Abigail's mom

It started out as kind of cute. I would get up during the night and when I returned to bed, Abigail had moved into my spot. I would gently move her to another spot, all was fine. Then came the small growl when moved, now it has escalated to the point that last night she actually attacked me. Vicious growling and biting at both of my hands and arms, again, I am way out of my league here. I got her collar & lead and dragged her to another spot on the bed, but this is very bad.

What can I do about this behavior? We start obediance class June 1, it is just the basic, since she is a puppy mill rescue she has never been to any kind of training, do you think that will be enough???

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Floridabug

MollyMcFrecklesMom

This is more common that I thought. Molly is quite grouchy when she is sleeping and offers up a stern growl if I need to nudge her over. Her baby brother Winston is getting like that too. From what the breeder tells me, their mom is like that as well. Still, it bothers me. As Molly got older (she's almost 10 months), she still growls, but is less threatening about it. Perhaps she's realizing that I am moving her over and not removing her. She settles a second or so later and relaxes. However, Molly is an incredibly mild-mannered dog...to a fault. So this may be her personality. Winston, on the other hand, is a little fireball 3 month old who I trust less. So I am quite interested to hear some others' input on this.

Guarding is something you have to work at over time - build the dog's trust. I can now take things from Molly without the fear of biting, but it took us a long time to get there. Winston is more of a challenge than she ever was, the ornery little guy Search the forum for guarding and resource guarding. I know it's been discussed at length and Mikey always has some good links to offer up. Good luck with Abigail.

Mikey T

See Bitey Basset Getting Serious - HELP!

Both dogs have the same issue that is not umcommon in basset and dogs in general. The general discription of the behavior is called Resource Guarding. In this case the resource being guarded is the warm comfortable spot on the bed.

In dog this is normal adaptive behavior. In the wild dog are scavangers. The dogs able to retain resources are the ones most likely to survive and pass on their genes. The fact that is normal does not make it acceptable however.

it depends on the type of class. A basic manners class may train a leave-it and off commands. A obedience class that focuses on competitive obedience will not help. Well that not total true, it will give you tools that will make doing the type of training you need to do easier and more productive. ie teach you how to train the dog, but not the specific practice and routine to do it . The link above contains a series of videos on training the off command.

People have much misconceptions about doggie protective behavior. Think of growling as shouting it is a warning. Actual a pretty low level one at that. It is not something you want to punish or surpress. While you can certainly train the dog not to growl that way, it does not change the underlying emotions in the dog so you end up with no warning and a dog the bites first and asked questions later making it truely dangerious. I got a rescue dog with exactly that senerio. and had to spen two years retraining it to growl. The one thing conspiciously absent from this violent attact is any injury. You mention the dog biting at both arms and hands. I am goint to assume since you said "biting at" that the dog mouth did not make actual contact. Many people assume this happen because they were fast enough to avoid it. Not true. If the dogs intention was to bite you it would have happened. What the dog was doing is called snapping. The next level of protective behavior akin to a push. All this show a degree of restraint on the part of the dog, a sign it is one that can be worked with safely. Even if the dog actual made contact with the skin but did not cause any damage or only a tooth scrape not a puncture the dog has shown bite inhibition, again another good sign. Dog that cause injury the prognosis is not as good. not because they are any harder to train but because personal safety dictates certain things that you could do with a dog that won't actual do harm you can't do with one that will.

there are a lot of thing which you chose is up to you.

1. nothing. If you don't confront the dog or ask it to move from where its lieing it won't growl, there is no esculation of aggressive behavior because the dog does not need to. as the old adage goes let sleeping dogs lie.

2. Not allow the dog on the resources it guards. If the dog is not allowed on the bed or any other furniture it guards again the problem does not occur.

3. Train a more appropriate behavior. Teach an off command in order to this to work the dog must have the reasonable expectation there is more in it for him to move than stay where he his. Teach the dog mot to move over into your spot on the bed by making it more rewarding stay where she is.

4. find another home for the dog that is capable of dealing with the behavior.

5. euthanise the dog

We are often asked why this occur. Let us ask a few questions. You are sitting in the recliner get up to get something from the fridge and the dog hops in the recliner what do you do? find another seat? Physical move the dog? asked the dog to move? What exactly are the rules for the dog retaining it spot on the furniture? Do you know what they are? If not how possible does the dog? Are they consistent? Does Each peice of furniture have a different or the same rules? are the rules consistent? does the dog know the rules? There are no right or wrong answers dogs are capabile of learning different rules for different pieces of furniture but it can only learn such rules if they are consistently applied. Rules that are not consistent on lead to fustration and confusion on the part of the dog and therefore the owner. Every interaction you have with the dog is a training moment the dog is learning all the time. If you allow rules to be broken the dog is going to have lewss respect for them know that at least sometime they can be broken.

It is clear in the dogs mind anyway there is no rule about not being able to move into the warm spot after you get out of bed. Let look at it from the dogs point of view. Why should he not attempt to move to the warmer more comfortable spot? What in it for HER staying in the spot she's at? Even if only 1 in 10 time she gets to stay there is not the move worth it?


so you gentlely move her. Gentle is in the eye of the beholder but If you had a boss push/pull you around gentle or not you might put up with it for a bit but eventual you going say when approach in situation you where pushed before hey stop, don't do that. Which is what the dog does by growling.

But the request is ignore and you continue to push. The dog has two choice resign itself to being pushed or take it to the next level and push back. The reason the dogs behavior has esculated is because your behavior has esculated as well. When getting in a physical confrontation with the dog keep this in mind , are you willing to fight to the death, there are many a dog that are?

seee How Much Does Your Dog's Cooperation Weigh?
Physical struggles aren't the point in relationship based training


also keep in mind the majority of dog that are resource guarder are also touch sensitive. so physical manipulation is more of a problem for them than the average dog as well.

MINE! - A PRACTICAL GUIDE TO RESOURCE GUARDING IN DOGS

a fair review

Abigail's mom

Actually she drew blood. I didn't want to say it because it sounds horrible even to me, but she wasn't fooling around. I was thinking it was a territorial type of thing, maybe dominance issues, now that she is healthy and strong, Abby is showing more of these traits. I'll watch the video's and research, I do not like the sound of this Donaldson person however. THANK YOU for all of the above, I have some work to do.

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Floridabug

rootbeerlove

Is it possible to teach "off" of a specific place on the bed rather than off entirely? Harriet does this too, but it hasn't escalated beyond growly. She's pretty good a "leave it" but I'd never thought of using that command, I guess the spot didn't seem like a resource to me until I read this...

vonny01

You really need to get help with this ASAP.
I know from personal experience the problem will not go away it will escalate.
She has learnt growling does not stop you trying to move her so has now decided that biting will.
I would never let her on your bed,either make her stay in a crate,on a dog bed on the floor or have her sleep in another room.
She may well start to guard other things as well as the bed so you do need to train her to accept you in her space and near her things that she values.
My boy that guards will react over an empty bowl or even a pile of vomit if he has decided it belongs to him.

Mikey T

Bite inhibition
FWIW the is a big difference between a puncture wound a tooth scrap though the scrape often bleed a lot more. The cause of most tooth scraps is the human or other animal pullling away rather than intent on the part of th dog.


When ever behavior involves actual bitting it is a good Idea to get the help of profesionals not a dog trainer but a behavioralist

Find a board certified animal behavaiorist

Directory of Certified Applied Animal Behaviorist


One of the most important if not they most important thing to teach a puppy to insure it has a long life is bite inhibition. It is usually done by littermate but inorder to get dogs to bond with humans we remove them from the litter before this process is complete. It then becomes the humans responsibility to teach this. Unfortunately the opurtunity to teach bite inhibition is quite limited past 20 week the window is virtually closed. Trying to teach bite inhibition after this age is spotty at best. You have a dog the will bite and do damage if she feel the need to protect herself. You need to keep this in the back of your mind in any dealings you or stangers have. It also mean some of the management stratagies I mention come more to the Fore front.

You need to consider what happen if I have guest over etc. Can you educate every one not to try and move the dog? do you need to need to seperate the dog from quest? Even if you train the dog to stay of furniture what happens if a quest approaches her doggy bed. etc? These things you need think about.

I have a rescue with a similar situation, however she is more touch sensitive than resource guarding but that reaaly doesn't matter you neet to be diligent . Keep notes on tiggers to avoid them in the future etc.

additional resources
Aggressive Behaviors in Dogs Yahoo group.

MollyMcFrecklesMom

I had a resource guarding run-in with Winston this morning. He threw up and when I tried to clean it up, he snarled and launched at me to bite. He got the throw up before I could...oh well. Molly used to be this way, but by diligently working with her, I was able to curb it quite a bit (though it's not completely gone, it is much better). Now I can move her with a slight growl and no attempt to bite. I think it's a combination of age and trust. My obedience trainer taught me to make trades with Molly - give her something she really likes (a toy or a treat) in return for what I want to take from her. Molly used to have a stick fetish and would bring them in from outside. 1) I don't want her eating sticks and 2) chewed up sticks are a mess! But what I did (and this really helped in the trust department) was to let her have a stick, then get her to give it to me, then give it back. Trust began to develop.

Now Winston is more of a challenge and I am concerned. He is much more aggressive than Molly ever was. He gets annoyed quickly and will nip. He sometimes is more forceful than a nip. I am working on this and he does seem to be responding a little. He was at the vet today and has an ear infection. The vet took a sample from his ears, then looked in them with her instrument, and when she tried to peek in them again, he snapped a bit. She sternly reprimanded him. Then, the tech (who annoys me to no end) was messing with his jowls for no reason...really she was just playing with them. He was already agitated and I told them to give him a second to let him reset (the vet was in agreement), so when the tech was messing with his mouth, he snapped again. When I shot him a look, he froze. The vet was impressed. So I do see some hope for him. I am hoping that he will mellow with age and training, though he's a tougher nut to crack.

Mikey T

that is standard procedure for working on resource guarding and even preventing in the first place. Teaching the dog the beneift of giving up what it has mean getting something equally as goo or better. and even sometime getting what you had back as well too.

You saw how effective that was latter. In most cases any sort of adversive be it physical or not is not really a punishment in that it does not decrease the likelihood of the behavior. at best it is ineffective at worse it aggrivates the situation. What does work is distraction and rewarding the dog. but here it is general working on a classical means rather than operant. That is what the dog does is not the contingency of the reward. Ear touched treat, ear touhed treat. ear touch dog growls treat. You are not rewarding the growling but rather greating an association that when his ear is touched he gets a treat. It is best to avoid the behavior you don't want like growling in the first place by staying below the dogs threshold but if you make a mistack and cross it it not the dogs fault. Also with a touch sensitive dog that has proven to bite I personally would not let it be examine by a vet without at least a soft muzzle.


yes but there are some pit falls. especial if you use off to be completely off in other context. Yes dogs can learn words/commands/cue can mean different thinks in different context but not first without a bit of confussion. This can be avoided simply by using a different wor/command/cue such as moveover. "moverover" has some problems a well when it comes to training. It the criteria is very abigious. Moveover- how much and 1" or 100'ft To trainin dog it is much easier to have a clear criteria in mind

That is why rather than teaching the dog to move. I would train instead a specific spot on the bed that is the dogs, that is clearly deliniated. If the dog is not on that spot they then can be redirected to it. The easiest way to deliniate such a spot is with a doggy blanket or mat. Teach the dog to go to its mat can be done in other context other than the bed to start as well. ie go to mat while preparing dinner so the dog is not under your feet etc.

for details on mat training see

Go to Mat

if you are not versed in shaping behaviors the above link won't help much

Training a Dog to Stay on a Mat

Go To Your Spot

Teaching Your Dog to Settle

Train Your Dog to Go to His Place


All these basical accomplish the same thing. But the criteria is much clear to the dog and just important to the owner/trainer so it is cler when the dog should be reward and when not to.


Also keep in mind with thie dog does not want to move that while resource guarding is part of the picture it is not the entire picture. Part or a lot of it is how we respond to the dog as well. when we elavate the physicallity in response to the dog what does that tell the dog.! Getting more physicall is acceptable behavior. It has been clearly demonstrated aggression begets aggression when dealing with dogs.

MollyMcFrecklesMom

I am in complete agreement with you. As my dogs get weekly ear cleanings (Winston more than weekly right now due to infection), I teach them to sit nicely and accept the cleaning by using treats. Molly is almost 100% accepting. Winston will get there. I think he was overwhelmed today. Poking, prodding, shots, etc are enough to annoy any 3 month old dog. I was quite annoyed when the tech told him he was mean 2X after he was finished. You're right...the tech crossed his threshold and it's not his fault he snapped. He gave her fair warning with his growls. I always respect the growl for the warning that it is and never try to teach the dog not to growl.

Next time, I will intervene more and bring my own treats...teaching him that the vet isn't such a bad place. I think I will step in and make them allow me to comfort him during the exam. Strange people doing unwelcome things to him. I'd want to bite too.