8 month old golden retriever

[oscarwip]

Please help— I have an 8 month old golden retriever that I got from a breeder at 8 weeks old. 99% of the time he is the sweetest dog of all time, rolling on his back for pets and loves to cuddle. Unfortunately there is a brutal 1% where he resource guards random things that can range from shoes to food to bones to plastic bags, and breaks skin. This has turned into a nasty bite if you take stuff away from him. He also does a slightly more aggressive version of play biting when trying to put him in the crate or move him from a desired location, but this one will not break skin. He got kicked out of board and train for biting a teenager new hire that grabbed a stick from him. We hired a behaviorist who told us to neuter him and put him on Prozac (just started).. he charged us for a phone call interview, but then saw a picture of his most recent bite and said to put him down is the best route..

I feel like I failed my dog, especially without even trying the effects of neutering and Prozac.. this once a month behavior may cost him his life, and I have a hard time making any kind of decision right now. Does anyone have success stories with resource guarding/reactivity or additional tips?

 

[jaymeedawn333]

@oscarwip We went through this 8 months ago when we got our golden rescue who was 14 months old. We started training immediately with a behavioral trainer, recommended from our behavioral vet. She taught us a few training games to help, we’ve trained “leave it”, “drop it”, and “trade” pretty intensely. We also bought Kevlar gloves, citron dog defense spray, and an airhorn. We have lickimats with spread cheese and PB in the freezer at all times for “trade”. Also peroxide and kids medicine syringe at the ready in a drawer.

Our philosophy is if we can get her to leave it or trade, it’s a success. If she won’t respond to the command, and it won’t hurt her (a tissue or similar) we just let her have it. If it’s something that could potentially hurt her (chocolate, grapes etc) but edible we induce vomiting after she eats it. If it’s something that could cause a blockage, or a surgical intervention we move to the defense spray and kevlar gloves. Fortunately (knock on wood because I’m not jinxing it) we haven’t had to use the gloves.

We are also setting her up for success by training ourselves to close doors, keep things off the floor, trash cans with lids, etc.

After 8 months of training she is getting so good at trading! The day she traded a sock, she got a few slices of pork tenderloin as a jackpot trade! This was a dog who bit my husband and I 3 times (breaking skin and bruising) and the 3 rd time her previous vet recommended BE. I called the rescue (previous owner did not disclose any behavior issues other than lack of training and excessive energy) and they agreed that BE may be the right path. She did not show any guarding at the rescue, as she does not guard food, bedding, or toys. Only “found objects” and the rescue doesn’t have those types of things lying around. I was beside myself and could not imagine letting this sweet girl, who slept on my lap, go to sleep forever. There is hope, but it takes energy and effort. And a lot of treats!

 

[jackwoo]

@jaymeedawn333 Wow! Kudos to you for all your hard work

 

[yaronir80]

@oscarwip You should hire another behaviorist, a second opinion is the best route. Since we got our puppy we always randomly took his meals, bones, toys out and put it back and when he’s chewing and eating something high value we gave him treats and biscuits while he’s eating them so he knows we don’t always took but give. Every pup is different, but you should ask for a second opinion and check with your vet

 

[oscarwip]

@yaronir80 The board and train recommended to re home him, the behaviorist and vet is suggesting the same thing. Worries me that a well known behaviorist is turning down $3,000 “in our best interest” as he thinks this is fully genetic even tho the rest of the litter has no issues (reached out to others).

 

[petie1106]

@oscarwip My dog tends to resource guard and a trainer told me that any dog can resource guard given the circumstances (due to trigger stacking) so that seems like pretty extreme advice. Does he give you any warning before biting? Body tension, growling, air snapping?? Most dogs will give you plenty of warning before biting - just make sure you’re not correcting him so he keeps giving you warning. With my dog, we work on the drop it command a lot, also practice trading for something of higher value, approaching and treating while he has a high value item and walking away. A lot of it is management, if have to take something away from him, I approach, back up and approach again, toss treats to one side and take the item away with the opposite hand. And sometimes you just have to pick your battles and let him have the forbidden item.

 

[lizziem]

@oscarwip The big issue here is not the guarding (which as other posters attest, is very trainable), but biting hard enough to cause damage.

Why? Because bite inhibition is something dogs learn early as puppies. An eight-month-old juvenile is not a puppy anymore!

You can train retrieves (excellent fun for retrievers!) and work up to 'found' objects. BIG payouts so the trade is worth it.

But the problem remains that your pup doesn't pull his punches when he bites. And he's just going to get bigger and stronger.

Unfortunately Prozac is not going to change your dog's lack of bite inhibition; from what you've said, it doesn't sound like an anxiety issue. Just guarding with a hard bite.

Find a certified positive behaviorist/trainer (watch out for 'traditional' trainers - if you hear 'dominance aggression' -- run!)

https://apdt.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/ian-dunbar-dog-bite-scale.pdf

I'm sorry you're dealing with this. It's hard to find help that's kind to you and your dog.

Good luck!

 

[brodoolin]

@lizziem THIS!

 

[zhangyue]

@oscarwip How severe are the bites? I know you mentioned they break skin, but is it kind of a shallow thing with a small amount of blood, or full punctures?

The difficult thing here is that dogs rarely de-escalate in bite severity, so if the dog bites again, it’s almost guaranteed to be just as bad (if not worse). So that’s difficult because even with training, he might have a bad day where he resource guards again and bites.

It’s probably worth getting a second opinion, but also, is the dog muzzle trained? If so, he should probably spend most of his time muzzled. I know that sucks, but it the bites are pretty bad, you don’t want to give him the opportunity to do serious damage. Depending on location and depth, a bite can lead to nerve damage. My father almost needed surgery once for a single puncture to one finger. So just please be careful.

 

[livebyfaith777]

@oscarwip I commented on your other post more extensively from today. This can be fixed as i said there, i honestly believe so. But on this post, things like 'putting him in the crate' and 'move him from desired location'. What are you doing here, are you physically moving him? If so, the nipping is because he's protesting about this. I know you mean well and Im not saying he gets his own way all the time but you need to crate train him so he actually wants to go in, not just physically move him in. Motivate him to move from a position. Some dogs don't like to be picked up, constantly forcing him to do things he doesnt want to can harm your relationship. You do need to start listening to what he's telling you and use a different approach. Start building trust.

 

[likenizzy0211]

@oscarwip First, board and trains are notorious for poorly educated trainers. The fact that they had a teenager present shows that this one is not a qualified center.

You need a qualified behavioral vet and trainer. Prozac may or may not work. We had to switch to Zoloft since our girl refused to eat on Prozac (common side effect). So don’t give up.

Use redirection or ignoring always.

Don’t take anything directly from his mouth. Start to teach Drop. Reward should always be more impressive. Hot dog, chicken, etc.

Items should never be taken or pulled from a dog. Not even the friendly type. A great trainer will teach Drop so the dog willingly drops it and walks away from it. I used it with my own reactive dog and with reactive shelter dogs so it takes time but works.

For crate. Fill a Kong with frozen peanut butter or similar. Put it in the crate. It doesn’t have to be a frozen Kong, just lasts longer. Let him go in on his own.

If you have time for this. Don’t close door. If he comes out with it. Use something else along with drop to get it and put back in crate. He’ll learn quickly getting kong means staying in crate. You can move on to closing crate. Etc.

I was handling a “bite first ask questions later” dog who responded well to me. He picked up a snake in his mouth. So pleased with himself. Snakes wiggling. I’m gagging. Then I remember our work. I said Drop. He dropped it and backed up. Snake slithered away. He looked at me like the reward had better be better than a little kibble. .