Red flags for territorial aggression...ugh

[PaintedMare]

We adopted a dog a few months ago from a shelter. He’s a mutt, about a year old. We have two other dogs and four cats, all indoors, and we’ve never had problems like this before with the other two dogs (who are older.)

Toby is docile, sweet, and loves attention. He gets along fine with one of the other dogs. However, he’s started to show some very early signs of territorial aggression. He snaps and barks at the oldest dog (who is blind- not because of him.) We keep him and that dog apart because he doesn’t lunge out of nowhere, but when she gets in “his” space he can get grumpy.

If he’s asleep and my younger sister goes to snuggle him, he growls. He used to sleep on the bed (not anymore!) and when he did so, he’d chase the cats off, claiming it as “his” bed.

We’re trying to be preventative but there are just those one-in-a-million circumstances where he gets a little edgy. And let me reiterate that these are beginning signs- he’s not dangerous to be around. He is still, for the most part, a sweet slightly gooberish dog who we love dearly. He needs some correction.

We know the importance of finding a behavior expert but in matters of preventing this behavior before it grows, how has anyone else dealt with this?

[threedogpack]

If you have not started to actively train him, now would be good.

he really does not need correction, but he does need instruction.

Start clicker training him. Start working him on Levels Training. Start teaching him tricks. Start taking him out to just hang out and see the world. Start calling him away from the cats and the bed and the older dog and your younger sister. Start him working for his food.

you get the idea. Start keeping him busy and focused on you, you’ll probably just see the grumpiness subside without working on it.

[IdahoRider]

I have had good luck using the Nothing In Life Is Free (NILF) protocol with my own dogs and fosters over the years.

http://k9deb.com/nilif.htm

I agree with the advice to get some solid obedience down, too. With some dogs it isn’t enough to just stop an unwanted behavior, you need to replace it with something else.
Sheilah

[onelanerode]

NILIF is great, as is setting things up so that he has a tough time performing behavior you don’t want. For now, leave him alone when he’s sleeping; don’t give him a chance to establish the growling/territorial behavior as a habit. Sometimes you have to work around a behavior until you are able/have the tools to successfully address it.

Sign up for some basic obedience classes with a reputable, knowledgeable trainer, and then see whether you might benefit from more specialized classes dealing with aggression.

Also, just in case, have his hearing and sight evaluated. :yes:

[vacation1]

I’m not sure it’s territorial aggression. Obviously, it’s unacceptable behavior and you want it to stop, but it doesn’t sound like he’s claiming and protecting turf, more that he’s showing too much willingness to threaten violence to get his own way in a few choice situations. He’s a young dog, at the age when sexual maturity starts changing them from babies to adults, so that could be a big part of it.

Sister/sleeping dog growl: If it’s a nasty growl rather than a “getttofffa meeeee, kid” groan, the first rule would be no one touches the dog while he’s sleeping, to keep that from escalating. Does he otherwise have a “my time” attitude toward sleeping? I mean, sure, it’s okay to ask people to leave a dog alone while he sleeps, but if that’s translating into “Shhhhh, don’t go in the family room because Rover’s sleeping and you know how he gets,” that’s out of hand. A family dog has to deal; they can’t be delicate flowers who leap 7’ in the air and land biting if someone steps on their tail.

The old dog - that could easily become dangerous to the older dog. I would continue to separate the two, particularly when no adults are home. As it’s commonly believed that many times, animals become aggressive toward the ill, you might want to make sure the older dog hasn’t developed any new health issues.

[wendy]

“territorial aggression”? that refers to guarding the home against strangers.

Punishing dogs for growling is never a good strategy- growling is just communication. Communication is good. If you punish the dog for communicating, he’s left with no option except to go straight to biting. If you think the situation the dog is growling about is something he shouldn’t feel uncomfortable with, then you listen to the growling, and work on getting the dog comfortable with the situation so he doesn’t feel the need to growl.

Growling at people while on beds/furniture is often related to resource guarding- resource guarding doesn’t respond to “corrections”, but it does respond quite readily to special desensitization training protocols. Read this booklet: http://www.dogwise.com/itemdetails.cfm?ID=DTB740

the only other problem you have is growling at the old dog? does all that happen is growling? if so, you should ignore it. The new dog is telling the old dog he doesn’t like what the old dog is doing. Dogs talking to other dogs is better than dogs killing each other because they aren’t allowed to talk to each other.

It never hurts to have a dog who is highly trained in basic obedience skills either. Many a situation can be defused by simply calling the dog out of the situation to you.

[PaintedMare]

I assumed it was territorial aggression because when he’s in his “space”, like the bed, he gets annoyed if anything changes (like a cat jumps up, my sister moves around, etc.)

We’ve started some obedience training, actually with a clicker, so we’ll continue that.

He mostly growls at the old dog but a few isolated times he snapped at her, and once lunged a few feet because whatever she was doing wasn’t sitting right with him (I think she was just sitting there )

[LauraKY]

My hound can be space aggressive. So, he’s not allowed on the furniture, he has a crate with an open door that is his and his alone. That’s where he sleeps. Works for him, works for us. He’s also fed in a separate room. He was dumped on our farm, very thin with some scarring which may or may not have something to do with his reactions.

[tradewind]

I would call him more of a resource guarder, but whatever you call it, it is unacceptable behavior and it WILL escalate. I would find a trainer with really solid client references as soon as possible. The longer you wait, the more difficult it will be to stop.

[threedogpack]

[QUOTE=tradewind;6438780]
I would call him more of a resource guarder, but whatever you call it, it is unacceptable behavior and it WILL escalate. [/QUOTE]

not always. A lot depends on how the owner handles it. I’ve had a lot of resource guarders come through my house and for the most part they didn’t increase the frequency or the arousal level. Most of them learned to give up their space or toy or food without a huge fuss.

You simply have to control the environment, and .teach. him what is appropriate (which is different from punishing him for being inappropriate)

[tradewind]

That was my point, it needs to be dealt with properly or it will escalate…if she does not know how to properly address it, then she needs a trainer with excellent references.

[libgrrl]

Agree with Threedogpack and Wendy.

Resource guarding may be one of the most frightening behaviors to witness and can be one of the more dangerous to deal with (particularly if dealt with improperly) but it is also probably one of the easiest to treat successfully. I like this column as a means of explaining what is going on in the dog’s head under these circumstances.