OH's dog...

[Zaphodsotherhead]

OH recently had his old dog PTS, and acquired a rescue (but not a rescue, a rehoming as old family had twin babies) Labrador bitch. She's 3 1/2 years old and, understandably, now has attachment issues to my OH, as in she cannot be left alone, she follows him around, etc. That's no problem, perfectly understandable, poor girl.

But. She snaps at me. She's extremely defensive over OH, territory and food. EG, he put her in the car to take her home today (we don't live together and he brought her over to visit, which always goes much better than I expect, given that I have terriers) and I stroked her head whilst saying goodbye. I stepped back and she jumped and snapped at my arm. When I go to his house, she barks, runs at me and bites/snaps at my hands and arms.

Most of the time she is fine, but every so often, and without warning, she will turn and snap at me. There doesn't seem to be a real pattern to when she does it. I've tried carrying treats, and giving her biscuits, so she sees me as friendly, but I'm beginning to be wary if I'm close to her. How can I help her to settle and see me as friendly?

[insert1usernamehere]

I'm not an expert on dog behaviour, but a lot of what you've described sounds like resource guarding combined with separation anxiety; it would be worthwhile doing some reading on the topics until someone else who's more knowledgeable comes along :)

[Zaphodsotherhead]

Thanks insert. Resource guarding I'm right at home with (see above, re owning two terriers), and I know she has a lot of separation anxiety, it's going to take a lot of time for her to overcome this (he's had her three months). I can work around her guarding food, but it's the random snapping with no prior warning behaviour makes it hard to know exactly what her problem is!