Puppy has shown aggression a few times to another dog is this normal?

[Spamspamspam]

I am a bit worried about a few incidents with our terrier pup. She has known a lab/dalmation cross since they were 10 and 9 weeks respectively. They have regularly had play dates since they were tiny. The lab/dalmation also lives with an older lab who comes over too but she tends to sit and ignore the pups. First time mine showed aggression, none of us saw what it was about, we think they were arguing over an apple from the garden. Second time ours got aggressive with the other pup at the other persons house and again my husband said he didn't really know what had caused it. Third time was today they were playing nicely for about 40 mins, then the other pup and her lab friend started playing tug of war, mine almost got jealous that she wasn't getting any of the action/fun and went absolutely mental at the other pup, really aggressive full on fight mode husband picked her up by the scruff and put her in the kitchen where we left her for 2-3 mins and then we let our back out. She came back out very amenable, and was fine with the pup but also was very close to my husband and wouldn't leave his side. Other pup and older dog started playing tug of war again and our pup just looked on whilst sitting at my husbands feet. Other pup owner was not overly worried but I was quite shocked and upset about it.

She has also done this with another of my friends' labrador who is 9 months old, I took her over there and my friend gave them all a bone. Bones got mixed up a bit and the lab took my pup's bone, my pup again went into full on aggression mode until we gave her the bone back.

I have socialised her really well since getting her at 10 weeks old and she has never shown this sort of behaviour with any one else, in fact she is quite subservient with other dogs and is a little bit of a nervous dog. I never feed her insecurities and make sure she meets and plays with dogs of all ages and sizes.

Any thoughts?

[Elibean]

Hi spam (just answered your post on puppy thread, btw - sorry for not seeing it earlier!), no expert at all but...would think aggression over bones is very normal. See my 'bone guarding' thread below - our soppy, child loving pup snapped at dd for getting to close to a bone the other day.

The other incident, I wondered if your pup was either a bit tired/stimulated by then and just couldn't contain herself when jealous - or whether she thought the other pup was attacking her friend?? Sounds like the 'time out' worked though - she clearly 'got' that she'd done something wrong!

I wouldn't link the bone incident with it, myself...not sure if thats right or not, but I do think bones are somehow different.

She sounds lovely

[ditavonteesed]

the pla incident you described sounds like she was too over stimulated, terriers have no off switch when it comes to exciting stuff and can get over tired/stimulated when playing, you need to keep an eye on play and give pup a few minutes to calm down quite often. my 2 play comstantly but I often have to seperate them when I can see the terrier is getting too giddy.
Bone guarding is very common, I would give the dog a bone (alone), then take the bone and replace with something of equal value IE really good treat, toy or game.
The trainer I have also says it is quite important to try and increase any terriers impluse control, so make them wait a second for things, make them let you through the door/gate first, not to be dominant but just to teach them they sometimes have to wait.