Hi All

I have an entire male Staffie who is approaching the grand old age of 2. He is really sweet natured and very tolerant under all sorts of conditions. He loves cuddles and walks and is great with other dogs. He has always been quite submissive and lets his doggy mates take toys from him with no problems, hates being 'told off', which really doesnt happen often and is just generally lovely. Im not sure how relevant any of this is but im just trying to give you some background to his behaviour.

Over the last 2 weeks his behaviour has changed slightly. On 3 occassions has has growled at me and my husband. On one occassion he was laying on our bed, which he often does, and my husband went in stroked him and bent down and kissed him on the head as he looked so sweet and peaceful! This is not unusual for either of us to do. He gave a low growl which sounded like he was warning him off. I just put it down to the heat and the fact that he didnt want to be crowded.

Last night, I left him at my mums while I went out. I went back to pick him up and he seemed really happy but pleased to see me. I put his harness on popped him in the car and fastened him in. I was with a friend who was in the front with me and Sox really loves her and he jumped onto the floor of the car to get nearer the front to see her. As you can imagine, being in a harness and forcing himself onto the floor he was in a very awkward position and couldnt really move. I got out to see to him and lightly tugged on his harness and said to get back on the seat and he growled at me .

I havent told him off or done anything about this yet as im not sure what to do. Obviously the first thing is to get a health check and make sure he's ok and the last resort may be to have him castrated. This is really not a route I want to go down unless absolutely necessary and this is not because I show him or breed from him, I just dont want him to have any unnecessary op's.

As the circumstances of these incidents have all been different and assuming that he is fit and well, im really not sure what my reaction to these outbursts should be. I dont in any way want to compound his behaviour by reacting incorrectly but am keen to nip this in the bud. Although, I dont want to stop him from expressing himself should he find himself in a situation that he is not comfortable in as I would never know what he does and doesnt like. I wonder, could it be an age thing?

I would be really grateful for your help with this and to hear from anyone who has experienced something similar. I'd also like to know, if I put into practice the advice I know you will give, and given his age and all other 'temporary' factors such as the heat, how long do I try to correct his behaviour for before considering castration?

Many Thanks

I think you should definitely take him to the vet to rule out physical reasons.

He may be in physical pain in some way and this should be ruled out before you can consider anything else.

Ask the vet to give him a thorough check up.

You may not want to hear this, but castration is unlikely to solve the problem.  Occasionally castration can help in aggression cases but it is by no means a guaranteed conclusion.  You are more likely to have the same problems, but your dog having been castrated too.

You say that he has growled at you and your husband 3 times, but then you only tell us about the time when he was sleeping on the bed - what happened the other times? 

Personally, I would review some handling socialisation - feeding him treats with one hand, and with the other hand touching him all over, looking in his ears, stroking his tail, touching each foot and so on.  If he is uneasy at any stage of this, back off and reduce what you are doing and proceed very slowly, feeding loads of treats to make this a positive experience.  I would also review teaching him to accept having his collar grabbed, by just touching the collar and feeding.  Holding the collar and feeding, pulling the collar a bit and feeding, tugging him and feeding and so on, over and over.  And repeat the process with the car harness on.  You'd need to do both these things, every day, indefinitely for now - and try to do them in different places, not just in the same room.  Once you have done it all successfully, get your husband to do the same.

This suggestion is just based on the little info you have given us here.  If you don't see any improvement, then go back to your vet and ask for a referral to an APBC registered behaviourist (they only see people on vet referrals).  There is a list here: http://www.apbc.org.uk/members.php

Thanks 123.

I will do the vet thing as a matter of priority and I do understand that there are no guarantees with castration, but its obviously something worth considering if nothing else works. I would of course fully research this before making any decisions about this as its not something I want to do anyway.

The 2nd time he growled was when we were in the car, as on the original post, and for some reason I cant remember what the third time was

I take on board your thoughts about handling of him etc, but we are very touchy feely with him anyway. I constantly touch and feel him, check him over and bath him, rub him down with towels and he loves it. We are always cuddling and playing and he used to, as a pup, have issues with his paws being touched and because of this I have made the effort to ensure that he is ok with being touched everywhere, and do this regularly. He got over the paw thing about 16 months ago and no longer has an issue. I know most dogs are but he is very social and up until (and following) these incidents loves nothing more than the physical attention he gets very regularly. He is also in and out of the car so is used to being handled in his harness, which is why its very confusing. I also cant figure out any common denominators in the situations. However, I take on board your advice and will make even more of an effort to do this.

Thanks you so much for your response, I'll let you know how I get on.

I think, in that case, the vet visit is even more of a priority - he could be in pain.

Castration will only have an effect on aggression that has a sexual basis.

Apart from the obvious health check, hopefully all is well :-), it may just be that at this age as with many teenagers he is trying his luck, there is always a lot of debate about dogs on beds thinking they are equal to their human counterparts, the car incident seems to be him telling you he did not wish to move and trying to over-ride your authority, the bed incident may have been him feeling you were about to move him, either way you must not let him think he can manipulate you or your husband, be very firm with him.

I recall a Springer I had stay with me once for a couple of weeks, who seemed to think he owned the sofa and when I would tell him to move off, he would growl at me, I would growl back, say get down and he would sheepishly do so, be firm or you may have a domineering dog, never allow a growl to deter you from the original command, and if healthwise he is fit and well, don't allow him on your bed in order to put him back in his place.

I agree with the advice to get a vet check and to train specifically for collar and harness grabbing - the dog may need to learn to accept this particular kind of handling as opposed to "general" cuddling, playing, paw wiping etc. You can build up very good associations with collar grabbing as Onetwothree has suggested :)

I'm also wondering if he is protesting at too much cuddling, etc. Not all dogs enjoy it and possibly sometimes he may see you taking his collar or asking him to do something as a prelude to cuddling - now he is growing up and becoming mature he may not enjoy it as he did. You know your dog, :) I'm making a suggestion only.

I personally wouldn't growl back - yes it can work if you are extremely confident, OTOH it may make things much worse and you may end up with escalating problems where dog and owner are at loggerheads and there is far too much conflict. If for example you tell him off and he growls back more, what will happen? MOst owners would back down in nervousness and the dog learns the lesson that he can enforce the owner to do what he wants by growling. Dogs do what "works" for them in many ways.

My advice would be to train or re-train an Off command (Never use "down" as that can be confusing with the obedience command and far too many people go it and then wonder why their dog does not get "off" ... the dog, in his or her mind, is already "down"!! :P ).  Use a light line, food initially to lure and then to reward, (or a toy) and set up plenty of training sessions, clicker training in particular is excellent for this sort of thing. After a fairly short time you should see a dog willing to come off at your command, if not I'd get in the help of a reputable person.

If the bed does appear to be a problem, it may be an idea to keep him off simply as a management technique.

Just my view, good luck

Lindsay
x

Thanks for all your replies, they are really helpful. Pleased to say that healthwise he is fit and well!

There have been no more incidents like this and I can say with surety that he definately does not dislike a cuddle but I appreciaite your suggestion with such little info to go on. I dont really have much to base this on, just a feeling of knowing him well, but I feel its likely to be about him pushing the boundaries a bit as he is coming of age. He is very obedient and generally does all thats asked of him first time normally, it was just these few incidents.

I will put all suggestions into practice though as even if they arent the answer they certainly wont hurt.

I will let you know how we get on but I now feel really positive that we will get through this without too much trouble.

Many thanks again, I really appreciate the support.

If he grumps in bed or on the sofa etc, I would not be confrontational I would tip him off using the bed covers or tipping the sofa or chair forward.

Grumpy behaviour means he looses his favoured spot.

Thanks Barbara

Does the same apply when the tinker is sitting on my head/foot/favourite top/husbands sensitive areas?

Caroline

Yep tipped up and evicted.