Resource guarding question

I'm currently dog-sitting a couple of high energy, knuckle headed mixes. They're sweethearts, despite not being trained much at all (adopted at the same time, so the owners never trained them one-on-one and feel overwhelmed).

One of their biggest issues is that they're resource guarders from each other. Not from me. I can walk in and take the squeakiest toy away from them and neither will flinch. But if one is chewing on a bone or a toy or an antler and the other one (or Lucy) wants it, there is growling, snapping, fighting, etc.

How can I train this out of them? Obviously I can't solve the problem in a week, but the owners are willing and able to continue, they just don't know where to start. Right now I've got every guardable object sitting up on the refrigerator where they can't reach them, but that's not training, that's just management. The usual suggestion of trading up won't work, because they don't mind if I take something from them, only if it's another dog.

Resource guarding imo is a management problem, not a training problem. No matter what you do your dog will behave like a dog with other dogs and resource guarding high value objects is as ingrained as a bark or a tail wag.

You will get less reaction if you can assure the dog's brain that no one is going to take said valued item away. This is often why multiple dog households will feed and treat dogs in crates or even separate rooms.

Bummer.

For now, I'm just exercising the snot out of them. They're less snarky when they're tired.

You CAN teach them to tolerate other dogs being around when they have highly valued resources. It's just very time-consuming and involves a lot of management for when you're not absolutely 100% prepared for a training session.

If the owners have not done any prior training, it's a pretty good bet that they won't follow through with this training either.

PM Romy. I've seen her post some really great instructions for exercises on three-way trading she did with her dogs.