Resource aggression in puppies

[Knitwearisforwinners]

Hey everyone, it's my first post here, having joined recently and lurked for a while I wonder if anyone has advice, please, about a situation which is breaking my heart with our five month Cocker puppy.

Teddy is our second dog, and joined our family to live with us, our two children (7&9), our five year old cocker bitch and our cats. We collected him at almost nine weeks, and within the first week we nearly lost him due to terrible diarrhoea. Since then, he has swiftly become my most challenging dog ever! Since week one, he has resource guarded food, but has come a long with way training around being interrupted during a meal for something nicer, and has gone from snarling and growling at a human or canine approach into the room whilst he was eating dinner, to soft and sweet, looking up in anticipation. Mealtimes are now much, much calmer, and although he eats away from everyone, he also tolerates me wandering around him when I have had to.

However, when he has found or stolen food (an occupational hazard with children and cats!), he has become increasingly aggressive whilst he guards it, to the point where I have had to shut children in one room, dogs in another and stand in the doorway out of eyeline, until I could draw him away and send him down the garden with the other dog/s, then removing all traces of the food. He has also shown aggression to myself, my husband and my children when being handled (growling and posturing), including being asked to move off a bed and simply being stroked, as well as towards my children when they have entered my bedroom first thing in the morning. I don't in any way blame Teddy for his behaviour, but as he grows older, I am increasingly concerned for the safety of my family and other pets. I am also increasingly concerned for my bitch's happiness; they used to play, but now she puts up with, and tries to ignore, his attempts to play, looking sad and resigned.

I have never owned a dog which displayed aggression to me in my own home before, and so it was a shock when it began, and has been a very, very difficult journey for me and for us as a family. Moreover, as time goes on, I am concerned that we are being accustomed to Teddy's way of communicating, and growling, barking and snapping feels more and more like the 'norm'. This worries me, and I never ever want to feel complacent about this behaviour when we have children in the house almost all the time.

We have had vet, behaviourist and trainer input, but I think what I want to ask you wonderful is this: has anyone else experienced this level of aggression from such a young puppy and what did you do? What has been the outcome? Do we stand a chance of making this work, or will this simply escalate as he grows older and matures? Am I taking too big a risk in having him in the house and working with this behaviour when I have young children?

I would be so grateful for an advice, information or stories Thank you in advance.

[lescef]

Hi. I feel for you. Although not as extreme I have similar problems with my second dog, Bramble.
Did the behaviourist help at all?
I can pinpoint when Bramble became a guarder after I was jumped on, in a friendly way, by a lab who was after the treats I was carrying. Bramble was seven months at the time and possibly going through the second fear period.
We are retired but look after our grandson several times in the week. Bramble guards me from him and will bark and growl. She guards me from our other dog and her toys. I can't sit on the floor or she will guard me etc etc.
We have to manage the situations all the time. Do you manage to stay calm when it's happening -they pick up on our tension so easily. I didn't initially which probably made things worse, now I try to take it in my stride.
 I'm lucky though as grandson isn't here all the time so we get some respite, whereas you have it all the time. With management things are better but it isn't how I envisaged life with two dogs.
There are a few on here with guardy dogs. Hope they can offer more help. X

[8 Hairy Feet]

I hope Emma reads this (Archiebean) as she's
had to deal with guarding issues.

[Knitwearisforwinners]

Hi Lesley,

Thank you so much for your reply. I am just at my wit's end about whether I am being reckless in keeping Teddy, but we love him so dearly.

At the start, I feel as though Teddy's behaviour sent me straight in to a very primal fight or flight, almost crippled with a fear I've never experienced before. This made it very challenging for a few weeks, as I froze when situations happened, and couldn't make any choices about my response as my brain had kind of shut down - does that make any sense at all? Now, I am able to stay calm and controlled, but it's very difficult to know what to do for the best. And the more events which happen, the more this becomes learned behaviour, you know? I am utterly worn out with the constant vigilance needed, and the thought of fifteen years of managing such challenging behaviour honestly exhausts me.

How do you manage the behaviour with Bramble? Is she crated when your grandchildren visit?

Thanks again

[Knitwearisforwinners]

Hi 8 Hairy Feet,

Thanks for that. Anyone with experience of this, I would be delighted to hear from

[8 Hairy Feet]

Hi Knitwear ( )
It's Emmas birthday today so she may be out celebrating
but she documented her struggles on here so a
forum search should bring up some
pertinent post.

[lescef]

Yes, I understand completely how you feel. My other dog also became fear reactive and I was panic stricken. Our trainer said there was so much tension in my voice I should use a clicker instead!
I thought I was an experienced dog owner but it's not until you have a problem that you find you're not!
It does become learned behaviour so trying to prevent them practicing is very important.
Bramble spent alot of time in her crate when grandson was younger on the advice of our trainer as children are so unpredictable. Once he got to the stage that he would sit and watch the tv quietly, we let her go in her bed in the same room. She still spends a fair amount of time in her crate.
You sound like you've made good progress with the food issues so hopefully you can carry on. He is still young. I was really upset that I would have to rehome Bramble. You have to do what's best for your family. There are two good books about guarding by Jean Donaldson -'Mine' and 'Fight'.

[Knitwearisforwinners]

Yes, this is exactly how I feel! I also really thought I was an experienced dog owner, but Teddy has taught me more in the three months we've had him than all of my other dogs combined! Our huge problem is that he has HATED the crate since the first day he came home, so the pen worked for a while, but now he can jump it! We are working on how to reinforce the pen, but he still HATES it with a passion. Pre-children, I would have struggled with this but been totally committed - with our own and other children here, I swing between feeling like this is too much of a risk to work through, and the fact that he has done well with mealtimes and maybe there is hope. It's tearing me apart to have to think about making this decision!

Can I ask you what made you finally decide that you could handle this? Was there something that made it feel manageable? And did your first dog ever find peace?

And thanks for the book recommendations - I have ordered Mine! today so will get reading that tomorrow.

Thanks so much for your replies x

[hoover]

Reading your posts is like reading about my Ollie when he was younger, and honestly, if we had had children I don't know that we would have been able to keep him. He is 22 months now and so much better in many ways but those changes didn't start until he was about 11 months old and it was definitely very hard around the 7/8 month old stage.  We noticed a dramatic difference after neutering, I have to say (which we got done around the 10 month mark, I think - it was about a month after neutering that we noticed a very real lessening in behaviours that I don't think can purely be accounted for by the training that we did and the general maturing that he went through.) 

We persevered with the crate despite torturous sounding howls in the early stages and he came to be fine with it and use it through choice - we really did need the crate at times.  so I would revisit that, especially because his behaviour in all likelihood is worse when he is tired so you need to enforce naps in places where he is guaranteed time away from the children.  This will also likely lessen his likelihood of guarding other sleeping spots and protect your children from him.

I have posted a lot on this (and the body handling issues and location guarding which I believe are all related) so you could scroll through previous posts of mine to find all the threads where people are discussing these issues.

We made huge progress in body handling and location guarding to the extent that these do not seem to exist any more (however we would still need to muzzle him to handle an injury).  The resource guarding is much, much better but not 100% and in the right situations (high value resource, tired dog) he will still guard and we have to lure him away from whatever is being guarded with a higher value resource.

[lescef]

Good advice from Hoover.
Im not sure how I decided to carry on - but you are in a much worse position to me - at least the grandson goes home!
I had to stop feeling guilty about it all. They were my retirement hobby but I think I gave them too much attention. I should just let them be a dog. Our trainer did say if things were getting stressy, don't try to battle on but, put them in the crate. I think that helped with my decision as it gave me space and a sense of control.
I certainly would persevere with the crate. He has to have somewhere that is safe.  Guarding is a form of fear so maybe confidence building, impulse control and a good 'leave' command would help eventually.
Give loads of praise when he's being good. It's so easy just to take good stuff for granted.
It has got better, but my two only tolerate each other so I'm always watching. I think Maddie still hopes Bramble is visiting and will pack her bags and leave.

[hoover]

If you make a decision that he would be better in another home you should not feel guilty. It is a very hard thing if you and your family, other dog and cats are living in fear of Teddy, and you are not just making decisions about you but them as well.

It's hard to give advice without seeing the dog and even then you see a dog at a snapshot in time without knowing all the potential in the future - for improvement or alternatively for more of the same or worsening.  With Ollie he had already progressed to biting and his warning system was inconsistent in that sometimes there would be the usual progression from posturing to growling and sometimes it was like there was no warning system or if there was one it would occur in the blink of an eye...growl, bark, bite with no time to avoid.

Some trainers might say if your dog gives an excellent and consistent gradual warning system and has never bitten then you might have more potential to manage or even overcome the behaviour but I guess there are a lot of 'ifs and buts'.  Ian Dunbar's dog bite scale which helps assess how dangerous a dog is and which acknowledges snapping at the lower end of the scale is worth a look at

Good luck with whatever you decide. 

[AlanT]

Cockers are smart but nervous.  Somewhat different to other dogs, like the Terriers I've had before.

You need to build trust.  If I give a bowl of food, or a chew or other high-value item then I leave the dog alone.

Don't give things that you may need to take away, like big bones.  I can do this now, even with a big Beef-knuckle, but mine is three and we've been though all the guarding stuff.

At the puppy stage I only gave chewy treats that would disappear in a minute or so. Give it, say "on your bed" or whatever suits you.  Ignore the dog but walk past showing absolutely NO INTEREST.  You need to convince them that you are not a threat.

With Cockers, NO PUNISHMENT, shouting, naughty-steps, "taps" with you foot,  just a small reward when they do it right.  They are bright and catch-on quickly.  But determined and suspicious until you bond with them.

I made a lot of progress by scent-training.  This is stimulating and it's own reward.  But they have to "give-up" the target.  This is a way to build trust.  When to session ends you put the target in the SAME PLACE, every time.
Soon they know this and are content it will come out tomorrow.

[Murphys Law]

Cockers are smart but nervous.  Somewhat different to other dogs, like the Terriers I've had before.

You need to build trust.  If I give a bowl of food, or a chew or other high-value item then I leave the dog alone.

Don't give things that you may need to take away, like big bones.  I can do this now, even with a big Beef-knuckle, but mine is three and we've been though all the guarding stuff.

At the puppy stage I only gave chewy treats that would disappear in a minute or so. Give it, say "on your bed" or whatever suits you.  Ignore the dog but walk past showing absolutely NO INTEREST.  You need to convince them that you are not a threat.

With Cockers, NO PUNISHMENT, shouting, naughty-steps, "taps" with you foot,  just a small reward when they do it right.  They are bright and catch-on quickly.  But determined and suspicious until you bond with them.

I made a lot of progress by scent-training.  This is stimulating and it's own reward.  But they have to "give-up" the target.  This is a way to build trust.  When to session ends you put the target in the SAME PLACE, every time.
Soon they know this and are content it will come out tomorrow.

I agree with much of your advice Alan. You make some good points.

But you also continue to categorise cockers based on your own dog. In my opinion, and that of cocker web sites, cockers are not generally a nervous dog at all. They are described as a happy, confident dog.

Please stop misleading people when it comes to cocker spaniel temperament.

[lescef]

Cockers are smart but nervous.  Somewhat different to other dogs, like the Terriers I've had before.

You need to build trust.  If I give a bowl of food, or a chew or other high-value item then I leave the dog alone.

Don't give things that you may need to take away, like big bones.  I can do this now, even with a big Beef-knuckle, but mine is three and we've been though all the guarding stuff.

At the puppy stage I only gave chewy treats that would disappear in a minute or so. Give it, say "on your bed" or whatever suits you.  Ignore the dog but walk past showing absolutely NO INTEREST.  You need to convince them that you are not a threat.

With Cockers, NO PUNISHMENT, shouting, naughty-steps, "taps" with you foot,  just a small reward when they do it right.  They are bright and catch-on quickly.  But determined and suspicious until you bond with them.

I made a lot of progress by scent-training.  This is stimulating and it's own reward.  But they have to "give-up" the target.  This is a way to build trust.  When to session ends you put the target in the SAME PLACE, every time.
Soon they know this and are content it will come out tomorrow.

I agree with much of your advice Alan. You make some good points.

But you also continue to categorise cockers based on your own dog. In my opinion, and that of cocker web sites, cockers are not generally a nervous dog at all. They are described as a happy, confident dog.

Please stop misleading people when it comes to cocker spaniel temperament.

Maybe sensitive would be a better description?

[AlanT]

Oh I meet loads of Cockers.  Many much more nervous that mine.  On a typical Saturday morning out around hers I may meet a dozen of more.  I can usually tell dogs from bitches as they are walking towards me.

There are rescues, ex puppy-farmed, locally bred workers, show types from all over the country.

As they go, mine is up with the bully-boy workers, but you drop the lid of a poo-bin and he will scream.