Help with growling Springer

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Our Spinger Spaniel is 18 months old and generally a fabulous addition to our family. He is generally very submissive and wary of other dogs. He was bitten by a Rottweiler before Christmas and obviously this has set him back further.

We try to socialise him with other dogs but he generally just ignores them unless they are puppies, in which case he gets fed up and growly quite quickly.

He has always been growly around his food and so now we feed him outside as we have an 8 year old and a 5 year old and I don't trust him with food near them.

Occasionally he gets growly for no obvious reason. Usually he is sitting minding his own business. If he is in his bed (safe place) then we leave him alone but last night he was laying on the lounge carpet next to DD's slipper. I went to retrieve the slipper and he growled. I moved to a different position and he snarled/snapped towards me - it was quite unnerving. He has made contact with me before but not properly bitten down on me, if that makes sense.

We have spoken to the vet who has suggested that we get him castrated. He has one undescended testicle and so he advised operating anyway, he said the surgery might help his outbursts.

However, I don't think he is being aggressive as such. He is quite a nervous dog in certain circumstances and very lively and excitable in others.

He also struggles to gain weight, though the vet says he is very healthy. We feed him a lot and he gets plenty exercise. I wonder whether his lack of weight gain and nervousness could be related and due to some sort of medical condition.

My worry is that he will have a go at the children. We have taught them how to behave around him and we don't leave them alone with him. However, it comes from nowhere and can happen in a split-second, so there are no guarantees.

Sorry this is so long! Any thoughts?

With the food and the slipper it sounds like resource guarding to me...pretty straightforward and nothing to do with testicles or anything else. Oh and lots of dogs don't like puppies.

You're obviously already talking it over with your vet - get them to refer you to a behaviourist, they'll be able to assess him and help you work out how to deal with him.

He wasn't guarding the slipper. It was just laying near him and I went to pick it up to take it upstairs. He had no interest in the slipper, he just didn't seem to like me going near him.

He does resource guard. We are careful when he has toys etc as he can get protective of them, but this didn't seem to be about that.

Oh I was just guessing, if my dog had a slipper next to him he'd think it was his, lol, well to be fair if there was a slipper next to him he'd be chewing it.

I do think though that a behaviourist is the way to go...there's clearly a bit of an issue, you want to get to the root of that and get it dealt with.

Any advice online could help, or could make it worse - get qualified help in.

You are right of course. I was just wondering whether their might be a medical condition that someone recognised from my description.

We will speak to the vet, and I guess we do need to get at least one of his testicles removed, so we may see what happens after that!

You can get a full check up including blood work and if there's anything medical going on it should show up, but I'd hope it isn't tbh as dealing with a behavioural issue with a medical cause is I think harder than just a training issue. But yes it's worth getting a check up.

I'd hold off on the neutering until you've seen someone as for some dogs it can make issues worse - obviously he'll need the undescended one out either way, but if you might want to leave the other there it'll be too late if its gone.

Most APBC behaviourists require a vet referall anyway to rule out medical causes.

Good point and thanks for your advice!

Castration him will not help at all with this behaviour. There is some argument that dogs with undescended testicles can be more fearful as they do not get as much testosterone as other dogs. You do need to have the undescended testicle removed but you could leave the other. I doubt the vet will be in favour of this but you could do some research yourself.

Re other behaviour pretty common resource guarding and fear response. Usually pretty straight forward to deal with if you use a qualified APDT or PPG trainer.

Thanks. Perhaps I need to get him some HRT patches?

Will see if we can find a behaviourist/trainer to help in the meantime.

Totally agree with Nutty. I'm a vet and would always recommend neutering dogs with undescended testes. However, recently we've started to leave the descended testis in some anxious dogs. We make very clear that the dog must not be used to breed though.

Thanks. He had a go at DH tonight - night time when he's resting seems to be a trigger.

Behaviourist and preservation of functioning testicle it is!

You need to involve a behaviourist quickly. Ensure they are a member of an appropriate organisation (APBC or APDT). The longer you leave it the worse it will get. Each time this happens he is learning that aggression is an effective way to get space, so it's vital that you deal with it promptly rather than allowing time to pass and more of these incidents to occur.

I have found one already - she is about 5 miles away and APDT registered. Will ring her in the morning.

Thanks again. I will let you know how we get on.