Why would a friendly little puppy growl when someone walked past while he had something in his mouth? I walked in through the door to be met by the most adorable 13-week-old Sprocker puppy in the man’s arms. Instant puppy love! Oscar! Oscar does all the typical puppy things which Read more
Ollin is a Xoloitzcuintli. I have never even heard of a Xoloitzcuintli before let alone visited one. Why would a normally gentle dog suddenly become possessive and agitated after a new puppy arrives? Where did the possessive behaviour come from? Ollin has been perfectly happy with her humans touching something she’s Read more
Why was Penny growling and nipping more when the household became noisy and excited? I am getting a little run of cases involving dogs growling at the kids. It’s probably a sign that it’s time for them to go back to school after six weeks at home with the dog! Read more
Why was Dijon snapping when the little girl cuddled her mum? Consideration of Personal space is a one-way street for Dijon! Cavapoo Dijon is a confident little dog in most respects. He knows what he wants – and usually gets it. The one respect in which he’s not so confident is when the Read more
Why would a normally sociable dog only react to other dogs when her owner was giving them attention? On the face of it, Milly’s connection with the emotions of her human is very different from the last pair of dogs I went to, who so closely picked up on the Read more
Why would a loving dog refuse to come when called and growl if anyone goes near her food or bed? As a currency, attention and simple rewards are rendered valueless by too much – too much lavished attention on demand and constantly available food. People actually devalue their own worth Read more
Does the dog steal everyday items, then growl if anyone comes near? Fourteen-month-old Jack is a good natured, affectionate and very energetic young Cocker Spaniel – and I know what that’s like with my own Working Cocker, Pickle! However Jack does have a problem and it is getting worse. He Read more
Lou is becoming increasingly possessive around chews and certain toys, and Jasper is now challenging him.
There is now trouble when the lady owner is making a fuss of one of the dogs – it’s like she, too, is a resource that the dogs are quarrelling over! They have three young boys, and Lou is likely to growl and snap if they pick him up or try to move him when he doesn’t want to be moved.
All three get overly excited before meals. All three get extremely excited before walks, so much so that mixed-up Milli can’t cope and her crazy excitement and stress overflows and redirects into an attack on one of the other dogs. All three pull like mad on lead and are not good with other dogs.
In the past, before moving in together, it had been ‘my’ dog and ‘your’ dogs. Now they need to work on them being ‘their’ dogs. They are going to work on relationship building – man and Akitas, lady and Springer – mix and match!