Golden Retriever Puppy Issues

[nikster76]

We are first time owners and have a lovely 9.5 month old golden retriever called George. We all love him to bits but I have mentally and physically been pushed to my limits in the last few months. We seem to have an issue with resource guarding, first it was toys or illicit objects but we worked hard to instill a drop and swop routine and that is now working well. Problem is that I have now noticed there is the odd occasion where he is guarding a space. Terrible incident this morning where he was biting the table, it should have been dealt with creatively and he should have been told to 'Leave ' and change for another interesting activity. Unfortunately my husband decided to place his foot in the area, dog growled and it escalated, he really went for my husband who shouted at him. Disaster. I feel so worried and sad about this. My husband did not pick up on cues but I also worry that he is guarding spaces where our DC's ( 10 and 13) are eating. We have a trainer coming tomorrow . Does anyone have experience of this breed and have sone advice? He is soooooo soppy, cuddly and lovely the rest of the time.

Is it a trainer or a behaviourist you have coming to help? They are two different things - make sure they're fully accredited too. A trainer will teach you to use rewards to help your dog understand what you want from them. A behaviourist will look more at any emotional challenges your dog is having, such as the issues you're seeing, and work out a plan to help your dog handle these situations.

Honestly don't fret - it was a one off interaction. Great you have a trainer coming and then everyone can be on board about consistency which is what they need (forever).

It's not easy and they do drive you to despair but sounds like you have a lovely dog in the making.

Thanks for the replies.
@bunnygeek he us a trainer rather than a behaviourist - do you think that's the right route?

@MaterialWorld thanks for the positive vibes. I absolutely adore him and I am sure it will come good. Just feels right now that I have been pouring so much into him and in some ways he is getting more challenging not less....teenager though .

You need a behaviourist, not a trainer - two different things :)

Make sure they're probably accredited with someone like the IMDT or APDT.

Oops - properly accredited, not probably!

You do need to fret! Sorry to be harsh and bleak but resource guarding, as you have found out spreads like wild fire. This will only get worse

It generally starts with one item and then spreads to others and even to spaces and locations.

There are 3 main reasons a dog resource guards and wanting the object or space is rarely one of them so teaching a leave it will not help with resource guarding at all.

Resource guarding is often caused be an inability to disenage rather than a need to posses the item/space. All resource guarding dogs will be showing sigs of stress and being over threshold. These are areas that need to be worked on.

You do need a qualified bejhaviourist (not a trainer who has done some work with resource guarding dogs) Get a referral from your vet and there is a strong chance that your insurance will pay for it.

This will not go away on its own, it is not something you have "caused" , it will get worse if left untreated. However the good news is that with the correct behaviour plan this is something that can be changed around.

Personally I would not go with IMDT or APDT in this case but would want a more qualified "proper" educated behaviourist - but as said above then you will get it paid on your insurance. IMDTB are not covered on insurance (unless they have other qualifications in place)

Good Luck OP

I agree this needs to be dealt with swiftly. Our dog developed resource guarding issues at a similar age which escalated until we could no longer trust him with the children and we had to rehome him.
I wish we had done more to nip it in the bud immediately.
Good luck OP

Thanks @MrsOH1 , sorry to hear of that outcome. The children are my number one priority but I hope it doesn't come to this.

@PollyRoulllson thanks for your response. Can I ask what the main 3 reasons for resource guarding are? I am starting to wonder if it's more about the events preceding the altercation rather than the actual event itself. For example, I took him on a really long walk yesterday. By the time the walk was finishing, he had started lunging at cars which could be an over - stimulation issue? The trainer coming tomorrow also describes himself as a behaviourist but I'm not sure now if he will be the right person.

I’m sure it will be fine. I stupidly thought it was a phase he would grow out of. It wasn’t.
I am sure a good behaviourist at the right time would have given us a happier outcome

Goldies can resource guard apparently. Ours did but I had had 3 before him so was taken by surprise but in research I found it wasn’t unusual.
People think they are teddy bears but they are big powerful dogs and need to be properly trained
My boy doesn’t usually resource guard these days after working with a trainer who also worked for Dogs Trust who was recommended by our vet, although there are certain things we just don’t let him have either
Yours is a teenager and so will be pushing boundaries so you must be firm with him and reward the good while ignoring the bad. If DDog gets something he thinks I won’t want him to have I walk away in the direction of the fridge and he drops it and follows, he also drops things when I say “cheese” but it’s taken work to get here.
As you have found out confrontation isn’t the worst thing to do as it escalates things, I had to persuade my DH to deal with Ddog differently too but we all seem to be sorted now and Ddog is as good as gold (unless there’s a squirrel)

My best advice is not to listen to advice from people on MN. Some of it may be useful but some can be really useless or even harmful. (This thread is a case in point.) I would look for professional help if I were you. A qualified behaviourist, preferably one who is recommended to you by someone you trust, would be the place to start.

@nikster76

Thanks *@MrsOH1* , sorry to hear of that outcome. The children are my number one priority but I hope it doesn't come to this.

@PollyRoulllson thanks for your response. Can I ask what the main 3 reasons for resource guarding are? I am starting to wonder if it's more about the events preceding the altercation rather than the actual event itself. For example, I took him on a really long walk yesterday. By the time the walk was finishing, he had started lunging at cars which could be an over - stimulation issue? The trainer coming tomorrow also describes himself as a behaviourist but I'm not sure now if he will be the right person.

Anyone can call themself a behaviourist. What qualifications and professional memberships does he have?

Run a mile from anyone who still talks about dominance/pack theory.

A qualified behaviourist should be qualified to MSc level in a relevant subject.

OP your recognition of being over threshold is spot on. You may also have seen looking back on it subtle signs before the big obvious rg signs kicked in eg the dog going still over an item, licking their lips, turning their head away.

The three main reasons for resource guarding would be:-

1. Anxiety , over arousal lack of confidence
2. Inability to disengage again usually due to anxiety
3. Very rare in my opinion the need to possess the item - however this is the approach many inexperienced ctrainers and behaviourists take and have unsuccessful results.

So first line of treatment is creating calm in the dog in all situations, at home, out and about.

Yes
I would like to add to my post that you should get professional help, possibly via your vet.
RG, especially with children in the house should be tackled ASAP abd with proper support

Thanks everyone for your comments and advice. I will be meeting with the trainer tomorrow but I'll also contact a few behaviourist too.
@PollyRoulllson thanks for the explanation of types of RG. Our dog is definitely not calm - he is often hyped up and teenage kids do not help at times. Interestingly today after the incident and yesterdays big walk, he's been really happy to just sleep and chill most of the day. It is likely that his 'bucket was full' at breakfast this morning and it's a shame none of us noticed.
He also appears to be teething again and has started biting the walls and table - I wonder if he is in pain too?
Thanks so much for the advice.

@PollyRoulllson just to say that in other ways I think of him as a really confident dog. He loves all other dogs and is super (over) friendly and uber friendly to all humans too. He is a bit barky in the garden and sometimes randomly barks at bins and lunges at traffic sometimes. What other indicators are there that he could be anxious other than resource guarding? Thank you so much.

Anxious may be too strong a word. Over aroused and emotional may be better. If you think of a quadrant with calm on one quadrant and excitement above it and on the other side you would have fear and anxious beneath fear.

So an excited dog will really easily flick into the fear side and then flick into anxious all due to being overaroused.

So if we keep a dog in the calm and lower end of excited quadrant you have a dog that can cope with things/life etc.

If the dog is hovering in excitement most of the time they will quickly flick into the anxious side just due to too much excitment.

So you may not have an anxious all the time dog or a dog that is fearful just a young dog full of emotions that can not deal with them so resorts to behaviour that helps them but is not an appropriate choice.

If that makes sense!

This is such a helpful explanation @PollyRoulllson. My dog will very occasionally guard toys, and even more rarely space, but only after he's tipped into over arousal. That might be excitement - eg playing too vigorously/long - or anxiety - eg a dog barking outside. I hadn't connected those dots until I read your post.

It's logical to assume rg is about ownership of the thing or space ("dominance"), but it seems it's often an expression of the dog's underlying emotional state and lack of a more appropriate displacement strategy.

Really insightful.

When our Retriever RG he did look very worried.
He was almost in a panic and couldn’t help himself - he used to need a lot of reassurance afterwards despite the fact that we never shouted at him.

@PollyRoulllson yes that makes perfect sense - thank you. He is quite easily over-stimulated right now - even a windy day takes him over the edge. I wonder, however, if he's like a child and as he matures he will develop better emotional regulation? ( with regular training of course). Here's hoping...

Trainer was also a behaviourist ( not MSc but BSc). Great session and he got us to see the RG incident in context of his wider behaviour and regard/respect for us (it's quite low ). We will be upping the training in line with his suggestions and will see him again in 6 weeks.

I have a border collie, who is now nearly 4 years old, he had/still has resource guarding problems. I know it’s a different breed, but his were bad at around 6 months old. I actually think he thought he owned out house. Firstly what I did, was hand feed and handful of his food, made him sit and wait. He looked at me as if to say what the heck is happening. I did this every meal for a couple of weeks. I changed our bedsheets and he came bounding upstairs, jumped on bed and bit my face. That was the only time he has bitten me, he clearly didn’t like what I was doing. We had quite a few other problems with RG with him, we couldn’t pick up paper off the floor, toys and food were ok, no brushing floor and he didn’t like us going on step ladders/steps. I tell him sternly no, then praise him and give a treat if he does good. Shouting at him, does no good as he didn’t understand, I think that’s where we went wrong at first, especially after the biting incident. It’s hard being in a household with 4 people as you all need to be in on the same training regime. Good luck with training, it does get better.