Dog suddenly is protective of me. Is that common or "aggression."

[stockroomman]

My dog is a rescue. He's a 5 year old coton/maltese mix We've had for about 4 months now. He has a lot of reactivity but we've never considered it aggressive. More... whiny and fearful? Particularly towards men and other dogs. He was abused for almost his whole life. We've been patient in training with him cuz we are aware of his trauma. Luckily he took a liking to me very early on but my husband took some time.

However, now, I can confidently say he loves my husband and considers both of us as his "pack." We still have our off moments where he'll be on guard with my husband for some reason or he'll pet him wrong and my dog will ask him to back off. Particularly late at night when doggo wants to sleep, he'll kinda step away from us indicating he wants no more pets and to sleep. Early on, we didn't know so he'd growl a little as a warning. Now we leave him alone when he needs his sleep and we've had no issues.

He sleeps on the bed with us on his own blanket. He knows we all have our own spots and respects it. When it's time for bed, he'll go to his spot and lay down.

Our routine was husband and he will wake up at 7-8 and he'll be fed. I've been sleeping in til 9 cuz I'm 38 weeks pregnant and sleep and I aren't friends right now our dog will come in and lick my hand to wake me up around 9:30-10. Lately he'll eat his breakfast and then come back to bed and lay with me until I wake up. He won't bother me unless it's past 10.

I think he knows I'm pregnant and is guarding me? Sometimes if husband comes in too unexpectedly, our dog will growl until he realizes it's him.

Last night, I was feeling sick and laid on the couch before dinner. My sweet husband let me rest until dinner was ready. He came over gently telling me to wake up. Maybe I reacted cranky? But our dog suddenly got up and growled loudly.

He went as far as tugging on my husband's sleeve o.o he's NEVER physically gotten so close to a bite. Once I got up and stopped him, he went over to my husband to cuddle and lick him. Almost like an apology? Is this aggression or is he just on guard cuz he can sense I'm unwell? Anyone experience something like this with their pets?

 

[lemonville]

@stockroomman Sounds like resource guarding to me and it sounds like he’s been doing it in various forms all along. I think it has more to do with having to compete for resources in the past than it does with your pregnancy.

I don’t normally get serious like this, but I would urge you to find a behaviourist ASAP. Resource guarding is one of the major causes of biting (as is being fearful) and you have a baby on the way. You need some strategies and plans to help you. I would also suggest that you muzzle train him too.

You need to crate train your dog as soon as you can. He needs to be off your bed at night when the baby comes because you’re going to be and about. The chances of his being disturbed when sleeping are high and he could bite one of you. Whether he’s guarding his space or you, you have to stop him from practicing this behaviour. I ban all resource guarders from furniture until I’ve worked with them.

If you think about the incident on the sofa, I would imagine your husband went away after the growl and sleeve bite. Your dog just learned that biting makes people get out of his space. You don’t want to keep reinforcing that, so you can’t allow him to be in situations where he has a chance to keep doing it. He then went into your husbands space to give him attention. That’s really common with resource guarders. They’re often dogs who invite themselves on laps and jump up on their owners but defend their own space from humans.

 

[stockroomman]

@lemonville Thank you. I never thought about it as resource guarding cuz he's usually so gentle with his toys/food

And my husband did back away. And I had to settle my dog I didn't know thay was wrong. Ahhh. We'll definitely be asking our vet for some trainer recs

 

[bluerockcat]

@stockroomman Make sure to ask for a science based, force free trainer!

 

[lemonville]

@stockroomman I was really surprised the first time I saw a dog guarding a sofa - I thought that resource guarding was toys and food.

There’s no way you could have done anything different during that incident because you didn’t know the context. It’s hard to work out what triggers some dogs and recently adopted are still showing new behaviours all the time. That’s great that you’re thinking of getting a trainer

 

[imagebeastmarkbeast]

@stockroomman My fearful reactive dog bit my baby after the baby became mobile and more unpredictable.

The baby is okay.

But please, see a behaviorist and vet about your dog now. Immediately.

 

[stockroomman]

@imagebeastmarkbeast Oh no thats my biggest fear. I'll definitely be asking his vet for some recs

 

[mssonya84]

@stockroomman Dogs do sense when people are pregnant, and can be protective. I think it would be a good idea for you to read up on sleep startle in dogs, since it might be happening when he's sleepy / tired, and also resource guarding.

Resource guarding of their person is common in some dogs, and also of places they feel ownership to, like beds. Have you considered a dog bed on the floor next to yours?

Resource guarding can be a very trainable issue, and is also often found in rescue dogs that have had to defend their resources in the past, or are fearful of losing them due to what used to happen to them. R/dogtraining has some good resources on the sidebar, and there's a bunch of episodes of It's me or the dog on YouTube where Victoria Stillwell deal with similar situations of dogs guarding the wife against the husband.

 

[stockroomman]

@mssonya84 I didn't even think about resources guarding cuz I didn't realize dogs guard their humans as a resource I'll definitely look into it! I don't want him aggressively guarding the baby or me when she's born

 

[crutchfield23]

@stockroomman He also needs training to resolve this because once the baby starts crawling, you don’t want the dog guarding his toys, bed, dish etc from the baby.

Please find a positive trainer. I have worked through this issue with foster dogs and it is fixable. And you have time to do it before baby starts crawling! But harsh corrections or punishment can backfire and make it worse.

 

[stockroomman]

@crutchfield23 Thank you for the advice! I've always been an advocate for positive training as well. Especially with our guy since hea a rescue. He doesn't take to any signs of anger, it makes him cower their foster told us the son tried to "train" him with punishment and scolding and that made his reactivity worse. And to the very last day our dog did NOT like their son

 

[crutchfield23]

@stockroomman It is a “fixable” issue, at least. We had a foster dog (Great Pyrenees) that was such a resource guarder that shelter staff could not enter her kennel to pick up used dishes or fill her water dish without her attacking them. She was able to get over it though it took a few weeks of steady work.

 

[imagebeastmarkbeast]

@stockroomman Just popping in to reaffirm that you should start working with a high quality trainer ASAP. There is a whole training category of “preparing your dog for baby’s arrival” and this is even more important for dogs who already have issues like resource guarding, anxiety, and reactivity. Keep your dog safe and keep your baby safe by knowing how to manage your home with both of them in it

 

[crutchfield23]

@imagebeastmarkbeast There’s a good book called “Living with Kids and Dogs without losing your Mind” that has an entire chapter devoted to preparing your dog in advance of the baby’s arrival. Subsequent chapters are organized by child’s age. It may be helpful to you. Author is Colleen Pelar.