# 14 week old golden cujo for 5 seconds!



## Dog4eyes (Dec 2, 2011)

Hi,
We acquired a 12 week old gorgeous golden from a reputable breeder in Mass. No problems for a week and a half...just love and a little mouthing. Excellent crate trained and housebroken show quality mellow laid-back dream-come-true. : BUT then something went wrong. We had a some 10 year old guide dogs over for a meet and greet with our new bundle of joy. Everything was lovely and going beautifully......then I reached down to take a treat that the puppy had stolen from a 'guest'....and all hell broke loose. The sweet mellow puppy snarled and went ballistic, snapping & scaring the willies out of me.  I managed to take the treat away.....but I was stunned, as were my friends. I called the breeder immediately and she advised me that this is unacceptable behavior and if it should happen again I should grab the puppy by the scruff of her neck and give her a few firm shakes. I am currently signing up for obedience training. Advice??


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## tobysmommy (Jan 9, 2011)

Sounds like resource guarding. Do you put her in a "wait" when you feed her and give her a release (like "ok") to allow her to start eating? Resource guarding is a normal behaviour in dogs, but it's less acceptable to us humans.


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## Dog4eyes (Dec 2, 2011)

Hi,
Resource guarding is a new term for me. I'll consider your 'release' technique. But it was a group of lethargic vintage goldens eating their treats and then the puppy (like lightening!) grabbed a treat from one of them. I tried to grab the treat from my puppy. That's when the 5-second rage happened. I was aghast and frightened! A 20 lb. fluff-ball turned into barbed wire! Thanks for the input....any advice is welcome.


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## laprincessa (Mar 24, 2008)

Please don't shake your puppy.


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## mylissyk (Feb 25, 2007)

Sounds like it was a very high value treat to her and she was resource guarding it.

Grabbing your puppy by the scruff and shaking her will not help, it will only make her afraid of you or backfire and make her fight you.

You need to start teaching her "trade", practice offering her something to replace an item she has so she learns she can give up what she has because she gets something good in return, never just grab something away from her. "Leave it" is a good thing teach her as well. 

A good puppy obedience class is the best idea, and talk to instructors to find someone who can help you work on the rescource guarding with her. Please find a trainer that uses positive methods, not punishment based.


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## fostermom (Sep 6, 2007)

laprincessa said:


> Please don't shake your puppy.


I did this 20+ years ago to my golden/lab puppy when she misbehaved and dislocated her shoulder. I was horrified, I didn't even do it that hard. Back then, they said that's how momma dogs disciplined their puppies (untrue). Obviously, I know better than that now and would never do that to a puppy.


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## opera330 (Nov 14, 2010)

*sounds like what I am dealing with*

It started very young but I wish I could go back and perhaps be a little firmer with Cody. This behavior is frightening and it continues and Cody is about 75 pounds. I read the book mine. I understand the guarding but it is very hard to change. Just posted about this the other day. Had two other goldens but had never seen this behavior before. And I was desperately afraid of pit bulls.


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## nolefan (Nov 6, 2009)

*Thank you for sharing your experience....*



fostermom said:


> I did this 20+ years ago to my golden/lab puppy when she misbehaved and dislocated her shoulder. I was horrified, I didn't even do it that hard. ....


 
Fostermom, thank you so much for speaking up about your experience. Our members sharing real life stories, no matter how much it may pain us, is one of the things that makes this forum so invaluable. It's one thing to hear a hypothetical example of what could happen, but it really drives a point home when we hear someone relate a story that really did happen. I'm sure you'd prefer to forget that episode and it's good of you to share it with us. Thank you.

To the OP, please follow the previous suggestions on finding a positive method trainer who will work slowly with you on this problem. In the meantime, it's very important that your household have absolutely NO high value items around that could trigger another episode. You are so smart to get right on this problem, I dealt with it in my previous golden, Duncan, and it was upsetting to say the least. Best of luck.


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## aerolor (May 27, 2011)

Dog4eyes said:


> Hi,
> We acquired a 12 week old gorgeous golden from a reputable breeder in Mass. No problems for a week and a half...just love and a little mouthing. Excellent crate trained and housebroken show quality mellow laid-back dream-come-true. : BUT then something went wrong. We had a some 10 year old guide dogs over for a meet and greet with our new bundle of joy. Everything was lovely and going beautifully......then I reached down to take a treat that the puppy had stolen from a 'guest'....and all hell broke loose. The sweet mellow puppy snarled and went ballistic, snapping & scaring the willies out of me.  I managed to take the treat away.....but I was stunned, as were my friends. I called the breeder immediately and she advised me that this is unacceptable behavior and if it should happen again I should grab the puppy by the scruff of her neck and give her a few firm shakes. I am currently signing up for obedience training. Advice??


I think that the other dogs in the house may have affected how your puppy behaved. 
It is unacceptable and possessive behaviour, but lots of puppies do this because they have not learned how they should behave and this is what they would do in the litter. If when the pup stole the treat from the "guest" which I think you mean a dog, then it would have been better if the "guest dog" had corrected the puppy. However, being guide dogs they are trained to be passive and wouldn't have done this, so your pup easily got away with stealing the treat and mistakenly assumed he could defend it from someone (a human) taking it from him. 
Now your visitors have gone, I think I would start practicing giving and taking things away from your pup - not high value things, but things other than food that you give and then take away and then give back again. Make it a game with no threats. Also give your pup his food in small quantities and keep adding bits into the bowl and then walking past, so your dog doesn't think there is any threat in your having control over his food. All good things must come from you and always finish on you giving him/her something, or swapping one thing for another. 

I definitely wouldn't scruff him and shake him. You need to build up a trusting relationship with your pup and it is very early days for both of you. I wouldn't assume that because of this incident that your pup is going to be aggressive and become unmanageable. He may do something like this again but don't let it worry you uduly - just teach him the correct way to behave. My pup was a bit possessive of food and ate so fast when she first came because she thought she might lose it. She also tried to keep things from me which she had stolen, but with time and patience it passed and now she is more settled and confident in us and her surroundings and she doesn't need to resource guard her things.


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## bioteach (Nov 13, 2010)

Nugget doesn't guard food; but he really guards the golf balls that he picks up (we live on a golf course with really bad golfers). We started trading a treat for a ball and now he loves the "game". He finds a ball and shows it to us. Then he runs off with it. As soon as the treat appears he trades. Lots of praise for bringing us the ball.

Total trust on his part - that's the key.


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