My little Millie is now about 4.5 months and she is starting to show signs of aggression (or at least what I think is aggression) towards her brother (14 month old male Border Collie). What will happen is if Kobe (brother) has a toy as an example and she wants it she will launch at him, teeth bared, aggressive growl and try to take it off him. If he walks into a space she is near she will turn and do the same, launch, snarl, aggressive bark / growl. He then becomes timid and stays back. This mainly happens when inside the house, outside they are very different dogs and play very differently, inside the house they (she) is more aggressive. We have always been able to take toys away from her when we want the game to finish, however on the weekend when we tried to do the same she growled and snapped (no contact made). Any thoughts / opinions on this? Ideas to try stop this? 98% of the time she is good, I just don't want this to develop into something more. Appreciate the help.
Hi @Tropey 1. Dont take things out of dog's mouth otherwise you will teach her to resource guard and demonstrate the behaviour she showed you. Have treats on you, or use another toy as an exchange for what she has. Be generous with the terms of trade. You want to reward her for giving up something. 2. Have your dog on a houseline while inside. Any display of bullying, growling, aggression towards the other dog results in ten minutes of time out. Be calm and consistent. No need for any other correction. No yelling. No positive punishments. You need to show her how she should behave. Any transgressions result in time out in a crate or a spare boring room. She will learn that aggressive behaviour results in the loss of being with everyone and the fun that that entails..
Your examples of behaviour towards Kobe don't really concern me too much. To some degree, dogs living together need to negotiate a way to share resources. It is normal for there to be some growling or 'debates' about high value items. If you don't like this, or you feel like something unfair is happening, then separate the dogs when they have high value items so they can enjoy them without worrying about the other dog. Michael is totally right: You should never take items off a dog without training the dog to WANT to give you things through teaching a reliable Drop cue. Otherwise you are simply teaching the dog to see you as a threat. If I walked up to you and took your pay packet with your wages in it every month, you'd be a food to stand there and let me dog it, time after time... You need to give the dog something in exchange for the item you want to remove. Moreover you need to spend time teaching a reliable Drop cue first:
