Puppy who got nasty

[Andrew556]

Hi, I have a 5 month old female collie cross (kelpie we think) called Roxie.

I spend most of the time with her, i mainly feed her and walk her. The problem is the other night. I went to bed early and left my girlfriend with Roxie who was asleep. When my girlfriend wanted to go to bed she went over to Roxie and tried to pick her up. She said Roxie growled and showed her teeth and her tail was between her legs. Now Roxie never gets like this with me. She does what i tell her most of the time as she is really well behaved after spending hours training her. Im a bit worried that she thinks shes an equal with my girlfriend and that as she gets older if im not there she will do as she pleases.

Any ideas?

[Alikins]

Have the girlfriend start walking her and spending some play alone time with her.

Also, have your girlfriend start feeding her so Roxie knows her food comes from your girlfriend too.

[Kade]

It's also possible that she startled the dog. Not saying aggression is okay, but every dog has a threshhold to which various factors-- environmental, health, mental -- contribute. If it was a dark room, the dog was asleep, was startled, maybe heard a dog down the street bark, etc... it all adds up.

Which is my long way of seconding Alikins -- your girlfriend needs to actively become the dominant dog in their relationship.

In addition to walking her and feeding by hand, she can participate in training sessions. And you guys should be expressing your dominance in subtle ways, too -- get her food out, set it on the counter, and then proceed to eat your own food. Halfway through, give the dog her food (make her do a sit-stay for it). Ten minutes later, take away anything uneaten.

Become the controller of all resources -- toys, food, water, etc. Watch your eye contact with the dog and resist the temptation to watch every move your puppy makes, even though everything she does is cute and look-worthy. In a dog pack, the followers will look at the leaders in order to follow their cues. If your pup often catches you watching her, she will assume you're waiting for her guidance.

Check into the NiLiF program and implement it... good luck!

[mrsgrubby]

Dogs can get startled easily when they are sleeping. I personally think no one should ever touch a sleeping dog.

Next time have your girlfriend speak to the dog to wake her up before she grabs her. This might help.


LOL.. I accidently punched my husband one time when he grabbed me in my sleep to tell me he was home. He was not a bit happy, but he scared the living daylights out of me....LOL

[Mom2Many]

I agree, waking a sleeping dog without using your voice can be dangerous even with the best behaved dogs. Just like you wake up groggy so does your pup, their can be a brief time of confusion before you and your pup are able to place where they are, who is there with them and whether or not the situation poses a threat.

I always wake my sleepy pooches up by voice command, it's a much safer practice then trying to pick a sleepy pup up.