Training Philosophy
Resource Guarding Towards People:
Resource guarding refers to a dog’s tendency to protect valuable items like meals, toys, and bones. It can extend to areas within a home that a dog considers its own, such as a favorite spot on the couch, by a door, or food-related areas, such as the pantry where the dog food is stored.
Dogs may also be overly protective of certain family members, including a spouse or child. This can be dangerous for other family members when interacting with the family member in the presence of the reactive dog.
After reviewing your submitted information in our “Indirect Assessment of Canine Behavior,” our team, led by our Co-founder and Certified Applied Animal Behaviorist, Dr. Echterling-Savage, will create a personalized training plan that addresses your unique challenges. Our behavior consultant will then implement this plan at your home to modify your dog’s reactivity behavior.
Resource Guarding Towards Pets:
Resource Guarding can affect your pets’ relationships in the home. Perhaps your dog becomes territorial when your new puppy plays with his toys, or lays down on his dog bed? This behavior may escalate to fighting and create dangerous situations. It can even lead to dogs no longer wanting to be in the same room together, which is a stressful situation in the household.
Beyond the Dog, Sarasota specializes in addressing resource-guarding behaviors in dogs, and our team has been treating these behaviors for over 20 years . Led by our Co-founder and Certified Applied Animal Behaviorist, Dr. Echterling-Savage, we utilize proven scientific training methods in our programs. We do this through positive reinforcement and classical conditioning to teach specific obedience behaviors that reduce or eliminate your dog’s resource-guarding behavior.
Training Programs
Our 22-Hour Resource Guarding Training Program is designed to address the following behaviors:
Unfortunately, resource-guarding behaviors often get worse when left unaddressed. This can occur for many reasons, including genetics, dog breed, exposure to aversive training methods (such as prong and shock collars), early life experiences, and the behavior of other pets in the home.
We implement scientifically proven research to improve our training methods, including a study by Mehrkhahm et al. demonstrating that counterconditioning significantly improves behavior, enabling dogs to approach family and friends with excitement rather than concern. We use function-based interventions such as classical counterconditioning to effectively address dog resource guarding, with results that endure after training. As Dr. Echterling-Savage supports, “I’ve seen resource guarding cause families immense levels of stress and concern. Luckily, it is very treatable with proper function-based training.”
To best understand and address your unique challenges, we request that you submit an “Indirect Assessment of Canine Behavior” before training begins. Our team, led by our co-founder and Certified Applied Animal Behaviorist, Dr. Echterling-Savage, will use this assessment to design a personalized training plan for your dog’s resource-guarding behavior.
Our behavior consultant will then conduct private sessions at your home to address resource-guarding behaviors and teach general obedience and manners. In addition to this, our Certified Applied Animal Behaviorist, Dr. Echterling-Savage, will provide ongoing guidance to ensure that our training plan addresses your dog’s unique challenges and training goals. Each session is 60 minutes long, and you will be required to attend the final session of each week. During this session, our behavior consultant will teach you how to reinforce your dog’s learned behaviors and obedience commands. Follow-up sessions will be scheduled after the training program has been completed to monitor progress and ensure continued success with your dog’s resource-guarding behavior.
Many insurance providers, including Trupanion, will cover behavioral training when led by a Board-Certified Veterinary Behaviorist or a Certified Applied Animal Behaviorist. We recommend contacting your insurance provider to see if they cover resource-guarding behavior training.
Our Resource Guarding Behavior Modification Package provides virtual sessions with Dr. Echterling-Savage, our Co-founder and Certified Applied Animal Behaviorist (CAAB). As one of the few Board Certified Behavior Analysts specializing in Applied Animal Behavior and among only about 50 CAABs nationwide, Dr. Echterling-Savage brings unparalleled expertise to each session. Her extensive background, including hands-on training, mentoring of all Beyond the Dog’s behavior consultants, and published research on canine behavior, ensures she can deliver expert guidance to help your dog make lasting improvements in its resource-guarding behavior.
During your virtual consultations, Dr. Echterling-Savage will evaluate your dog’s resource-guarding behavior and design a personalized training plan that targets your dog’s behavioral challenges. Following the initial consultation, she will provide continued guidance, helping you with various scenarios that reinforce positive behavioral modification and ensure ongoing progress. The Resource Guarding Behavior Modification Package costs $750, including several sessions and support.
Reach Out
We’ll get back to you in two wags of a dog’s tail!