wonderdove
New member
My gf and I have had our Doberman ever since he was 3 months old (hopper). He’s our first dog, besides our childhood dogs we each had. He’s always been a super sweet boy with other dogs, and humans as well. He’s never been professionally trained, however, I feel we have given him average / slightly above average training (heal, food command, crate training, tricks, etc) However, one night, hopper, my gf, and I were laying on the bed, we got up, and picked him up, to bring him to his crate (his usual schedule) when he became aggressive… he showed his teeth and growled. My first initial thought was to immediately remove him from the bed, as I’ve read that dogs should lose privileges if they begin to show signs of territorial aggression over objects. Upon moving him, his growls become louder and more aggressive. Instead of backing off I just held him down (I now know this is dumb as it only endangers me, and that dogs can’t perceive “dominance” in a human to dog connection. After everyone calmed down, my girlfriend and I felt spooked and concerned.
About 3 weeks later, hopper found himself a q tip that fell on the ground. I immediately tried to remove it from him as I was worried he’d swallow it and choke. When doing this, he clenched his teeth very hard, growled and showed defensive body language. I managed to get it out, but I had to use some force. I felt bad that I wasn’t able to make him feel safe, but in the moment In felt like it was best for me to remove the object to ensure he doesn’t choke. For the 4 months that we’ve owned him, we’ve had to forcefully taken things he’s found outside (cigarette buds, bottle caps, etc), out of his mouth, and he has never had an issue with it until now.
Incidences like this, ( hopper finding small things on the ground, and us trying to remove it, leading to him growling), has started to occur more and more. (Roughly 5 more times in a month period), throughout this period, we started to teach “leave it” and “drop it”. Which he picked up on very quickly.
Today, we were sitting on the couch, I went to go move closer, and his pupils dilated, and he growled as I touched him. This got me very concerned. My worries is that he is going to develop bad territorial aggression issues to the point where I cannot remove him from the couch, give him dental care, etc.
When he is playing outside with a dog, and the dog takes his stick / toy, he’s totally chill w it. When we take his toys away, he’s totally okay and chill with it. When I put my hand in his food dish / take it away, he’s totally chill with t. Am I being too anxious and worrisome? Is this behaviour nature for dogs his age? Will he outgrow it? Is he just spoiled? Or can dogs just be grumpy, and it’s normal? I would really love some guidance and second opinions please![Folded hands :pray: 🙏](https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f64f.png)
About 3 weeks later, hopper found himself a q tip that fell on the ground. I immediately tried to remove it from him as I was worried he’d swallow it and choke. When doing this, he clenched his teeth very hard, growled and showed defensive body language. I managed to get it out, but I had to use some force. I felt bad that I wasn’t able to make him feel safe, but in the moment In felt like it was best for me to remove the object to ensure he doesn’t choke. For the 4 months that we’ve owned him, we’ve had to forcefully taken things he’s found outside (cigarette buds, bottle caps, etc), out of his mouth, and he has never had an issue with it until now.
Incidences like this, ( hopper finding small things on the ground, and us trying to remove it, leading to him growling), has started to occur more and more. (Roughly 5 more times in a month period), throughout this period, we started to teach “leave it” and “drop it”. Which he picked up on very quickly.
Today, we were sitting on the couch, I went to go move closer, and his pupils dilated, and he growled as I touched him. This got me very concerned. My worries is that he is going to develop bad territorial aggression issues to the point where I cannot remove him from the couch, give him dental care, etc.
When he is playing outside with a dog, and the dog takes his stick / toy, he’s totally chill w it. When we take his toys away, he’s totally okay and chill with it. When I put my hand in his food dish / take it away, he’s totally chill with t. Am I being too anxious and worrisome? Is this behaviour nature for dogs his age? Will he outgrow it? Is he just spoiled? Or can dogs just be grumpy, and it’s normal? I would really love some guidance and second opinions please
![Folded hands :pray: 🙏](https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f64f.png)