I've made other posts but this one is a cry for help. My family goldendoodle puppy is now almost 5 months old, and she has a very serious issue when it comes to what I think is resource guarding. When she gets items that shes not supposed to have, she becomes very defensive, growls and tries to run away. For some things I've been able to get her to drop them using liver treats and other high value items, but I've had a few very bad experiences so far that I will describe below. Other than this problem, shes actually a very good dog. She is sweet, listens to most commands, is learning to walk well and is just generally a good dog. But these experiences are making me scared of her.
The first happened at the vet when she was about 3 months old. She had grabbed a paper that fell onto the ground, and when my dad tried to take it out of her mouth she bit him and broke skin pretty badly. Other smaller instances happened between this but this one was the first major one where blood was involved.
The next was when she got an espresso mug off of the table when we weren't looking about 2 weeks ago. I tried to get her to drop it by using liver treats, but instead she growled, grabbed the treat with the broken mug shard in her mouth, and held on. I was forced to stick my hand in her mouth to take it out, and she gave me a very bad scrape on my knuckle.
Todays incident was the worst however. My mom accidentally dropped a bottle of eye drops and the dog grabbed it. Thinking I could get her to drop it with a very high value food, I grabbed some cooked chicken. It did nothing to get her to back down and drop it, and her growling turned into barking at my mom. At that point I realized she was keeping the bottle deep in her mouth, so I stuck my hand in to grab it. When I did, I got the bottle out but she wouldn't stop growling and biting on my hand until i got her to her crate. She broke skin in multiple places and I'm just very shaken by it all.
I am planning to call a trainer that specializes in this kind of behaviour this week. So I guess aside from sharing the story, can this behaviour truly be fixed? I've become wary around the dog and I'm constantly nervous when giving her anything. My family and I aren't new dog owners, we had another goldendoolde for 13 years and she was a very sweet dog, never doing anything like this.
I'm also wondering what might have caused her to develop this behaviour. My mom thinks she may have had to fight for her food with her siblings at the breeder we got her from.
I truly love this dog, but I'm just feeling really defeated right now.
submitted by /u/EpicDragonz4
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