# 15 month old behavior - normal?



## baanrl (May 5, 2011)

We have a 15 month old Golden that we got to be a family pet and we are starting to wonder if she will ever be that family pet. Our kids are between 18 months and 14 years and we cannot trust our pup with the kids off leash. She cannot contain herself for more than a few minutes before she needs to get on the kids and get her mouth on the kids. 

We have gone through a couple rounds of training that have helped and we see steady improvement. Our concern is that every couple weeks she will get a not really playfull growl when we try and take control or get something from her mouth. Last night when she had a sock in her mouth she got a really nasty growl and snapped at my wife.

Is this normal for this age? Should she grow out of it? Any suggestions?

Thanks for your help.


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## RedDogs (Jan 30, 2010)

This is normal, but not appropriate. With appropriate training and management, you should see improvements. (Though 100% supervision between kids and dogs will be a forever thing).

Get this book on resource guarding and start working through it step by step: (I think it's also sold as an book on this site) Welcome to Dogwise.com

In a household with young kids, there are resource guarding prevention exercises , like in the book, that I recommend for the life of the dog. 

Where are you located? What kinds of recommendations has your trainer given you. Have the older kid/s been to training class with you? How do you feel the training classes have addressed/helped the issues?


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## fostermom (Sep 6, 2007)

I agree with Red Dogs. I am also curious to know how much exercise she's getting.


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