This blog post is associated with the Guarding Types infographic. Scroll to the bottom to view/download

Your leash reactive dog might be the guarding type if…

• They are suspicious of new people, but eventually warm up
• They don’t display the same degree of reactivity in areas away from their neighborhood – in fact they are often neutral with other dogs and people away from home
• They have genetics from the following breed groups – working, herding, or if they are a former street dog
• They position themselves in between you and perceived threats
• They like to keep their eyes on the environment

Dogs who guard, who are territorial, or who are protective over their humans, homes, and neighborhoods might be displaying leash reactivity because they want other dogs to know this is their space or person, and to get out. Not because they are fearful of other dogs. Yes, you read that correctly. Not all leash reactivity is based in fear. There are some dogs who are quite confident and can find it highly reinforcing to control the proximity of other dogs through their reactive displays of behavior.

Genetics are Often a Large Component

Out of all of the reactivity “types,” I find a strong genetic component with dogs who guard. Breed groups including working (think Boxer, Rottweiler, Doberman, Mastiff) and herding (think German Shepherd, Australian Shepherd, Belgian Malinois) or street dogs turned pet dogs. Street dogs are free living dogs who live around people, but not as house pets. They have mixed heritage, breed on their own, and they live on the street. It’s very common for these dogs to be “rescued” and adopted out as pet dogs.

Many working breeds have been bred to guard their families and/or their homes. They can be naturally suspicious of newcomers, dogs and people alike. This is typical, and they often have a “warming up” period before accepting a new person or dog. They are often confident in their approach, with an inclination to move forward and hold their ground. On leash, this can look like standing in between their human and a perceived threat, and an escalation of their behavior if something continues coming closer.

Herding breeds have been bred to control the movements of other animals. Some of them can also be suspicious of new people or dogs, and they are especially attune to changes in their environment. Because they are motivated to control movement, other dogs or people moving quickly, coming too close, etc can result in reactive behaviors on leash.

Street dogs are keenly aware of who and what is coming near their territory, or if they are encroaching on someone else’s territory. This is a result of their lifestyle – living among many other street dogs means they pay a lot of attention to where others are, including where the resources (food, water, mating opportunities) are. When they become established into a new home as a pet dog, that then becomes their new territory.

These genetics make it more likely that a dog will be naturally motivated to defend what they perceive is theirs, or a strong desire to control others, which can express itself as leash reactivity. This is an important distinction when it comes to how you would choose to modify the dog’s behavior, because these dogs often find the reactive behaviors inherently reinforcing.

While a dog’s genetics increase the likelihood that they will display certain behaviors, it doesn’t mean they will. I’ve met many shepherds who were giant goobers and who welcomed everyone with open arms, and street dogs sweet as pie who wouldn’t dream of guarding a thing. Genetics are important, but it’s always important to look at every dog as an individual.

Leadership Matters

In the positive reinforcement dog training world, terms like leadership have gotten a bad rap. Mainly because they have a history of being associated with a poor understanding of dog behavior and compulsion-based training methods. You can be a leader for your dog AND be benevolent. You can have a relationship built on trust, and help your dog navigate the world by being kind, consistent and clear. This is especially important for dogs who are guarding their humans or their neighborhoods. Because if the thing that the dog is guarding IS their human, how that human responds is critical in how the dog perceives the situation. And when the dog is literally attached to their human via a leash, those dynamics become even more important, because the proximity is so close.

The role of training styles

I listed 3 breed groups above, and each of them tend to have different training styles and how they prefer to work with humans.

In general, many guardian breeds have been bred to work independently of people and to take matters into their own hands, so to speak.

Herding breeds have been bred to work with people, and thrive off of direction.

Street dogs are self-preserving, as in they have learned to look out for themselves, and taking direction from humans isn’t high on their list.

Taking into consideration a dog’s training style matters. And this comes down to HOW we teach the dog what we want it to do. There are many ways to teach behaviors, and I find that guarding types respond favorably to these:

Herding breeds: Prompting behaviors via clear direction vs capturing behaviors can be especially helpful. For instance, consider 2 common approaches to leash reactivity – one would be to capture (commonly using a marker signal such as a clicker or verbal marker) when the dog notices another dog and “offers” or does something calm – handler then clicks and feeds. The dog begins to figure out that whenever they respond with that same calm behavior, a click + treat happens. Seems like a fun game, right? Except for some dogs, this approach makes them more anxious, because it’s a guessing game at first, and when you’re bred to take direction from your human, it feels conflicting to try and figure it out on your own. What would really help them in that moment is for their human to step in and give them more direct feedback. An alternate approach might be a u turn – dog notices another dog, handler calls dog to them and changes direction. There are clear instructions (assuming the dog understands their cues) and their handler appears to be taking more action, which can be a relief for the dog.

Working breeds: Many of these dogs are naturally vigilant and want to watch people or other dogs. Popular approaches such as capturing eye contact or trying to prompt them using a “watch me” cue can backfire because it is so counter intuitive to them. They also tend to be less food motivated, making it difficult to ask for or reinforce too many behaviors. Social signaling, or essentially “showing” the dog that you are taking the lead over the situation is one of the best ways to help them. I like to teach a lot of relaxed sits or downs, to be able to position oneself beside or in front of the dog when a person or dog is around. Staying relaxed and telling the dog, “yup, I see that too, and we’re just going to do this right now” gives them the feedback they are often looking for. For some people, a “fake it till you make it” attitude is necessary, because they aren’t used to taking the lead over scenarios on walks with their dog. But this show of initiative is really important for these dogs to see that you “got it” and they don’t have to intervene on your behalf. I also find that building these skills away from home, where the guarding is less intense, sets them up for success and makes it easier to transition these behaviors at a later point.

Street dogs: I find that many of these dogs are slow to respond to training on the front end. And who can blame them, they have likely never been taught about these transactions with humans and it may not come naturally. Breaking training into small pieces is especially helpful, so that they can be successful and not get overwhelmed. Because many of these dogs have shorter attention spans for training (it’s a foreign concept after all), they aren’t especially motivated to stick with it for long. And it can take longer than average to build behaviors around distractions. However, they often respond really well to food rewards, and many of these dogs come to love training once they figure out how much fun it can be. That fun part is on us – liven up the training process via creative treat delivery (tossing treats to chase vs feeding to the mouth for example) and the simpler the better – avoid complicated training procedures.

We’re all individuals

I’ve tried to use words such as “tend to”, “often”, or “more likely” when describing the behavior of guarding types in leash reactivity. Because dogs are individuals, they don’t fit neatly into specific categories any more than we do. Understanding an individual dog comes down to comprehensive information gathering procedures before determining their motivations on leash. If you’re unsure what to ask, I have a free Intake Guide for Leash Reactivity Cases which you can get here. Note – this is for dog trainers and other dog professionals.

If you’re a pet parent and you need help with your dog who exhibits guarding behaviors on leash, please reach out to a qualified behavior consultant at www.iaabc.org.

*Every single word on this page was written by me, without the use of AI. Thank you for supporting real writers*