Hi , This is my first time on the forum .I have a very lovable 14 months old puppy who has started growling at me if I try to take something he shouldn't have off him.Up till now it's not been a big deal he has nit been aggressive in any way Today he had a bone and growled and bared his teeth when he thought I might take it from him. I did not like the way things went he was quite aggressive.Should I be worried.
Re: Growling 14month old labrador. Hi there Dougie, I don't have a lot of experience, Lilly is my first dog at almost 4 years old. I think there is an article about growling and resource guarding here on the main site that might help you, and I am sure someone else wll help out with advice before long too Welcome to the forum! Jac and Lilly
Re: Growling 14month old labrador. Welcome to the forum . Sorry, I have no advice, just wanted to say hi and I'm sure someone will come along with more advice P.S. Photo of Lilly please!
Re: Growling 14month old labrador. We had this same issue with our rescue Lab. There is ways to deal with it, so deep breaths! Do you use a clicker? I have found it invaluable for training, it really helps the dog understand the precise thing you want. The method I used uses a clicker, but you could also use a marker word, like "yup" or something, but it's trickier to get right, I think. Anyhow... What you need to do is to build up in the dog's mind a happy association with your (or anyone else's) hand coming near their "treasure". As well, you want to help the dog understand that happy things happen when he gives up his treasure. So... 1. Have your clicker and treats ready. If you haven't used a clicker before, read over the articles on beginning with a clicker before you do this, just so you understand how it works. You could use a really nummy treat, just to get the ball rolling. 2. While the dog has a low value toy or boring food item, put your hand far enough away from the dog that he does not react. As soon as your hand is there (this could be 3 feet away to start with, just so both of you are comfortable), and he ignores it, with no negative reaction, click and treat. A negative reaction could be the growl, but also could be him moving away, ears going back, grabbing item with paws, etc. 3. Once you have success with a few times at the initial distance, start putting your hand closer, and going through the same routine. Just do this very carefully at first, always keeping your safety in mind, of course. 4. Repeat the steps, all the while getting closer and closer, until finally you can be near the dog, without the reaction. You don't have to do this all in one session, in fact, it's probably better that you don't. A few short sessions a day, getting closer every time. Once he's okay with being approached while he has the low value toy or treat, start giving him something better, and begin at step one again. It won't take as long this time to go through the steps. Eventually you will get to where you can be near him while he's chewing a bone and he'll be okay with it. The other thing to work on is to get the dog comfortable with giving things up. You can do the "swap" of an item for a treat, but another thing that works really well is to wait until he has something that you don't care about, give him a treat for giving it up, and then GIVE IT BACK. He won't believe his luck, you will almost see the wheels turning in his mind. "Hmm...if I give it up I get a treat AND I get it back??" Doing this with the dog every once in awhile, again, with things that you don't care might get destroyed (like a cardboard box, or something), will do wonders for helping your dog be happy about handing things over. I found this method worked really well. I still have to work on my pooch, he is much better than when we first got him but he will still growl occasionally when he has something special. So I need to go back and work on this too. Good luck with this, I hope this helps. I followed the method on the kikopup video channel, so if you want to see this in action, have a look ther, under Resource Guarding, I think.
