I work away from home on shifts and my wife is home with Duggan and the 11 month old baby. Duggan is 14 months now and generally an amazing dog. Wife called today very upset, she says he has been very aggressive towards her twice in the last two days showing teeth and growling very viciously. He is entire If that matters, i would like to share everything. Now, I believe what she says. She said she was scared. She has raised many pit bulls and Alsatians amongst many other mixes growing up in South Africa and having lots of dogs around as protection if nothing more than deterrents and noise for would be intruders. She said she's never been scared of any of those breeds except one single dog scared her once. She is a tough dominant lady so if she said Duggan scared her and snapped then I believe her. (I have also seen it in a mild form. He every once in a while resource guards his dinner bowl. Not to me any more) and he growled when she went near his birthday bone and we have never approached him when he has a Kong full of treats but I'm assuming he might, hence why I never approach it. I've hand fed, brought more food to his dish while feeding and was of the opinion he didn't guard any more. He also has a very aggressive negative reaction when you grab him by the collar. Now for the events. Yesterday she was vacuuming the car and he came to sit in his spot on the passenger side. He loves going for rides. He loves the truck. She went to clean under him and he wouldn't get out. She called and tried to lure but he wouldn't get out so she went to grab him by the collar and he showed his teeth and growled viciously at her. She went in the house, called him and he came as though nothing happened. Today she was brushing him outside on the deck. She has done this ten times each time giving him a stuffed Kong so he doesn't try to steal the brush with no problems. Today she carried on as usual and he growled savagely and reared around to snap at her. She is upset, concearned for the baby and scared of him now. 20 minutes prior he was napping with his head on her lap. She has been with him every single day since we got him. She's his mom. When I want him to lay on the mat and he ignores me she just looks at him and points and he goes. ( she rules inside lol. I am better outside). He otherwise is a very gentle dog. Soft mouth. Great retriever and so amazing with babies and toddlers. He hasn't met many kids. He follows the baby every where and he lets her steal his Kong and she takes his food from his bowl and they share ( I know gross, but not while I am home ). I'm not sure what's going on here. I know he has the tendency to guard and I know he hates when you grab his collar. Wondering if these are isolated events or if he's gaining ground as a mature male. I dont want to have him neutered but I will if it helps. He is the most amazing animal I have ever met aside from this. She is talking rehome. This would kill me, I mean, this is a dog I almost kicked her mother out over.
Please get a Vet check. An escalation in or development of bad behaviour could be due to illness or pain somewhere. There is a current thread on hypothyroidism which can lead to behaviour changes. Perhaps a behaviourist would be good to call in. Did you do classes together? What about calling your trainer in for some observation? Do NOT let the baby take food from his bowl. PLEASE. It's not worth the risk. This site, Canadian but with international followers, will shed some light on food resource guarding. http://www.doggonesafe.com/ http://www.cappdt.ca/UserFiles/File/articles/resource guarding for parents.pdf The CAPPDT can also help you find a behaviourist or trainer. http://www.cappdt.ca/trainers ETA: Here is the thyroid thread: https://thelabradorforum.com/threads/hypothyroid-and-behavioral-problems.20007/#post-307038
@Johnny Walker nny Walker I agree get Duggan checked by your vet first, he may have an underlying issue or even a dental problem. Second I would stop grabbing him by the collar immediately as he obviously does not like it and this is causing him to react which you don't want, this isn't his fault as you are putting him in that situation even if you don't mean to. What if a child or vistor grabbed his collar and he bit them? Lots of dogs really hate collar grabbing. Absolutely 100% do not allow your child to even approach his bowl of food, kongs, bones or treats let alone take anything. Dogs should be left to eat alone, you wouldn't want anyone grabbing your plate of food or treat. I hope you get to the bottom on Duggan's behaviour Jonny, please let us know how you get on. xx
Years ago I had a Malamute that became very difficult, would growl and snap for no apparent reason. We never really figured it out, but we thought perhaps he had some back pain from something. The Vet was not very helpful. It passed after a few weeks and he was back to his old self. Hopefully you can find an underlying cause for Duggan's behavior. It is most un-lab like. He always guarded valuable (think fresh bones) resources, but otherwise was very easy going.
He's so good with her he actually pushes her hand away when it gets near his mouth. We focused on bite inhibition and recall from day one. He will also share his Kong with her. wheb she steals it he takes it back then gives it to her again so he can steal it back again. Lol. He always has her in sight. If she moves out of his line of vision he will resposition himself so he can see her.
We will get him looked at and the one time she got to his bowl was an accident. Wife had a heart attack when she realized the little one had managed to get to it and ran over to find them sharing. He gets fed away in a corner with no traffic to minimize the effects of guarding. I can go to his bowl and take food out of it if I want to, but I never do. We don't normally grab his collar. He has a solid recall, but durning the very few times that we have, he has exhibited his disdain but never "viciously". I'm wonder if it was all a bit exaggerated by some residual post pardem hormones.
Sorry to hear you have this worry with your boy. As everyone has said, seeing the vet and avoiding grabbing his collar would help in the meantime. I don't think guarding is usually affected by neutering. Also, it's good that he growls, or just air snaps, to let you know he is uncomfortable with a situation - rather than going straight to biting. If he growls the best thing is to take a step back so he learns that growling is an effective way to communicate, rather than escalating to air snapping or biting. You can train him to get used to having his collar held. Here's a video: It's worth seeing a good trainer, in case it gets worse.
It's definitely worthwhile training a collar grab and counter-conditioning him into thinking it's a great thing. This is for unthinkable eventualities, too - if someone has to grab him if he's in danger, for example, it would be awful if he had a strong reaction to that. So a grabbed collar being associated with great rewards will help overcome this.
At our dog club the collar grab is on the curriculum for all puppy and beginner adult classes. It's a must. But you'll have to go very slowly and carefully with a dog who has already learned to dislike it. I think it'd be best for you to get the help of a qualified behaviourist/behaviour trainer. Don't try to tackle it alone.
Yup, pretty common. People generally grab at their dogs' collars when they want to stop the dog doing something it wants to do. Done often enough, or to a dog that it affects more, it's not surprising that it can easily become a very unpleasant experience for them.
It's odd to me bacause we've only had the reaction 5 times. Three times when he was 4 months old trying to get him to leave the spare bedroom and twice whilst trying to get him out of our vehicle. I was leaning toward more of him guarding the space than an adverse reaction to having his collar grabbed. We "grab" his collar to attach the lead with no problems daily. The reaction seems to be specific to location.
