Is this another phase?

[mwood]

Our girl (1yr and 3mo) has become increasingly aggressive in the last month or two. We have her on a pretty set schedule where she takes a two-hour walk from 7:00am-9:00am and eats at 9:00am, 2:00pm, and 6:00pm. Between feedings, we throw the ball for her for about ten minutes (or until she lays down with the ball and refuses to move). Before bed, we run through her commands. That routine seemed to keep her nice and chill until recently.

In the last month or two, she's started growling randomly and suddenly standing up. There's usually nothing around her when she does this, but she'll still pounce awake like she's being attacked. She'll also sometimes growl when I pet her, especially on her belly. We've already scheduled her a vet visit to make sure she's not in pain, but I'm pretty sure that's not what it is because she'll sometimes lean into the scratching like she loves it.

The most concerning thing is she's starting to attack our other dog if he does something she doesn't like. For example, if I give him a treat and part of it drops on the ground, she will hurl herself at him and bite until he lets her have it. She also takes away his chew toys. I take them back, but he won't touch them afterward. She hasn't drawn blood (so far), but I'm not sure what to do about the behavior. I've gone to putting treats in their bowls instead of giving them by hand, but that still leaves the chews/toys as a big issue. We've gone back to running through commands more times in the day, but I'm not sure what else to do and would appreciate any guidance.

 

[kathleenloveschrist]

@mwood Mine is around the same age and he’s started demand barking and whining/occasional growling recently. Definitely rule out any stressors like pain or injury, and maybe fear if she’s hearing wildlife outside like other dogs or maybe new birds this time of year. My guy just wants attention more often it seems. You might need to up her exercise too, she might be getting restless. My guy’s exercise needs shot up a bit at 15 months.

 

[mwood]

@kathleenloveschrist Thank you!

 

[mwood]

@harpazo777 Thank you! The link had a lot of great info. I'm really worried about the growling, and it's really hard to tell the cause. The weirdest thing is that after she growls at me, she'll sometimes hop up to get a toy.

 

[imagebeastmarkbeast]

@mwood info: a TWO HOUR walk?

 

[mwood]

@imagebeastmarkbeast Yup. And she's doing nose work almost the entire time. Even after that, she needs energy dumps through the day. It's insane.

 

[yeshuasown]

@mwood How long have you had the dog?

She's gaining confidence, prob considers herself top dog, or at least would rather not finish second in a 2 pup race. Well into about 3 years old they can be unusual and neurotic (to put it mildly) and are always looking to control and dominate their space.

I'd suggest a basket muzzle for around the house. That's a physical message to your dog that there's 'no-teeth necessary' around the house. Even the odds a bit before your other dog gets hurt.

You may want to consider medications with your vet as she ages and gets more invested in what are herding and anxiety based behaviors, if just to give her ping-pong brain a chance to slow down and think about things.

 

[mwood]

@yeshuasown We've had her since three months. She's got an upcoming appointment with the vet, so I'll bring up the behavior there. I'm hopeful we can get it under control. Until recently, she's been such a sweet dog--hyper as all hell but no aggression.

 

[yeshuasown]

@mwood 3 months is around the time she'll be ready to assert herself, for better or worse. She's also at the age when her brain is totally buzzing with cattle dog thoughts. The vet can recommend a DVM that can help.

 

[lee102]

@mwood It sounds like she’s in pain

 

[clarabel]

@mwood I’ve wondered about the same with my red (2yo). Goes nuts when wiping a dirty paw and then 10 seconds later is leaning in loving it. Think she also gets spooked by gnarly farts - startles and looks at her butt like it is not part of her.

Recommend working on ‘leave it’ and immediate sit/down commands to protect the other pup.

Sometimes just chalk it up to doesn’t want to be f’d with. My prior blue (15 yrs) just didn’t like certain ways of being handled. At the end (obvious pain issues,etc) would still go full crazy with certain touches.

 

[mwood]

@clarabel Yeah, the behavior seems to be around certain triggers. Most of the time they get along great and play really well together. We have a few of the triggers nailed down (like the food hitting the floor), but we're not sure what motivates the rest.

I'll put extra emphasis on leave it. We'd started working on stop, but she already knows the other command, so that would make more sense.

 

[obadimu]

@mwood Could be pain, or the start of resources guarding or both. Def take her to a vet and try to get a full work up to rule things out, try and push for both blood and a fecal test and whatever they can do for a pain check.

You’ll want to look into safe resource guarding training and management and might have to do more separation of the dogs now, either for short or long term, particularly during play and feeding.

 

[mwood]

@obadimu Thank you for the suggestions! We have a puppy gate, so I can make better use of that when our other dog has a chew. Probably should have thought about that earlier.