Scared of Ddog - I'm really upset

[FluffyDogMother]

Ddog is an ESS. I've written about him on here before. He's just coming up for a year old. We have consulted a behaviourist over his jumping and nipping us, and behaviourist was happy with how we approached this (redirect if possible, exit room at home if that doesn't work).

The last two nights in a row he has growled at me when we are on the sofa together and grabbed his chew or toy. He had done this a month or so ago but I put it down to a one off as he had issues with his anal glands at the time - he actually snapped at me and caught my hand. It seems to happen when he is suddenly woken if I move for example. During the day and early evening he will quite happily snuggle on my lap with a chew for a few minutes.

I'm now wary about sitting with Ddog on the sofa in case he escalates to biting. I've been in tears over this. He's hard work a lot of the time, despite training, exercise and enrichment activities. It feels like 1 step forward 2 steps back.

Where do I go from here?

Absolutely no more furniture access, a vet check and a qualified behaviourist.

There is a reason for the phrase “let sleeping dogs lie”. Dogs can have an aggressive response to being startled in their sleep that leads them to think they’re in danger and they react.

The other thing is that prevention is better than cure. If your dog is displaying resource guarding over the sofa then don’t let him sit on it. Retrain him to lie in his own bed (put one in the living room) so he has his own space in the evening and do not disturb.

Never touch or have him sit on you when he eats. He's resource guarding, and he might seem ok but he's clearly not very up for sharing.

Mine are daft as brushes, but they way separately from each other and no one is allowed to touch them whilst they eat.

Definitely agree re no furniture access now. The furniture is for you, his bed is for him. Also agree re getting a qualified behaviourist involved if you aren't under one still.

Off the sofa he goes for good op ASAP.
And get a behaviourist in
At a year old he isn't a lost cause imo.

I should have said they always eat separately from one another.

ESS are not easy dogs. They're hard work. I'm quite an experienced owner and I can't say I could be arsed with one You will need to put in a lot of work and be prepared to spend £ on a decent behaviourist if this dog is going to be a decent family pet and not something you grudgingly tolerate for the next 12 years.

What is ESS?

Talk to your behaviourist again, but don’t despair -this is two things - guarding the sofa or guarding the toy/chew. My WCS used to resource guard on the sofa or with toys/bones/things he’d stolen, but our trainer suggested that we teach him an ‘off the sofa’ command so we could make him get down without touching him, and to give up toys/bones/my socks without stress - this involved treats, and sitting quietly beside him when he had the bone and not making any move towards it until he was ready, then swapping it for treats and giving it back. We got to a point where he will bring me the chew and demand I hold it for him so he can chew at a better angle. Yours currently doesn’t trust you not to steal it, but you can definitely teach them that you are safe. I would also say that the first year or so of spaniel ownership was one problem after another, but after that he’s the most loving, sweet, loyal dog!

@sillysmiles

What is ESS?

English springer spaniel

We went through this when our boywas around the same age. Very stressful and upsetting. We stopped him sleeping on the sofa and took great care to leave him well alone when he was tired or sleeping. He's 3 now and I'm happy to say it just resolved itself, I think he learnt not to be fearful of us when he was resting, we learnt to respect his space. He can now join us on the sofa when invited.

Off the sofa and don't go near him when he has any kind of chew or toy. That's the basics for now - you need to keep everyone safe.

Springers are not easy dogs. They are intelligent, working dogs with lots of energy who need plenty of exercise, mental stimulation and consistency.

Is your behaviourist properly accredited and using only force free methods? If so, what have they said about this new behaviour?

ESS owner here too and ours is a terrible resource guarder. She’s also just turned one. For her it’s “things”, so nice chews/treats or stolen items/socks/shoes etc; and it’s also locations - initially this was just her bed but she’s now started guarding the lounge and sofa so she’s banished from there.
We had a behaviourist and she was helpful but definitely not a cure. Our next step is to consult a vet behaviourist who may prescribe medication to accompany and support her training.
I’ve grown up around spaniels and never had such a difficult dog. My husband has had enough as we all live in fear and she totally controls our lives. I think the vet behaviourist is our final call for her. She is aggressive on a daily basis and has bitten several times although not causing significant injuries.
Definitely try a behaviourist but find one you like and ask about how many sessions until you’ll see some progress…. We felt our last behaviourist saw us as a bit of a cash cow and was keen for us to keep booking more sessions despite the guarding not improving. Best of luck to you!!

Sorry, just reread and note you’ve got a behaviourist. I guess consider whether you try a different behaviourist, a Gundog trainer or a veterinary behaviourist. It’s so hard when all you want is a nice family dog!

1. No sofa ever
2. No bone or chew unless you hold it and control it and remove it. 5 mins at a time
3. Train her to 'place' on a vet bed- its amoveable space that she lies on- not sofa

You contol things or she does. If you are bowl feeding I would use the NILF method where her food is earned.

Thanks for the messages and support so far.

Ddog will quite happily let me hold a chew toy for him and will bring it to me to do so. Therefore I don't feel it's the toy he's guarding. It's more that he wakes up easily and growls at me. I agree that stopping sleeping on the sofa would be the next logical step, but won't he still growl if woken if sleeping on the floor?

Our last dog was a working goldie and she went through a phase of growling if I told her to get off the sofa, which is why I don't think it's that.

I don't purposely wake Ddog; just moving to pick up a drink next to me can wake him. Most of the time he is happy with that, wags his tail and stretches and goes back to sleep.

I contacted the vet behaviourist about other issues (jumping and nipping) but they won't visit due to Covid.

Ddog cannot have anything soft as he will eat it, so comfy beds elsewhere are not possible. He sleeps happily in his crate in the kitchen at night, but won't rest there in evening as cries and wants to be with us.

Sounds like startle reflex to me.Very common in dogs and more common in dogs that are over threshold.

Its a natural behaviour and in the wild is very useful not so as a domesticated dog but easy to understand. If a dog is woken up they are in a state ready to protect themselves as they are unsure on what the danger is that has woken them up.

Work with getting you dog calmer throughout the day and do not wake the dog up. Let the dog wake up naturally or calmly

easy to read article from Battersea on it but loads more infro on google

I agree with everyone else, no sofa!
Our dog was an absolute arse if he was allowed on the sofa. Our trainer said that some dogs can be allowed on the sofa and some just can’t.

I think he'll settle as he gets older, ours certainly did and no longer growls is accidentally disturbed. He may well still growl but if he's in his own bed on the floor he's less likely to be disturbed than when he's on the sofa and less likely to nip you. I may be wrong but i think it's OK that he's growling, he doesn't like being disturbed and that's his way of communicating it. I pretty grumpy when I'm woken up too!

Get some vet bed OP, it’s virtually indestructible and you can move it so the dog always has a spot. Will mean you could place it out the way inn the living room so he has a spot there in the evening.

As he eats fabric we tried vet bed - he eats that too. He also resource guards soft stuff as he knows it'll be removed because he eats it. If we used vet bed in the living room he would continually eat it. At the moment it is shut in his crate in the kitchen to reduce his eating and he's only allowed in during nap time and bed time.

We tried a hard plastic bed in the living room, he refused to use it, even with tossing in treats, filled kongs etc (a hard plastic bed was what we used with our old dog).

I'd agree that management is key here, not letting him sleep on sofa, and not allowing him to sleep anywhere he might easily get started awake. Ie..if he sleeps at your feet but startles awake and snaps if you get up you have to ensure he relaxes at a distance away from you, in a hard bed that he can't chew if need be.

There may be a combination of things going on too...resource guarding, location guarding, evening tiredness (have you noticed it is worse at night time?) combined with startle reflex can exacerbate aggressive response. If you look up trigger stacking in dogs it is kind of related to that.

So, if your dog is very tired in the later evening, has a chew nearby that he recalls having before drifting off to sleep, is on the sofa that he is most prone to guarding and you are very close by to him, these 4 elements combined might cause a more elevated response when, if say one element of these 4 was missing , he might not appear to react at all.

So it's about mindful of the multiple potential contributors that can lead to a reactive response than trying to pin it down purely on one thing it another, startle reflex or guarding.

I agree that stopping sleeping on the sofa would be the next logical step, but won't he still growl if woken if sleeping on the floor?

He should have a bed or space well away from foot traffic so there's minimal risk of him being startled awake. If he's in a bed well away from everyone and does startle, then he's not really at risk of biting or snapping as there won't be anyone nearby, if that makes sense.

Sleep startle is quite common but obviously not ideal in a domestic pet. I would not be allowing him to rest or sleep on the sofa at all anymore - as you say, they can be easily disturbed and the last thing you want is for him to startle while someone's face is nearby - it could end really badly.

While many dogs can sleep quite happily on furniture, others can't and you have to put everyone's safety first, including your dogs.

What happens if you move his crate into the living room in the evenings? Would he settle in there?

@PollyRoulllson

Sounds like startle reflex to me.Very common in dogs and more common in dogs that are over threshold.

Its a natural behaviour and in the wild is very useful not so as a domesticated dog but easy to understand. If a dog is woken up they are in a state ready to protect themselves as they are unsure on what the danger is that has woken them up.

Work with getting you dog calmer throughout the day and do not wake the dog up. Let the dog wake up naturally or calmly

easy to read article from Battersea on it but loads more infro on google

Thanks for the link, it could well be this. I've emailed the vet behaviourist to talk it through.

Calming wise - he has kongs, lickimats, interactive toys, and we also play sniff and find games. We have an Adaptil plug in and a one a day Yumove calming treat as well as other calming treats throughout the day. He's walked twice daily for an hour each time and DH works from home. Not sure what else we can do - open to suggestions in case we've missed anything?

What do his walks consist of?

In some dogs, lots of running about and chasing can have the opposite effect - it boosts their adrenaline and can actually stop them from being calm.

I would make at least one of his walks a calming one - just let him sniff. Pop his lead on and let him decide where he wants to go. I do this with my own dog about twice a week from the front door. We just go out and I let him pick the route (within reason, obviously!). I let him sniff lamp posts for five minutes if that's what he wants. It really does take the edge of his behaviour!

I've got 2 spaniels, OP, a working cocker and a sprocker.

The working cocker is very sensitive to protein levels in his food - we had him on a high protein/low carb food and his personality change was unbelievable. He didn't settle, was restless and agitated. I'd check what you're feeding as a 1st thought.

Our sprocker is a bag of nerves, and has an awful habit of nervy lunging towards other dogs if approached. So we equally have to watch her food intake, and we had to be really careful with her exercise levels before she got to 2. They're still developing bone and muscle mass at 1 and it can be really easy to overdo the exercise with them. We also had to enforce rest periods in the kitchen behind a stair gate as she just didn't settle otherwise.

You'll get there, I swear that all spaniels are a lot of work until they reach adulthood.

Just read your update after posting OP and 2 hours walking a day is an awful lot of adrenaline releasing for a 1 year old.

I'd def drop that to half an hour twice a day.