, protection is not and the dog puts itself in harms way. 

clearer yes, self serving not so sure. OK i will say it - all dog behaviour is self serving with no exception.

i (universal I) am the dogs total resources; food, water, shelter, companionship etc, so protecting me (universal me) is guarding it's only known (to the dog) provider of resources.

sorry if this all seems semantic quibbling, which i think it could be.

What about when the dog guards a child of the family on it's own?  Or even another dog in the family?  The other dog is actually competition for all the resources you list and yet there are instances of dogs protecting other dogs.

I disagree that all behavior is self serving.  We have bred them to be otherwise.

a dog can also guard a ball like it's life depended on it, i have seen that to.

I have a real world example for you that I think demonstrates not all behavior is self serving. When my wife and I met we both had our own intact male competition dogs.  The two dogs learned to get along and never fought, not even with a bitch in heat. Cool but not a big deal.

My dog Czar, knew how to jump in the bathtub and turn on the water to drink.  Smart ass would even adjust the temp colder in the summer and warmer in the winter and he never shut it off.

My wife's dog never figured out how to turn on the water.  What he did figure out was how to go up to Czar and somehow he would communicate to Czar who would go hop in the tub, turn the water on, and hop out of the tub all without ever taking a drink for himself so that Blitz could jump in and get his drink.

Never figured out how they communicated that but they did it for years.  Why would Czar turn the water on for him?