Our puppy is 14 weeks old, she’s a Shepard mix with what we think is golden retriever. I know the title indicates early signs of resource guarding, I’m more curious why this suddenly would happen.
Ever since we got her, she’s been a very calm dog, loves snuggling and rarely ever barks. We started taking away her food, putting our hands in her dish and even sometimes her mouth while she’s eating to prevent this. She’s never had a problem with this and just ignores us and waits for her food to come back.
Enter kitten who we recently got. The kitten and puppy love each other and are always playing. While the puppy eats, the kitten is always around her, often playing with her tail. Sometimes she has her nose in the dish out of curiosity but never eats her food. The Kitten usually drinks from her water bowl while the puppy eats. We are always there watching when the kitten is around the puppy while eating to make sure nothing happens.
After a couple of weeks, this morning we heard a bark for the first time, then a growl and then she lightly snapped at the kitten for being around. Given that it’s never been a problem before, why is it happening now? What can we do to prevent aggressive behaviour? Of course the kitten shouldn’t really be around the puppy while eating but we want the puppy to get used to company as it will be a child one day that. We will teach the child not to bother puppy while eating, but we still don’t want an aggressive dog where accidents could happen.
To add, in the moment when it happened, we immediately took her food away. Waited, gave it back to her then it happened again.
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