Our male puppy who was 13 weeks old when we got him first showed signs of resource guarding when we tried to take a bully stick from him. Growling, snarling lunging the whole nine yards. We were shocked to see a puppy do this but read it does happen. We started doing resource guarding training (trade for higher item, hand feed, leave him alone sometimes when he's eating etc...) He's gotten really good about resource guarding. One thing that is really troubling us is he will randomly growl at our kids when they come by. Its really random and they are super sweet to him. Always petting him and giving him treats. They even feed him and he listens to them. We have had an issue with a dog biting a family member in the past...so we are worried as he gets older and bigger this might be something worse. Any advice...has anyone seen this with their puppy and trained them out of growling at their kids? He isn't even resource guarding when he growls just really random and then sometimes when they pet him he just stares at them. Doesn't do that with adults.

I was moving an old trophy mount my dad had and Albus got curious

I got Turbo four weeks ago from a rescue, he was surrendered by his owner of 5 years to a golden rescue in AZ.

He had aggression to the kennel staff that he was left at so they medicated him heavily. He also had overgrown black gums cause he hadn’t been to vet in years.

They put him on this, he is still on all of these unless otherwise noted.
Gabapentin 600 2x day
Trazodone 200mg 2x a day
Carprofen 75mg 2x a day
Zoloft 25mg 2x a day (no longer on this)
Antibiotic 2x a day

The rescue said he had great kennel stress and thought he’d be better with me.

He had surgery scheduled for his gums and neuter (same time) in 2 weeks.

In the weeks leading up he was mostly loving, loyal and social but had several scary moments.
Tried to bite me when I tried to clean his paws.
Probably 7-8 stiff body low growl moments all various reasons usually something similar to being touched when he didn’t want to be but it coming out of nowhere.

Overall things seemed to be getting better until surgery. The cone has been a sensory nightmare for him.

Since surgery he’s had more escalated incidents :
Cornering me in bathroom showing teeth , growling and barking cause I pet his back even tho he followed me in there.
Barking, growling at my girlfriend
Showing teeth and barking at me for telling him not to try to lick incision
Trying to bite me when I tried to adjust his cone.

We took him to ER vet to sedate him so we could swap to a soft cone (the donuts didn’t work for him). Soft cone has been much better but he’s still had some erratic moments. Vet noticed scrotum infection and he’s on a new antibiotic now.

I tell rescue I need a break and if there is another foster.

They put me in an insane situation saying I either keep him or they’re putting him down cause he’s too much of a liability. The vet is highly anxious and thinks he’s a danger. My girlfriend and I feel everyone is being too cut throat and impatient.

We feel the context matters greatly.
He’s had an insane amount of traumatic change in just 30 days.

They think it’s just his nature and he’s too risky.

I asked if there’s another rescue who will give him a chance and they said no.

I want to see behavioral specialist hopefully next week.

Cone comes off Tuesday then can start phasing out all the meds and start fluoxetine as daily med.

This has been so hard on me and I hate this life or death scenario and feels it’s unfair. It’s been absolutely exhausting and confusing.

I jsut feel like there’s far more aggressive dogs who still get a chance. He’s been in pain and uncomfortable since any of us met him. Granted the behavior still is scary and dangerous and everyone just wants us to be safe which I understand.

I would appreciate advice or hope. As it stands we are going to see how next week goes with no cone and he shouldn’t be in pain anymore then go from there.

Hi, was looking for some advice or even just to see if anyone else has experience this or something similar with their dog.

This is Larry, he's a 3 year old, in-tact male doofus.

We've had Larry since he was about 10 weeks old, and he's lived with myself, my wife and our two kids, in the same house since then. He's pretty much the perfect family dog.

Except for some resource guarding around food and stolen items when he was young (which we addressed and he got out of very quickly) we've had no behavioural issues at all with him.

However, he's recently started to act strangely towards me when I return home after being out of the house for a while (and once towards my 10 year old son when he came home alone) . When I come home he acts very wary of me, scared almost - staying away from me and barking from a distance and sometimes growling to leave him alone if I approach him (not stiff body or showing teeth - more of a leave me alone 'low grumble'). I just leave him alone, go upstairs and get changed and by the time I come back down 10 mins later he's absolutely fine and it's nothing happened.

It's very weird. Whats weirder is he absolutely love when we have visitors, gets super excited and wants all the fuss - even when they're complete strangers. On occasion we've even had tradesmen let themselves in the house when no one else is home and he's been fine and excited.

We're not quite sure why this might be happening, or the best way to address it.

EDIT- I just thought to add; it doesnt always happen, and it doesn't happen when we've been out as a family and all arrive home together. It also doesn't happen when I come down in the morning and he's been sleeping downstairs for 8 or so hours.

We recently said goodbye to the love of our life after a very quick moving illness. 6months ago we expected to be adding another pup to the family as a little brother for our sweet Golden. As soon as the illness appeared, we pumped the brakes on adding another.

Fast forward to now, we surprisingly find ourselves without a dog and it while I knew I would miss him as a family member, I’m missing all the dog things. No dog will ever be like him, but I’m finding the house so quiet (despite having young kids) with no dog around.

How soon is too soon to welcome another pal? Do you regret adding another dog “too soon”?

I brought this little girl home yesterday! About a week ago, I made a post here asking for reasons NOT to get a second dog, and well… that clearly didn’t work out haha.

They’re actually siblings same dad and mom. Roger is 2 years old, and his little sister Nina is just 3 months old.

Now it’s time to go through all the puppy stages all over again and enjoy this little ball of fluff while she’s still tiny!

I wanted to share a picture of my Golden Retriever, Spirit, who sadly passed away today.
Spirit wasn't just a dog, he was a fully trained guide dog who I was lucky enough to have come and live with me.
Over the last 13 years, he helped me through some incredibly tough times and brought so much love, comfort, and happiness into my family's life.
Thirteen years wasn't enough time. I wish we could have had many more together, but sadly he was ready to go, and the kindest thing we could do was let him rest.
I know some people don't like memorial posts on this sub, but Spirit deserves to be remembered. And for those of you lucky enough to have a Golden in your life, I know you'll understand just how much they become part of your family and how hard losing them is, or will one day be.
Thank you for everything, Spirit. You were the best boy, and I'll miss you every day.
Please give your dogs a big hug from me tonight.
❤️🐾

Not lifting her onto the observation table anymore 😆

This 3yo marshmallow has recently started going through random restless nights where he can't seem to settle down.

He's walking around, panting. He'll lay down for a few seconds, stop panting like he's hearing or smelling something, and get right back up. He'll ask for the door, only to spend 5 minutes sniffing around the yard.

He still inhales his breakfast and snoozes for the rest of the day. So he can clearly eat and sleep just fine.

It's been once every 2 or 3 weeks since the middle of summer.

Is that common with Golden retrievers?

Should I just put him in the crate (with a memory foam bed) when that happens, just to preserve my sanity?

Showing off her coat after some at home grooming yesterday! I have the most patient lovable girl ever!🥰 I take pride in maintaining her gorgeous coat, it’s the least I could do in return

She’s so serious

This is Mackenzie, we brought her home today. She’s from a wonderful breeder that we have had a dog from before.

We lost our girl Sophie at the end of July to Lymphoma. Turns out our breeder had just bred a female and was awaiting confirmation of pregnancy. We were given this little sweet girl to love. Our 10 year old male is curious about her and tolerates her but is definitely feeling jealous.

We are hoping he will open his heart and this little pup wants nothing more than to snuggle up next to him. We have an area for her to be away from our senior when she’s too active for him.

She’s very sweet but slow to warm up to new situations so socializing is imperative.