Aggression?

[Discussing Labradoodles & Goldendoodles]

Noah is very mild-mannered and just a sweet fun puppy. He is usually submissive to other dogs but loves all dogs. However, I'm wondering if these are signs of aggression or just typical dog behavior.

When we met up with some DK people in Hoboken, towards the end of the play session, Noah just wanted to sit on my lap. A boston terrier ran towards us and tried to jump on my lap and Noah got very angry and growly. Noah was also in his dog bag and he does not like when other dogs try to get inside his bag. Is guarding his bag considered aggression?

Twice when Noah has been snacking on a bone, if Sherlock comes too close, Noah will go after him. Once it really scared me because Sherlock was screaming. I took away the bone and put Noah in time out.

I threw Sherlock a dog party last Friday. Two of Sherlock's and Noah's doggie friends from the dog park came over to celebrate. Everyone was having a great time, but I think the party may have lasted too long for the dogs. After about 2 hours, Noah just wanted to sleep in his bed. When his puggle dog friends came over to him, he started to raise his lip and snarl. When the puggle tried to stick his head into their toy bin, Noah started to growl. Also towards the end of the party, when Noah was chewing on a kong ziggie, his pomeranian friend tried to grab it from him and Noah snapped at the pom (he didn't bite it, but scared it away).

Lastly, yesterday at the park, someone brought a squeaky tennis ball with a long spiral plush toy attached to the ball. All the dogs obviously wanted the toy. Somehow Noah ended up with the toy and was running around while the dogs chased him. A boston terrier came over to him and started barking and backed Noah up under the bench. The man I was sitting next to tried to take the toy from Noah's mouth, and Noah started to growl. He wasn't growling at the man, but was growling at the boston terrier. I took the toy from Noah's mouth and returned it to the owner and Noah just sat there sulking and wouldn't play anymore. When I got home, I spent about 30 minutes working with Noah on the drop it command. He did really well and by the end of our session, he could be standing across the room and if I said "drop it", he would spit the toy out.

I have noticed that when Noah is extremely tired and over-stimulated, he doesn't want to be bothered by other dogs. He wants to be left alone and growls at the dog(s) to tell them to leave him alone if they come too close to him. Is this aggression or is he just telling them to go away? He reminds me of a cranky child when he gets like this.

Am I doing the right things? Any suggestions?

[Barb, Murphy, Emmet, & Hudson]

Hi Jane,

Murphy will growl at Emmet when he is VERY TIRED!!! This seems to happen at night when Murphy is sleeping on my bedroom rug and Emmet decides to jump on top of him & pull his hair. I don't think this is aggression just Murphy letting him know he has had enough, & does not want to play!!!

[Kim Williams]

Hi Jane,
Your question is Really good. I am curious if this is "young pup" behavior? I would love to know what your vet thinks.

[Sessa]

From your descriptions, it sounds like you have a variety of different behaviors expressing themselves, none of which I would necessarily deem as aggression....it sounds like you have resource guarding (food and toys) on the one hand, and on the other, just plain-ole' "I'm tired, leave me alone" attitude, which is perfectly understandable and normal....

...the resource guarding is the only behavior I, myself, would concentrate on correcting/working with...the crankiness after a long play session is nothing to be too concerned about, IMO, other than just being aware of your doodle's limitations---which means honoring his decision for a time-out and allowing him to have "private" time....that includes keeping other dogs away from him.

A trick to share on the resource guarding---you'd be upset as well if someone took away something of high value to you....but, the beauty of short-term memory with dogs is this---EXCHANGE! It works out to be something like this---"I love my bone, I love my bone"...."You took my bone away, how sad! how sad"..."Wait, is that a treat? yummy treat, yummy treat"...thoughts of the bone disappear......LOL!

Every time I took away an object/bone/etc from my Mija, I rewarded her giving up the item with an exchange for a small treat---she came to realize that giving something up didn't mean that she as losing everything at once!

Good Luck!

[Linda,Yankee & Finn]

My dog recently started doing the same thing.....becoming snarly when another dog tries to take a ball, toy or stick from him. I bring a water bottle to the dog park and I share it with other dogs but he is becoming possessive of that too. He is usually very timid but now shows signs of not wanting to share.
At first I thought it was aggression but I think he just needs to realize that he has to share sometimes not all the time. He watches the neighbour's cat eat his food and sleep in his bed......that's pretty tolerant.

[Kyoko]

Charlie does the same thing. She will not share the water bowl with the other dogs at the dog park, and show her teeth at them. She only does this at the dog park!! She could care less if my other dog eats her food, or drink her water at home.... It makes her look like a mean little puppy to the other dog owners at the park.... :(

[Adina P]

I've meant to respond to this and just kept forgetting. I completely agree with Sessa's assessment of things. It does seem like a lot of his response is fine and normal and he may just be a dog that needs more personal space and doesn't tolerate in-your-face rudeness from other dogs. I also think some of it IS resource guarding and maybe even resource guarding you when he's on your lap. The only real concern is the resource guarding and I think that one can be trained/fixed with some work. I'm stepping onto ground where I'm not an expert, but I wonder if perhaps less lap time would be good for him? At the same time I would have wanted to growl myself if another dog decided to randomly jump in my lap...LOL...so I can't say Noah is doing too bad =)

[Adina P]

I'll be curious to see what your trainer's say.
I really am not too bothered by dogs resource guarding from one another. I don't think it's that natural for dogs to share high value things. I know one woman who does a ton of rescue...has a handful of dogs of her own (maybe 6-7 now) and usually several foster dogs so her house is FULL of dogs. I think her rule is that if a dog has an item...it is THAT dog's item (as far as other dogs are concerned). She avoids super high value toys to avoid conflict...but beyond that does not expect them to share.

[Stella]

With our two, we had to remove all toays initially when we brought the new puppy home. But, now we leave out three very similar chew toys. I figured three toys, two dogs, there is always one for somebody! They still always want the one the other one has, but at least there is always a spare one to distract the other dog with. They just keep moving around from one to the other and taking turns to take them from each other!

Chase, our new puppy, is very very vocal. He growls the whole time they play together, and barks when he gets really excited. I'm not to pleased with this as he can get quite load and then he winds Hartley up. Our dog trainer saw Chase playing with other puppies and recommended we find an older dog for him to play with - one that will put him in his place!! These we her exact words!! But, we only know people with puppies (Hartley is only 16 months old), so if you know anyone with a friendly older dog that will tell a pushy puppy off, send them my way!!!