Aggressive With Food and Bed... Advice

beyondwords106

We have a ten month old black lab and blue tick mix.  She has been a good dog for the most part, however recently she has been getting protective over her food and dog bed.  She will growl and bark, and if she feels really threatened she will bite or snap at you.  She has not actually bitten us but the other day she did bite my husbands shoe and wouldn't let go for a second.  This is a new development within the last couple of months and we have been working with her to stop it.  She has been getting better with the food but now if you even walk by her bed while she is in it she will growl at you.  

Last night we were watching tv and she had a bone.  My husband moved and she freaked out started growling and barking and attempting to bite us.  This was the first time I was truly scared of her. It's like she snaps into this mean dog but after she calms down you can tell she feels bad about.  

We have had personal trainers come to the house but she only acts like this around us.  We are at our breaking point and thinking about getting rid of her, which is the last thing we want to do.  However we want to start having kids soon and I don't want that kind of behavior around my children. 

We think the main reason for her issues is that we got her at only 4 weeks old so she didn't get proper socialization from her mother and litter mates. We got her only a few months after getting married and if we had to get rid of her it would feel like loosing a child.

If you have any advice on training please let me know.  

aggiebug

This is considered resource guarding and if not addressed can be a dangerous situation for you and your dog.  First off you need to eliminate the need to resource guard until we have a firm foundation in other commands.  That means no beds for her to protect and if she redirects the behaviors to toys remove them as well.  

You need to focus on training basic obedience.  Sit, Stay, Come. Lay down to start.  Once you have those in control then you can proceed to retraining in specific situations to reduce the reaction. 

for food guarding here is a pretty good link

http://www.aspca.org/pet-care/virtual-pet-behaviorist/dog-behavior/food-guarding

The one things I would suggest would be to put her on a leash so that if she lunges towards you she can't get to you and to use a long handled flat pan to pass pieces of food to her safely and only after she truly shows signs of not caring about your presence would I offer food from my hand.  

As for the beds that is a little more difficult but typically you try to refocus the dog on a positive behavior before she escalates to an aggressive out burst.  So if she is on her bed and asts like she is getting tense due to your movement you call her off her bed with a come command.  As to remove her from the object she is protecting.  When is is off and relaxes reward her for that behavior.  I also suggest having her on a leash and have her away from her bed and the other person walk on or near her bed whenever she starts becoming alert to the situation redirect her with a sit, stay or lay command and when she shows signs of not focusing on the bed reward her with a favorite treat.  

This is a very brief touch on a subject than can take a lot of time and patience to retrain.  I am trying to find some online resources that may help.  Also video tape the situations and discussion with a behaviour certified trainer/ or a veterinary behaviorist may be helpful for you.  

formerlyGDaisy09

we've found our training classes with a dog behaviorist to be invaluable, especially the group classes. We have a girl who is highly food driven and did exhibit some guarding behaviors when the cats approached her food bowl. 

Like one of Aggie's suggestions, we went back to a lot of hand feeding, how is your dog when you give her treats?

we'll pack dinner up into a treat pouch and feed it to her on one of our walks, so it's combo training and dinner. We do the same thing when we go off to a dog class (agility) or to the vet. your pup is young, so you can still correct the behavior, but you need to get on it fast. 

Same as Aggie said with the bed and toys, if the food bowl is a resource she is guarding try removing the food bowl from the situation, hand feed meals...then mom and dad become dispensers of food, not people that might interrrupt dinner.  you can get guests to your home or people you meet on a walk to feed some kibble too...again people=dispensers of food. make sure that you have people ask her for a sit or down before they feed her. 

10 months is young, you still have opportunity to interrupt the behavior problem. 

TarponMonoxide

Get a dog behaviorist and consult with him or her. Nip this in the bud before there is a real incident.

Has your dog had a full checkup? Maybe she's developing a health problem that's making her snappish and "grouchy" and hence, the guarding.