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We found this on the internet  – very informative about training your new Beagle!

Resource guarding is when a Beagle reacts when they perceive a threat to a valuable resource in their possession. The Beagle feels they are about to lose something and takes action to keep it. Resource guarding does not always have to end with growling, lunging, biting, or fighting. Patricia McConnell defines it well, as “any behavior that discourages another to take, or get too close to, an object or valued area in the dog’s possession.” This behavior could be as simple as a look, head turn, or slight baring of the teeth.

Guarding resources is a natural dog behavior. It’s a natural animal behavior — humans included! Access to resources like food, water, and a safe space is essential to survival. It’s hardwired into animal nature to protect the things we believe we need to survive. While it is a normal dog behavior, it’s not a desirable one. Resource guarding becomes a dangerous problem if a dog is willing to bite or fight to keep an item. This is especially worrisome in a home with young children, elderly family members, or if the dog is not predictable in what items they decide to guard.

Resource Guarding Between Dogs

Dogs will guard resources from each other. This might be a certain resting place (or even your bed if you let them sleep there!), food bowls, or high-value chews and toys. When resources are limited, such as when there’s only one chew but two dogs, we tend to see an increase in guarding.

Fortunately, most dogs will gauge whether a particular resource is worth enough to fight over. There’s no point in risking injury by fighting with another dog for something of lower value. Many dogs will communicate with each other using body language and vocalizations to express their desire for the thing the other dog has, or to tell the other to leave them alone.

If you have a multi-dog household, you might see the ebb and flow of resource guarding “conversations” they have. For example, my dog Sookie is possessive of chews in the office. However, she is conflict-averse and gives low-level signals to the other dog that means, “This chew is mine. Leave me alone.” She’ll take her chew further away, or I step in. It also helps that the humans in the office prevent an escalation of resource guarding by managing the situation and calling one dog away from another.

These are the most obvious signs of resource guarding. Unfortunately, too often it isn’t until a dog is doing these things that I get a call for help from the dog’s owner:

• Growling
• Lunging and Air Snapping (a no-contact bite)
• Biting

In developing and “milder” cases of resource guarding, a dog might show less intense (and therefore less obvious) signs of guarding behavior. A certified dog trainer, veterinary behaviorist, behavior consultant, or someone with experience reading dog body language, will often see these more subtle signs prior to the actions described above:

• Freezing
• Eating faster
• Taking item and moving away
• Braced body position over the item
• Side eye staring or tracking the offender
• Raising lips and baring teeth
• Ears pinned flat against the head
• Hard stare

Sharing our lives with our dogs means that we need to make sure they understand that there are plenty of resources. There’s no need to guard food, toys, or space if we teach them that our removing an item, such as their chew, results in something equal or better than what they had. Giving up something to us willingly and happily needs to be trained and rewarded for our dogs, so that resource guarding doesn’t become an issue.

Unfortunately, the collective human response to a dog who is resource guarding has been the wrong one for too long. Using punishment and aversives as a response to resource guarding can result in more resource guarding. This is why you need to connect with a certified trainer if you have a dog who guards resources. They will make sure you stay safe and that your dog gets the positive training they need to learn that there’s no need to growl and guard certain items and help you with management techniques. Next, let’s look at what NOT to do if your dog growls or shows other signs of resource guarding.

Never punish a growling dog. You can punish away a growl, sure, but all you’ve done is make a dog bite more likely. If your dog learns that growling to express their discomfort at your approach results in an aversive (such as yelling, hitting, a “tap” from a shock collar), and the loss of the item they were guarding, the next time you reach for it, they’re more likely to skip the growl and go straight for a bite. If someone keeps stealing my fries after asking them to stop, for instance, the next time they reach across the table I might smack their fingers away. Ignored warnings will escalate behavioral responses, in both humans and dogs. You don’t want to take away important warning signs that your dog needs to communicate with you.

So many clients come to me for help with resource guarding and tell me, “We wanted to prevent resource guarding, so we’d always stick our hands in our dog’s food bowl while they were eating, or randomly take away their chew. That way, they know who’s boss and that the food or chew belongs to us.” Instead of the desired result, they now have a dog who snaps when they reach for the bowl or a dog that lashes out even at just their walking by the bowl. Without taking the necessary proactive and preventive steps (which I’ll outline further below), sticking your hand in your dog’s food bowl while they’re eating, or just taking away their chew toy will backfire. All you’re doing is annoying your dog and teaching them that when you reach for something, they’ll lose it. Not the association we want our dogs to make!

If your dog loves to grab socks from the laundry basket, and then growls or tries to bite when you try to take them away, set yourself up for success from the get-go (and avoid the possible surgery to remove the sock foreign body) by removing the opportunity. Don’t leave items lying around that your dog might find valuable enough to guard. Keep your laundry basket up high. Pick up their food bowls between meals after they’ve finished eating and have walked away. Don’t give them certain toys or high-value edible chews that they’ve become protective over.

Once I gave each of my dogs a new chew, a super smelly (and I’m assuming super delicious to dogs) lamb spine. They sat and enjoyed it for a while, and then I got up from my spot on the couch and walked past one of them to the kitchen. As I got near, I reached down — not to take the chew, but to give my dog a scratch on the neck — and I was greeted by a low, sustained growl. I immediately stopped what I was doing, took a step back, and assessed the situation. This was the first time that my dog had shown resource guarding behavior towards me. And you know what I did? I called him into the kitchen and traded him some cheese for the chew, and then never bought those chews again. If only all my resource guarding cases were that simple.

Make a list of all of the things your dog has become possessive over. Then think about how you can change the environment to remove access to these things (if they are possessive of your bed, do NOT let them sleep in your bed – instead, put them in a crate, or close your bedroom door and give them their own bed outside of your bedroom – have multiple places available for them to sleep- other than your bed!). Obviously, this doesn’t work with everyday necessities, like food bowls. We’ll talk about those in a second. But, for example, one of my training clients had a dog who loved to grab kitchen knives off the counter and then would not want to give them back. Not necessarily something you want to be chasing after your dog to get! The first step in his training was to block off his access to the kitchen. Voilá! He didn’t have access to the knives, and therefore couldn’t grab them and take off. Once his environment was managed, we then practiced cues like “Go to Bed” while his owner cooked meals, and the Drop It cue.

For things that you can’t just remove from your dog’s environment, think about managing the context. If your dog guards their food bowl, set up a separate area where they can eat in peace. Use a gate to block off this area during mealtimes, so that no one can approach and make your dog feel the need to react. This is imperative if you have young children or elderly parents in the home who might not understand that they can’t pet your dog during mealtimes. Blocking off separate feeding areas is also important if you have more than one dog, and one shows inappropriate resource guarding behavior.

If your dog guards things like a chew or long-lasting treat, give these to them in their safe space, crate, or other areas where they won’t be bothered and let them enjoy it in peace. Ensure that everyone in your home knows that if the dog is eating or enjoying a chew, they are to let them be.

Instead of the dread and fear of losing it, we want them to think, “Oh goodie! She’s coming over here, and that means something awesome is about to happen!”

• Find a high-value treat that your dog loves more than the thing they are guarding. Usually moist and smelly works best, such as small pieces of chicken, or turkey hotdog.
• Know the distance at which your dog begins to resource guard. Some dogs don’t get possessive of their item or food until you’re a few feet away. Others get tense if you’re even in the same room while they eat. The goal here is to find the distance at which they know you are there, but aren’t becoming tense or reacting with guarding behavior. For example, if your dog begins eating faster when you’re three feet away, start this exercise from six feet away. You’re determining what their distance threshold is for guarding a resource.
• Give your dog their meal or chew as usual, then walk away.
• Approach your dog, but stop a few feet before their distance threshold. Toss a piece of chicken to them. Once they eat it, toss another. Do this a few times before leaving the area.
• Continue this exercise any time your dog has something they guard.
• After a few sessions, begin to add one more step towards them before tossing the treat, and then step back. This is where you’re decreasing their distance threshold. Don’t rush this step.
• If your dog gets tense or shows other signs of resource guarding, take the training back a step.

Think about working in small “slices” when treating your dog’s resource guarding. Don’t rush through the process and just reach for their bowl — that’s setting them up to fail, and you might get bit.

With practice and consistency, your dog will learn to anticipate good things when you approach them. In many cases, these dogs choose to leave their food bowl or chew to happily approach you.

Both the drop it and leave it cues are important skills for all dogs to learn, but especially those that struggle with resource guarding. Drop it means to let go of something that’s already in their mouth or possession, and leave it means to turn away from something.

If your dog guards food items, start practicing drop it with toys and then move on to practicing food trades. If they drop a low-value chew, they get a high-value treat. Make sure you’re rewarding with something equal or better!

Using a reward that of equal or higher value to your dog will help speed up the training practice and increase your success with the leave it cue.

Training a reliable recall with your dog is useful for preventing resource guarding behavior. You can call them away from something that they have, rather than approaching them and trying to grab it.

The process of preventing resource guarding isn’t much different than the tips outlined above. Prevention is always easier than treatment! Set your puppy or new dog up for success by:

• Letting them eat or chew in peace. Don’t put your hand in their food or pet them while they’re eating.
• Practicing positive-sum trades. They drop a chew, they get a high-value treat and then their chew back.
• Teaching them drop it and leave it.
• Managing their environment. If you don’t chase after them when they have a sock, the sock will have less value.
• Make sure to properly socialize your puppy. Socialization is crucial for preventing a variety of dog behaviors, such as resource guarding, fear aggression, and separation anxiety.