Quinn resource guarding me?

I think Quinn is resource guarding me from Buster.
Neither of my two are allowed on my bed much anymore but if Quinn is up with me and Buster goes to get up she'll snark him (the other day she flew at him really hard)
She'll occasionally do it when she is lying at my feet and he coems over when I call him, she can switch it on halfway through a training session with him.

Quinn's reaction is pretty easy to pick, she pins her ears back, gets extremely tense, her eyes are very hard and she stalks up and stares him down about 2inches from his face, with or without hackles. Her movements are slow and deliberate. It can be really hard to break her out of it, she will normally wait till I call Buster to me (away from her) and then go in to mouth him on the back feet, or sometimes she will load up and snark him in the face.

Buster's reaction? If it wasn't so completly obvious and she wasn't inches from his face you would swear he wasn't even aware. He stays very relaxed, averts his eyes and doesn't move or challenge her.

As for me? I feel really lost, I've been building an interuptor noise for her the last couple of weeks just to get her attention (mainly to use it if her and Mac are zoning in on each other) I can't go hard on her because she's a hard dog and me getting louder or rougher just sends her over the edge. Sometimes I call Buster away from her to come to me and this usually sends her in to nip his heels and then stalk off.
She has a habit of appearing whenever I am giving Buster attention and climbing onto my lap while smiling stupid at him and touching him on the nose with her paws or sticking her nose in his mouth till he bites her gently ont he face... wrestling usually ensues if I let it.

She is very good at suddenly appearing and going "YAY! LOVE MEEEE!!!! Arn't I beautiful!?" when buster is getting attention and Buster isn't really pushy like that, its so easy to get distracted by her and he is just happy to wander off. So I'm trying to take more notice of this and send her away when I notice her trying to break Buster and I up.
Buster's probably been missing out on the love a bit for probably the last 12 months, I had 6 months of being too busy for anything and then 6 months of working hard on Quinn and poor Buster has got a bit attention neglected so for the past couple of months I've got back into his training and working with him more.
And for the last week I've started combinging his and Quinn's sessions, making one of them stay on a mat quietly to the side while I work the other one.

So I can recognise when she's being unfairly pushy, should I send her to a place? Should I get up and move away with Buster? Should I put her in a time out?
Once she "zones in" on Buster, I think I can probably interupt her with the cue we've been working on, what then? Time out? Send her to place?
And if she does load up and have a go at him where from then?

I have been thinking of setting up situations where I can work through this with Quinn a bit. I have been trying to keep treats on me and reward Quinn when Buster approaches us or her crate etc. (She can be a little guardy of her crate as she gets fed in there and she guards food HARD)
It can be hard because her triggers arn't always the same so its hard to pick create situations to work her.

It sounds like exactly that. We got into that with Kharma and Tallulah. Jealous bitches.

Trying to defuse the situation is always a good first step, then try doing a version of the trade game under controlled circumstances, one gets petted, the other gets a treat, then swap off. Just be aware -- and I know you will -- of their body language.

Sounds like Buster is handling her like a pro.

Show Quin what behavior gets her the resource. Snarky behavior makes the resource unavailable to her temporarily. Polite behavior brings the resource back. Pushing for the resource mustn't work. Volley back and forth several times in succession to show her a distinction. Be consistent. Make sure to have the same consequence each time she acts that way.

I have this issue with my 2 bitches(for real) one is over 6,the other is an adult we got about 5 months ago, the new one is getting VERY pushy for attention,the older is VERY annoyed,and I have to very carfeul they don't get into a fight now:yikes: new dog is THICK and it seems like all the usual stuff doesn't get through to her,she just doesn't get it- I can have her 'sit' and 'wait' 1000 times in a tow,and she still tries for it when she gets a chance..... what else can I do?

My foster girl tried some guardy stuff for the first week or so here - I initially just left her immediate area when she tried it (at the first sign, not after a full snark) and when that didn't seem to make an impression, I switched to matter-of-factly taking her into another room or to her crate for time out. The time outs have worked incredibly well and she's no longer guarding me.

The rule here is basically "you guard me, you lose me".

That's what I was trying to say Stardogs. LOL. Only you said it better.

I would say (I'll try again with more detail this time, lol) either you remove yourself from the area...yes, I agree before the snarking gets any momentum. Or, you can remove the snarker dog to another room for a minute of intense boredom all alone. Then bring her back into the room where Buster is…for a minute or 1-1/2 then a minute or 1-1/2 minutes in isolation etc. If you make the time-out too long, she may miss the association. At that point, she gets good treats, as long as it doesn't cause a frenzy or intensity between them and everyone stays calm and happy. Both dogs can get treats. Keep them across the room from each other if need be.Those treats plus lots of affection can tell the snarker that the other dog's presence is really a wonderful thing. And when the Buster is not around, life gets really empty and boring...no treats, no you, no affection or attention. Repeat going in and out of the room a few times and each time the dogs are in the same room, show what great resources are available to Miss Snarker and when Buster is not vying for your attention, not around you, it pretty much sucks. B-o-r-i-n-g. In general, at other times, when you're alone with Miss snarky pants, tone done some of those nice things (for a while) and when the dogs are together, turn them up a few notches.

So, you're doing two things; you're removing the good thing when the naughty behavior is just beginning to rev up. But you're also noticeably adding in good things when the behavior is desirable… AND more importantly, (because dogs aren’t always aware of their own behavior) you're making a pro-active and positive association between the “rotten†dog who's trying to take you away from Miss snarky pants and snarky pants. Whenever you dish out something the dog doesn’t like (isolation) always follow with something to offer as an alternative (give the dog another chance) that has a positive, reinforcing ending. If necessary, have them in the same room, but use distance to keep things more low key (if you think that would help) and decrease distance between them gradually.

I’ve dealt with this issue quite a bit. Lyric and Jose` and quite a few clients’ dogs. It’s quite common. And this is basically what I did with them. In about a week or two, things should improve.

I read something great about how to handle this in one of (the three lol) books I am reading at the moment - when I remember to look I'll post what she says.

You really do, though, have to tailor it to your dogs.

I tried the "take me away" approach but had to temper it with trading (it worked for awhile, and RG-ing me wasn't what pushed them over the edge to fighting anyway) because Kharma started "blaming" Tallulah -- and holding it for later -- for her exile, and then Tallulah picked up on that theory and started doing the same thing. :wall:

Sometimes having intelligent dogs is a pain in the ass.

I had to deal with this issue when we first got Mitsu. Teagan started resouce guarding everything, especially my bed, couch. What would happen when she did that was she was instantly shoved off whatever she was on. Worked like a charm. She realised very fast that guarding was not allowed.

When it come to toys I instantly told her to drop it and took it away, that worked really nicely as well.

Good luck with whatever you decided to try.

Thanks guys. Will start tightening up on the rules, I got lazy and would just tell her to bugger off when she was looking snarky but it doesn't actually make any lasting difference.
She knows better than to try to start something so everything she does do is cranky posturing and staring him down but its not on and I don't want it escalating so time to nip it in the bud.

This works really well here, too. Pip resource guards me, and trying to intervene with interrupters/attention or recall definitely escalates tension and was part of what triggered a bad "fight" (quotes because Squash didn't really fight back) last summer.

Although there was more going on between them than simply resource guarding, just turning my back and walking away diffuses any tense encounter between them almost instantly. A behaviorist described it to me as... I am a social facilitator for both dogs, and with my attention on the situation they both felt more emboldened to to things they wouldn't otherwise have done. Anyway, just something to try.