Reacting to other dogs inside - any advice?

[LonnyVonnyWilsonFrickett]

I'll try to keep this short!

Our lab X was a rescue and took a while to settle (I think the rehoming traumatised him). Two years in he's the sweetest dog imaginable apart from this one issue which we're really struggling to solve.

He's fine with other dogs outside, dogs that he meets on walks, dogs that he knows, but when he's in the house with another dog (our house or any other one) he's really difficult - snappy and guardy.

The problem seems to be us (me and DH) - last month we took him to a friend's house and he was his normal self with her dog, then as an experiment me and DH left for the day and he was completely fine. So it's resource guarding us (?) that's causing the problem.

We're invited to the same friend's for new year and I really need some strategies so we don't ruin it for everyone. She has an open-plan downstairs and a dog-hating cat who lives upstairs, so putting him into a bedroom isn't really an option - he has to be able to share space with the other dog peacefully with us in the house!

Any advice?

(and yes, we'll have a couple of trial runs and if it really doesn't work we won't go, but I want to go!)

[LonnyVonnyWilsonFrickett]

hopeful bump?

[bunnygeek]

Might be worth seeing if there's a nearby registered behaviourist who can come and sit with you and observe this behaviour, they'll be able to spot subtle things leading up to the guarding you guys may be missing.

[LonnyVonnyWilsonFrickett]

Thanks - not having much luck with the behaviourist we used before as she thinks it's unethical to put the other dog in that situation for training purposes!

[Vallahalagonebutnotforgotten]

I think it is probably unrealistic to think that you will get a cure for this behaviour in a short time scale.

I do question whether it is worth the agro for your dog for a situation that is infrequent.

If I was working on this with a client I would (again depend on the situation) be working on impulse control and calm responses to being indoors - this gradually and I mean gradually over many months would then bring in the introduction of the trigger BUT this would be at a huge distance so their would be no reaction from either dog.

It does not sound like resource guarding to me. RG is an over used term.

I think probably with this situation you need to look at control and management rather than a cure to start with. Can anyone sit your dog for the evening so you can still enjoy yourself but all animals are chilled and stress free.

[Floralnomad]

This is like my dog and our answer is to not put our dog into the situation

[JustWhatINeededNow]

Yes same. Our dogs are tricky with others. We never take them to other people's houses, and we don't invite any over.

We use kennels if we go away, or we have a local teenager come and sit with them if we're out for the day.

[LonnyVonnyWilsonFrickett]

Not putting him into the situation has been our response so far - we were away at Half-term with another family and dog but had separate cottages so it was easy to split them up at night. New Year is different because the friends live further away and we won't be able to get a sitter. So I guess we won't go.