Dog snapped at me for the first time

[geminichick]

Hi all - 1.75 y/o mixed breed (pittie/boxer/shepherd/border collie/great pyrenees/staffy (she's a mut).

She spent the last 45 min with a frozen enrichment bowl (e.g. frozen peanut butter, strawberries, kibble, a little bit of water), and then was relaxing on the couch. I went over and sat next to her without touching her and she rolled over and kicked my leg indicating she wants pets. I start to pet her, she starts to snarl a little, so I stop. She begins rolling around on her back and nudging me with her head, so I start to pet her again. I lean over a little and she snaps up at me half in a play growl/half actual growl. I backed up, she pursed me a little bit but then I moved over to the other couch and she was done. Very bizarre b/c she's never done it before. She didn't actually bite me, but I'm wondering where I messed up.

edit- one thought I had is that she was overstimulated from the bowl, and had a full belly so didn't want the pressure on her. The only time she's really snapped like that is if she was injured and I was trying to touch the injured part to apply meds (e.g. when she had a paw injury last summer)

 

[mfuller]

@geminichick To me this seems like a riled up, spunky dog behavior. Remember that dogs don’t talk to communicate and they also can’t use their hands to communicate. They typically use their mouths. Unfortunately for us, their mouths are full of teeth and we don’t have the same protection as they do when they decide to use them, even if it’s just assertive behavior, not aggressive.

I, personally, would not chalk this up to be “bad” behavior just yet. See how she does in repeat situations. She is at an age where aggression could start to manifest, but going off of your description of her body language, I’m wary to call it that at this point.

 

[geminichick]

@mfuller Thank you. This is very reassuring. I would definitely describe her as spunky. Haha

 

[messenger_of_truth]

@geminichick Hopefully someone else with related experience will jump in on this, but I believe it may be overstimulation.

I've not experienced this with any of my dogs, but I believe others that have say they want the pets ... then once received it over stimulates them, they get snappy as a release ... then want the pets again.

Kinda like a drug addiction

 

[cecole74]

@messenger_of_truth Or a cat

 

[geminichick]

@messenger_of_truth this resonates the most vs what @eront was saying - mostly b/c she does resource guard special treats, and we've been doing a lot of counterconditioning with her around this. She had finished the treat at least 10-15 min prior, and the bowl was nowhere near her. When I saw down she had been napping, and then rolled over and snuggled up against me, kicking me with her leg, and when I went to pet her she started to snarl a little so I stopped. Then she did that entire process again and I got the playful growl/snap sort of thing. It could be resource guarding though, so just something to keep an eye on in general, I think I will leave her alone for longer after big treats

 

[messenger_of_truth]

@geminichick It's interesting to hear all of the different struggles and triggers that people deal with.

It reminds me that I'm very lucky that my guy is only dog reactive. It's a lot, but the only thing that I have to manage

 

[lotsandlotsofquestions]

@geminichick Our sweet pup has growled at me (like teeth bared) on 3 occasions. 2 were definitely resource guarding where one was a new special bone and another was a type of chew he’s had many times before but maybe he was particularly hungry.

The 3rd occasion was worst though bc it was when he didn’t want to go on his morning potty walk but I had to get to work so I tried to pick him up and he knew I was going in for that and growled.

The resource guarding was my fault bc he was a fairly newish (to us) puppy with the special bone, and the second time he didn’t ask for pets I just wanted to give them (as I had many times before) and he was like Please fuck off.

However the growling because he didn’t want to walk was awful because I ended not taking him and spent the whole morning worrying about him being uncomfortable. Sometimes I wish he knew how to use potty pads indoors but he refuses.

 

[bblant00]

@geminichick She was guarding the something on the couch or the couch itself.

Don’t let her back on the couch until she understands that she doesn’t own the couch or any part of it

 

[eront]

@geminichick Your dog didn't roll over wanting pets, that was body language indicating that they weren't comfortable.

Stop petting your dog when the dog is eating or has a treat. This is resource guarding.

 

[geminichick]

@eront It was after the finished eating the treats. She left the bowl on the floor in the living room and went up to the couch. I joined her on the couch 5-10 minutes later. That's when this occurred. So maybe it was related but maybe not? I just didn't know.

 

[eront]

@geminichick It's still likely the bowl.

I would keep her enrichment bowl behind a pen or in the crate where she is free to leave. Do not approach that area and just wait for her to leave.

 

[geminichick]

@eront I was sitting far away from her while she was with the treat. I only came over to her and sat down after she had abandoned the bowl and moved over to the couch.

 

[motown65]

@geminichick Even having the bowl in eyesight can be enough for resource guarding.

My dog doesn't normally have any issue with resource guarding. We went camping awhile back and fed him dinner, we left the bowl empty next to his water dish as normal. For the next hour everytime someone walked by the campsite he would bark and run at them. We couldn't figure out why, then I saw his bowl there and thought well maybe.. so I moved the bowl so he couldn't see it and he went right to sleep and stopped barking. Problem solved

It was weird because he has never shown issues with resource guarding before but I think it's more of an innate behavior from before dogs were domesticated.

 

[geminichick]

@motown65 Damn. That’s wild. I guess it’s worth noting that this was the first time I gave this treat to her so it’s possible