# Multi personality



## Lola'sGrammy (Mar 1, 2015)

Lola is rapidly approaching 5 months now. She sits, lays, rolls over and shakes ( paws) she also does hi 5's. I can't remember the last accident indoors as she seemed to master that so very quickly. Now on a walk we don't use a lead and she always comes back. Sounds perfect doesn't it? But 
Noooo! 
We understand her protective behaviour over her chews, toys etc... That's fair enough, however when it comes to bedtime we have started having a problem. She has always gone to bed no problem, we lift her up if she's with us and put her on her bed fine. The last few weeks when we go to take her to bed, she snarls and literally goes mad at us, really aggressive and totally out of character! We haven't changed routine at all but it's getting a little out do hand now as none of us want to do it! 
Once she's on her area it's not a problem ,
No crying or anything... 


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## 2ndhandgal (Aug 29, 2011)

It sounds like she is showing guarding of her toys and chews and this has now spread to spaces? How are you dealing with the guarding of toys and chews?

Resource guarding is generally down to wanting to protect something they have - so it sounds like she is comfy sleeping somewhere in the evening and you are picking her up and shifting her to somewhere else and she is objecting. The easiest way to address is to treat it a different way, mine go out for last wee's before bedtime so however comfy they are on chairs or whatever they get off for a last mooch in the garden, if Molly (my resource guarder) did not want to move I would generally call her to come for a treat (or just give Chance one - jealousy is a wonderful thing sometimes ) rather than lifting her. I might think about keeping a lead on her in the evenings so I can ask her to move and if she does not want to, use the lead to encourage her (not drag - just encourage)


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## Lola'sGrammy (Mar 1, 2015)

Tried that already 
Last night came in after wee but refused to come to her sleeping place! It's only certain chews she guards and I wouldn't want anyone stealing my stuff either 
Just frustrating as this was never an issue 



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## 2ndhandgal (Aug 29, 2011)

Where does she want to sleep and where do you want her to sleep?


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## Lola'sGrammy (Mar 1, 2015)

She has always slept in the same place never been a problem she sleeps in the lounge when we are there but always have the same routine at bedtime ... Once she's in her area it's fine it's just getting her there ! 


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## 2ndhandgal (Aug 29, 2011)

So is it a crate? Or another bit of the house?


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## Lola'sGrammy (Mar 1, 2015)

A bed in the hallway 


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## 2ndhandgal (Aug 29, 2011)

If she went out for her wee I am not totally sure where she is objecting - can you take her there on a lead after last wee's?

Otherwise can you explain exactly what you and she are doing as I am struggling to picture where it goes wrong? My pair also have a bed time biscuit - means they race to get to bed before me generally


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## Lola'sGrammy (Mar 1, 2015)

We haven't changed her routine from day one
She wants to stay in the lounge, she never has she's always gone to hallway to bed
But nowadays she just doesn't want to! She gets snarly 


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## Sassy (Mar 20, 2015)

Can you just let her find her own bed? Is the problem that she doesn't want to be moved? You know, she's all warm and cozy and now you move her. Can you just let her be?


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## Lola'sGrammy (Mar 1, 2015)

She knows where her bed is, no we don't want her sleeping in the lounge ...


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## Marzi (Sep 17, 2012)

Poor old Lola, life is hard!She is growing up - her big back molars are probably on the move, her hormones may be beginning to flood her system - sometime in the next couple of months she will have her first season...
If I was you I would do all that you can do to avoid conflict at bedtime. She is still growing - growing puppies like growing children need their sleep and it is precious to them (have you ever had to evict a teenage boy from his duvet against his will?!!) 
If necessary change the routine a little. My dogs go out for their last wee at 10:30pm (ish) after that if I don't want them in the lounge or bedroom I would just have that door shut.
Kiki sometimes needs a treat to persuade her to leave the comfort of the sofa for the cold dark outside toilet trip. Once she comes back in - she goes to her bed. If the living room door is open - she will go straight back on the sofa :0 To be honest I don't care, but when they were younger I was much stricter about where they slept.
Dot likes to sleep on our bed the OH prefers that she does not, she has learnt to sneak in if he is still busy downstairs, but when she hears him coming up she hops off and dashes past him on the stairs en route to her bed!
They are not stupid little dogs, if you are kind and consistent you will both be happy. If you make it a confrontation point she may be snarly with you - because she feels frightened and threatened. So use a treat to lure her out and then shut the door and you can all go to bed.


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## Lola'sGrammy (Mar 1, 2015)

Thank you marzi... Yes she has lost a few teeth in the last few days! We've sort of sorted the bed thing by putting her in the hall when she's been out for her wee, despite us still being up, however it's the snarling thing with not just our clothes and obviously her treats , last night she managed to grab the kitchen roll, started ripping it up, I literally walked towards her and she started snarling and growling, by the time I'd bent down to get it, she was doing both plus barking and trying to bite me!!! 
I did distract her but it's getting too often now .. I know she is testing us and finding out her boundaries but I kinda liked her when she wasn't x 


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## Marzi (Sep 17, 2012)

Keep breathing - puppies and children all have to learn how to be nice and the lesson is learnt much better if the example they are given is always of niceness.
2nd has posted so much brilliant stuff about resource guarding, it is not something I have had with any of my dogs... but what she says with her experiences with little Molly is all brilliant.
If Lola gets hold of something you would rather she didn't have always offer her something better, or choose to totally ignore her. You do not want guarding behaviour to escalate. Do not take things away from her in a challenging or threatening way - remembering to a dog just the act of taking something away will be perceived as challenging and threatening. If she is possessive of chews or toys I personally would put those toys and chews away for the time being - maybe giving them to her when you are going out and she will be on her own or give them to her outside or when she is in a different room.
This is a stage. Effort and calmness now will be worth it in the long run, if you don't put the effort in now potentially it could get worse.


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## Lola'sGrammy (Mar 1, 2015)

We've def started bargaining with her lol, sometimes though if she has, in particular, a dentistix ( favourite) we only need to walk by and she starts it , sometimes it can be as far as 6ft away ... I've started laughing at her now and telling her I don't want it .... She still does it with me but not as bad as everyone else 
The best thing is last night with the kitchen roll her aggressiveness went from rabid dog to perfectly poised sit and shake mode the second she knew I had a treat waiting 
Little monkey! ️


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## Lola'sGrammy (Mar 1, 2015)

Oh and not toys or chews or even her food bowl 
Just dentistix and maybe the odd sock or two 


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## Marzi (Sep 17, 2012)

Lola'sGrammy said:


> The best thing is last night with the kitchen roll her aggressiveness went from rabid dog to perfectly poised sit and shake mode the second she knew I had a treat waiting
> Little monkey! ️
> 
> 
> Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


It sounds as if Lola is doing a great job of training you


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## Lola'sGrammy (Mar 1, 2015)

I'm a fab learner!!! 
Good job she's so cute 99% of the time!! 



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## alfiemorton (Mar 28, 2015)

Hi Zoe,
We've had the same with Alfie, and he's the same age. We've had issues with inadvertently getting too close to Alfie when he's eating, and have had fearsome growling. It really shook me up. I've learned to leave him be in the kitchen when he eats, which hopefully will give him the message that no one's interested in his food. We have the night time reluctance, like you mention, when the word bedtime is uttered. Alfie sleeps in the kitchen, without a murmur. It's just been getting him there. Like you, I used to just pick him up, take him outside, then give him a cuddle and close the kitchen door for the night. About a month ago, he started to object and would growl and try to bite if I tried to lift him. I have dealt with this by rattling the treat tin from the kitchen and out he trots. Problem seemingly sorted out. I hope! Maybe it's a developmental stage? Christine


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## Lola'sGrammy (Mar 1, 2015)

Thanks for that, it's not the food 
We can move her bowl from her whenever, it's literally a dentistix or for example a sock!!! 
We've sorted bedtime now by closing the stairgate before she gets comfy so thankfully that's out of the way... 
Hope all goes well with Alfie now though ... It has to be an age thing??? That's what I'm telling myself ️x 


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## 2ndhandgal (Aug 29, 2011)

Dogs have lots of subtle signs they show of not liking your behaviour long before they get to the stage of being snarly and grumbly, things like freezing, lip licking, turning their head away and showing the whites of their eyes. All signs that dogs read and we humans don't and go blundering in so the dog has to up its warning level to one we can hear.

With anything like that you need to build the dogs confidence levels, just because you can remove a food bowl without the dog grumbling does not mean it is happy about it and in fact it is almost certainly not. This then leads to problems when the dog has higher value items and is worried they are going to be taken from them. 

Much better to build confidence all round, food bowls will never be removed, but I might walk past and drop some extra tasty stuff in now and then, when I first got Molly she resource guarded lots of stuff - she did not grumble at me near her food bowl, but she did freeze and tense. She now looks up to see if I have something tasty for her if I wander close while she is eating. That better level of trust means if I did need to remove it for some reason (like the day I gave each dog the wrong food) she is not remotely worried.

The same with socks and other items, they are worried we are going to steal their prized possession and grumble - we see this as wrong and get aggressive and tense, so they get even more worried and growly. Teach swaps with low value items to start with. I can't see why you would ever want to remove something like a dentastick from a dog once given so build their confidence with that and give them an extra treat while they still have it so they start to welcome your approach.


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## Lola'sGrammy (Mar 1, 2015)

I think you've actually taken that wrong! We don't remove her bowl, yes we tried recently to see her reaction but it stays exactly where it is and secondly re the dentistix 
I never ever said we've taken one away?!! That's just plain cruel, I said that we only need to walk past her when she has one and she's aggressive 
We do swaps already 
I feel a little attacked here instead of advised 
We don't get aggressive and tense over socks either... I've stated its literally being anywhere near her, even getting off the sofa when she has something on the floor... 


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## Lola'sGrammy (Mar 1, 2015)

I can also state she has never once frozen, licked her lips etc as described it happened literally after her first groom 
Never before any of those " subtle signs" 


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## alfiemorton (Mar 28, 2015)

Hi Zoe,
Thanks for your good wishes re Alfie. I'm sure we'll both be fine with our pups. It sounds like we've both had similar experiences, whether with a food bowl or a sock! I've certainly not intentionally invaded Alfie's space, as i'm sure you haven't, but I suppose, like others on here are saying, I may have missed some subtle signs that he was giving out. As a first time dog owner it's difficult to recognise these, I guess. They must have been very subtle though! And it is a very steep learning curve having a puppy in the house. Good luck! Christine x


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## Lola'sGrammy (Mar 1, 2015)

Hi Christine!! Indeed it is , however rather a puppy than another baby! Haha! 
Good luck to you also x 


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## 2ndhandgal (Aug 29, 2011)

Sorry you feel attacked - that was never my intention and the signs I mentioned will be there, subtle but they are there although the vast majority of us miss them most of the time. 

Certainly a bad grooming experience will have shattered her faith in people somewhat and may have led to her feeling the need to guard things she values. You now need to build that confidence and build her trust that you are not going to take things away. 

Swap is good - but for a dog who is guarding is often far too confrontational - I prefer to distract and get things back the majority of the time.


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## alfiemorton (Mar 28, 2015)

Definitely!


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