AntonioMontemayor

HI Adrienne, our toy poodle has been progressively displaying owner-directed dominance/conflict aggression and territorial/resource aggression. It’s been quite distressing as he is like Jekyll and Hyde. Ok and sweet 98% of the time and then suddenly capable of up to level 3/4 bites on us, his family. It’s a good thing that he is very small (10lb) so the damage is minimal. He only misbehaves inside the house though and not outside. Anyway, we have been told to radically change our relationship with him as follows.. (1.) Attention - Only give attention when we initiate it and only when he does something we ask him to do. Also, give attention only when he does something good; (2) Resources (food, toys) - Once his bowl is on the floor, we can’t add anything else to the food even if he does not eat. Bring out his toys only when we are going to play with him. We start the game and we end it; and (3) Resting areas/space – He can’t anymore just sleep anywhere he wants in our bedroom. We are putting a small pen in our bedroom where he will sleep. Roaming around the house will be restricted and we will also keep him on leash all the time when he's with us. He will have another (bigger) pen in the living room where he can stay when not supervised. I wanted to ask your advice on how to best implement the third item above. (1) What do we do if he refuses to go inside his sleeping pen in the bedroom or resting pen in the living room? (2) When waking in the morning, should I have an activity with him first before putting him in his resting pen in the living room (since he had just spent so much time his sleeping pen)? Or should I just keep him in the yard until breakfast is over (he's not allowed to stay beside the dining table anymore)? (3) When not in his pens but on leash inside the house, can he basically be allowed to roam so long as he is behaving properly? We are planning to just let the leash dangle and not keep it tied to us. If he does something improper, how do we use the leash? Just give it a tug to let him know he is doing something wrong? Thanks a lot for your inputs!

Thanks a lot for taking the time to provide such a detailed reply, I really appreciate it!

Hi Adrienne, thanks a lot for replying. First of all, the problem is much more pronounced at night. While it also manifests during daytime, it is much milder and manageable then. We don't have any problems when he is fully alert and actively interacting with all of us. The problem usually occurs after he "settles down" for some time beside a family member (ex. he lies down at my daughter's feet or under the chair that my wife is sitting on, etc.). Once he settles down for some time in that position, he sometimes reacts if any one of us (even another family member) approaches him and the family member he is with at that time. Its like he turns into a guard dog for that person (even against other family members). So we always try to make sure we telegraph and/or announce our approach and that usually minimizes any negative reaction from him (interestingly, he also sometimes reacts if the family member he is with makes sudden movements and so whoever is with him when he is in that state also tries to make his/her movements gentle/slow). When he does react aggressively, it seem as if he momentarily forgets that he knows the other family member that approached. So what we do is to talk gently to him/move slowly after which he usually calms down. However, as I mentioned at the start, the problem is more severe at night. There was a time when my daughter slept in our room in a sleeping bag for a few days and he slept beside her. He would get up and growl even at me when I passed close at to them. Maybe its a combination of protective behavior and disorientation when he is drowsy. I tried an Adaptil collar on him but it didn't really make any difference. Not sure what else to do to change his behavior. He is really a sweet dog although he does seem to have an anxious personality and maybe that is also a factor. He generally does not like loud noises and gets easily triggered by them. He does bark at strangers, the mailman, other passing dogs, etc. but only when he is at home and he sees them outside (he is meek when walking outside with a leash). Thanks a lot for trying to help!

I have a 3.5-year-old male toy poodle who is very sweet 90% of the time. However, we have problems with him when he sometimes becomes overly possessive with family members. For example, when I am asleep at our bedroom (and he is also lying down beside the bed) and a family member enters the room, he comes out and displays aggressive behavior. The severity varies and we can usually calm him down quickly (or he snaps out of it on his own when he realizes who it is). We also try to "announce" entry into the room by making noises before going in. However, there are times it is more difficult to handle like when he is also half-asleep and gets startled (especially at night). To a lesser degree, he also displays the same behavior regardless of family member in other situations. For example, when my wife is on the computer and he is lying down underneath her chair and someone approaches or when he is lying down in the sofa with my son or daughter and someone approaches. In general, he is also easily triggered by noise or sudden movement. He had undergone some basic dog training and knows how to sit, etc. We were thinking of neutering him but it seems that recent studies suggest that this might even make the problem worse. Not sure what to else to do.