Aggression? Resource guarding?
I adopted my now 5-year old Lab, Paris, about a year ago. She was (and is) "my" first dog, so I'm sort of blindly feeling my way here training her, especially since I really want to use positive methods with her and my family thinks I'm a little bit loony for trying it. So books and dogsintraining are my biggest resources. :)
I'm having an issue with her that I'm not quite sure what to define as. Basically, I want to say it's resource guarding, but I'm not sure. Whenever there are other dogs around, she almost always completely ignores them. But if she goes up to a person (any person, not just myself) and is being petted and the other dog comes over, she snarls and snaps at the other dog. She has never bitten another dog but the snarling and snapping is...unnerving, both for myself and the other dog's owner. She will also do it over toys - if we're throwing a ball and both dogs go after it, Paris snarls at the other dog to basically "get out of the way" so she can grab the ball first. If the dog gets in her face (being annoying, not just coming close), she snaps. She sometimes will snap over the other dog's food bowl if the dog comes too close. For the time being I've managed the situation by putting away toys and bowls when someone visits (or we visit them), but I want to work on the issue if possible.
It's hard for me to tell if this is a female-to-female thing (the only dogs I know are female), if she's under-socialized (I don't really know her background), if she's being a brat since she's an "only child", or if it's just plain ol' resource guarding. I picked up the book Mine! by Jean Donaldson and have flipped through it a little bit (I only got it today), but I'm not quite sure how to apply the lessons to our situation because she shows this behavior only towards other dogs; she has never shown any sort of aggression towards people over anything.
Basically, it's the growling and snapping when being petted and other dogs come near that concerns me most; I can mostly control the other triggers like the food bowl and toys (but if you have tips for that as well, that would be so helpful!). Is there something I can do to help this? Should I take her out of the room if she snaps? Stop petting her? Pet the other dog instead? Any advice would be greatly appreciated!
I'm having an issue with her that I'm not quite sure what to define as. Basically, I want to say it's resource guarding, but I'm not sure. Whenever there are other dogs around, she almost always completely ignores them. But if she goes up to a person (any person, not just myself) and is being petted and the other dog comes over, she snarls and snaps at the other dog. She has never bitten another dog but the snarling and snapping is...unnerving, both for myself and the other dog's owner. She will also do it over toys - if we're throwing a ball and both dogs go after it, Paris snarls at the other dog to basically "get out of the way" so she can grab the ball first. If the dog gets in her face (being annoying, not just coming close), she snaps. She sometimes will snap over the other dog's food bowl if the dog comes too close. For the time being I've managed the situation by putting away toys and bowls when someone visits (or we visit them), but I want to work on the issue if possible.
It's hard for me to tell if this is a female-to-female thing (the only dogs I know are female), if she's under-socialized (I don't really know her background), if she's being a brat since she's an "only child", or if it's just plain ol' resource guarding. I picked up the book Mine! by Jean Donaldson and have flipped through it a little bit (I only got it today), but I'm not quite sure how to apply the lessons to our situation because she shows this behavior only towards other dogs; she has never shown any sort of aggression towards people over anything.
Basically, it's the growling and snapping when being petted and other dogs come near that concerns me most; I can mostly control the other triggers like the food bowl and toys (but if you have tips for that as well, that would be so helpful!). Is there something I can do to help this? Should I take her out of the room if she snaps? Stop petting her? Pet the other dog instead? Any advice would be greatly appreciated!