New behavior I don't like..

[S & Charlie]

Sorry y'all... this is long!

Charlie just turned 2 a couple months ago. He is neutered.  I promise you- he is THE most socialized dog. I've never had a problem with his behavior towards other dogs. He did puppy classes, 3 sets of obedience classes, did agility classes for about 6 months, did 3 sets of tricks classes, etc. He has always gotten along with every kind of dog. We go to the dog park often (at least once a week) and he's never had an issue with any dog. Here are the incidents that have happened lately, in order:

-A couple months ago we were at an event at a park (not specifically a 'dog park') and he was sitting watching me while someone else was taking a quick picture of him and another dog, and a different dog came up from behind him and started to try to hump him. He freaked out and started aggressively barking at him and kept trying to bark in his face (I got control quickly and got him away). It had never happened before so I just figured maybe he was startled and it was a one time thing. Usually when other dogs try to hump him he's fine, but I usually am right there and get the other dog off anyways since I don't like that behavior.

-We have a group of friends and we get together to take pictures sometimes. He's known these dogs for over a year, and gets along great with them. 2 times this has happened now where we're taking pictures and he'll randomly turn to a dog on either side of him and give a snappy warning bark in their direction. Both times he's completely fine after that weird bark, but I move him a couple inches away anyways, and he was always fine after that.

-fast forward to the 4th of July, we were at the lake and there were a bunch of dogs with us. his golden retriever best friend (female), another golden he'd never met before, a dachshund, cocker spaniel, and a black lab. He was drying off on the dock and the black lab (1 year old, unaltered) came up to him and he did his little warning bark. I called him to me and he came, and he was fine with the black lab after that for a while. They were even fetching toys from the lake together and coming up the dog ladder at the same time with no problems. Then they were on the entrance to the dock and he did the loud barking thing again, but came over to me after and was fine. We went up to the porch of the house to eat after that, and he suddenly couldn't stand to be near that dog. Charlie HATES food- I mainly trained him as a puppy with praise because he'll barely eat. Sometimes he'll accept treats, but usually he's just not a food guy. I gave him a tiny piece of a hot dog bun, and he wouldn't eat it. Riley (his best friend golden retriever) took the piece of bread from right under him since he wouldn't eat it and he didn't have a care in the world. I tried giving him another piece, but the black lab came up to us and he started resource guarding because of the bread (that he wouldn't even eat before). He started getting snappy in his face and put the hot dog in his mouth and ate it. I decided to leave because I didn't want to be in that situation anymore. I gave his leash to my friend with her golden and went inside the house for 2 seconds to say goodbye. I looked outside and the lab got close to charlie and he had yet another freak out towards him and was snappy / barking in his face (wasn't trying to actually bite, but doing the aggressive bark in his face). He was completely fine with the other dogs, but was freaking out over this lab. He's never disliked a specific dog like that before. He's been around plenty of unaltered males and it has never happened. the lab wasn't overly rambunctious, and wasn't all over Charlie at all.

The ONLY thing I can think of that is common in all situations is the heat. Super hot at the park (but there were kiddie pools, so I kept him cool by getting him wet), super hot when we were taking pictures (but had plenty of water) and obviously super hot at the lake, but he was soaked the whole time because he loves swimming. What can I do?? I never thought i'd have to deal with this with him. He's always been sooo good with all other dogs. I didn't punish him at all in any of the situations, just removed him. He's never resource guarded before, and when he won't eat something that is given to him he's always been completely fine with another dog eating it instead. I know not to associate him being snappy with a punishment, but i'm not quite sure what I should be doing. I have emailed his trainer and i'm waiting to speak to him.  Please help!!

[sandy b]

You might want to consult a behaviorist. Our current training class is polite meet & greet and we are learning about body language. Maybe Charlie saw something in the body language he didn’t like.

[S & Charlie]

It's just so strange to come on all of a sudden! I've never worried about his behavior, ever. This is the first time he has ever disliked a specific dog. It was different with the dogs he knew while we were taking pictures, it was almost like they did something he didn't like, he gave them a warning bark, then he was fine. He didn't show any signs of disliking them, but I can't figure out what they "did" to make him react in that way and then be fine after. I'm so distraught over this. 

[sandy b]

I have a handout given to us by our trainer for our previous Doodle which lists development stages from 3 months to 3 yrs. you might try to google to find online.

Mature adulthood development period 1-3 years 

what is going on:

dog may become more turf protective,

strangers may be greeted with barking, 

barking at noises pretty much everything he believes worthy of attention,

playing with other dogs may escalate to fighting

same sex confrontations of other dogs can occur

what you can do:

reinforce how to greet strangers

teach dog to ignore dogs he can’t be nice to

reinforce dog manners

learn to read your dog and other dogs

these are most,of the things listed for this period 1-3 yrs. Hope this helps.

[S & Charlie]

Thank you!! 

[Nancy, Ned, Clancy, and Charlie]

What great advice.  I wish I had your trainer.  My Charlie needs some training in these areas and I haven't found one I either like or is affordable in my area.

[Jane, Guinness and Murphy]

I have a reactive Doodle and am part of a group of a reactive dog group, and what you're describing here doesn't sound like real reactivity.  It sounds like a dog getting annoyed with another dog or being out of sorts because of the heat, or a combination of things that were just giving Charlie a bad day or a few days.  Often other dogs' body language can be triggers, and often we can't even notice it...but our dogs can.  I think continuing to expose him to these situations is great, and I'd just closely watch his queues.  If you sense he is uncomfortable I'd just remove him from the situation even for just a short time while he calms down.  I'd be careful about punishing the behavior (unless it escalates) but I would verbally correct immediately...and then remove him.  I sure sounds like you're doing a great job of handling the situation.  I think those situations when he was uncomfortable and gave the snappy warning bark...removing him the way you did was perfect...and he calmed down.  I've watched on video the dogs at our daycare, and have seen situations where one dog will get upset about something another dog is doing and react with a bark (like they're saying "knock it off")...the staff verbally corrects and then just distracts them to change their state of mind.  It never seems to go any further.

[S & Charlie]

Thank you! I just wish I knew why the sudden change in behavior. No other issues ever besides exactly what I described above- and he's never reacted to a dog out of nowhere without interacting with them normally first (in the case at the lake with the lab). Literally, in our CGC classes, our trainer used Charlie as the example in the part where they have to pass another dog without greeting them to help other dogs pass because Charlie would be 100% focused on me and not give a care in the world to what the other dog was doing. I"m just so frustrated and stressed over this! 

[Jane, Guinness and Murphy]

If you can, try to let it go.  He sounds like such a great boy who had a couple of bad days.  You don't want your stress to carry through to him.  If it were to continue then I'd have a session or two with your trainer to see if he/she can pick up on anything.

[S & Charlie]

You're right, thank you! We went to the lake this weekend (just to a park, not somebody's house) and there were tons of dogs. There were about 4 of them going after the same toys at one point, INCLUDING  black lab and nothing happened. I'm going to try to let it go, i'm just so confused! He is a good boy- maybe I should trust him and know that whatever it was, he saw something that just didn't sit well with him. I don't know. He's also a therapy dog and he makes people so happy! we're going to a sleep away camp this weekend for a visit and some of their campers are survivors from the Parkland school shooting. I'm just going to focus on the positives since it was such a strange thing coming from him!