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Hi David!
I will share a post with how I dealt with resource guarding but I also would consider nutrition if the dog is abnormally voracious in seeking out sticks and (specifically) cattle/horse manure. Nutrition has more implications than people often realize.
As far as growling or barking while in a command I always praise the dog as long as they are holding the command. I instruct clients to recognize that the dog is doing the behavior in spite of their feelings about it. As they mature in their training and relationships that usually goes away on its own. I have lots of video examples if you would like.
I have had several herding breeds recently with the same behaviors you describe, although these behaviors can be non genetic and usually a result of leadership or unpredictable communication. I have a few more questions: is the dogs food ever removed from him? Is he ever punished for aggression or barking? Is there a possibility that the ecollar training came too quickly? I have found that proofing p2 is super important and that generalizing the commands can be easily overlooked. Proofing and generalizing is the most time consuming portions in my experience. What ecollar are you using? How is the command structure is being used mechanically with p2 and p3. Does the dog understand the conditioned punisher? When exactly does the dog receive stim? Can you provide an example?
With a situation like this I wouldn’t feed in the kennel but I would always give high value rewards for going in. Is there water in the kennel? Is the kennel comfy? How big is it? Is it secluded? Has he ever been punished or received ecollar stim in kennel? If so why and how was it applied?
This is copied from my client facebook page so forgive the sing songy teacher voice.
Human behavior tip: trade your dog for an item rather than taking the item. Resource guarding is so easy to address, counter condition, and manage.
First rule: don’t bother your dog’s food items. There are so many YouTube videos (or incompetent ideologies) that talk about taking your dog food items or bones away, so that they know that you are the “boss”. This is not only ethologically incorrect, it teaches them that when you are around their food or chew, they may lose it. It reafirms and can turn simple resource guarding into food aggression (where the dog goes from a defensive strategy to an offensive strategy).
Dogs have the same family structures and values that we do. We do not take food from our children to show them that we are the boss, neither do canines.
Adult canines will often feed their young and subordinates first, and often the most fulfilling parts of the “meal”, just like we would. Adult canines do not view resource guarding from puppies or subordinates as a challenge or behavioral problem.
Second rule: go slowly. You can see Storm understands this process and is comfortable with it. At this point she looks at us when the bully gets down to the safety guard, waiting for her cookies. Brian asks her to sit with playful “command structure” so she moves into a more neutral position in a playful way, and then gently removes it as he treats her with high value rewards.
We started by offering her an item that required more attention, like a small Jerkey stick or almond butter smeared on the floor, to show her we will always add to her and to give us more time to take the bully guard (if she left the other item to come back to the bully we had treats in our pockets and would offer those as a lure away). Notice we let her see us take it, we DO NOT trick her, or hide that we are taking it.
Rule 3: add don’t subtract. Storm came to us growling over her food and so nervous about eating that she would vomit and resource guard the vomit (as a 4 week old pup). We practiced giving her smaller meals and added to her meal by tossing higher value food toward her, from a distance she was relatively comfortable with (counter conditioning). Eventually the behavior disappeared.
Rule 4: don’t punish growling!!!!!! Growling is beautiful communication. Respect it. Troubleshoot it. Do NOT punish it. Punishing communication will at best subdue your dog and damage your relationship, at worst it will cause your dog to skip steps in the bite sequence and lose that valuable warning.
We still don’t take anything from her or bother her when she is chewing or eating, however, her perception of what will happen to her when we are around her and food has totally changed. She went from gobbling down her bones in an unsafe and frantic manner to enjoying a nice long chew at my feet.
Understanding canine behavior is not a wild secret. If it makes sense for an familial animal (like a human) it probably makes sense for a dog.
Humans often expect our dogs to be whatever we want them to be, like us, obey us, tolerate our mistakes, and fill in the gaps in our lack of education, we expect them to want to work for us no matter how poorly we behave or how unpredictable we are. Often times dogs are punished for for human error. Let’s do our best as FSDT dog trainers to do better and extend the compassion and effort that we want when we are learning.
Temperament is definitely a factor. I love sharing my food, Brian doesn’t. If I want fries I better order some and that is OK. I respect his resource guard because I love him. Don’t our dogs deserve the same?
