[Nicole_R9152]

Hello! I have an adorable 9 week old golden who we brought home a week ago. I have a 6 year old extremely lazy/submissive Velcro golden who has shown absolutely zero interest in him and is still pretending like he doesn’t exist. I immediately noticed the new puppy is very vocal and barks pretty much anytime he isn’t getting attention from us or our older golden. Also growls and barks at himself in the mirror which we thought was funny at first. My parents have the puppies half brother who is about 14 weeks old. We visited them this weekend and introduced them and they got along great and played non stop. The only thing I noticed was that after a while of playing my puppy started to growl, and would bite the 14 week old if he would try and take his toy or play too hard. At one point he even growled at me for trying to pick up the toy he was playing with. (And im not taking about a cute little puppy growl, he sounded pretty mad/scary)..Anytime we tried to give them time to rest by distancing them for a little bit, he kept squirming to go back and play. Even when it was time to go in his crate after playing (and using the bathroom etc..), he would bark constantly and not settle down. Since the day I brought him home I’ve been working on preventing food aggression with him by petting him while eating and he’s been fine until after this week being around his sibling he started to growl at me when I would pet him while eating. When he’s alone or just with our 6 year old dog he does not act this way. I’ve never had two puppies play together so I’m wondering if this sounds like normal behavior for a puppy so young. If not, what should I do to prevent worsening of this in the future? Thanks! Here’s some pictures of them!

 

[CAROLINA MOM]

Your pup is really cute!
From what you've said, it sounds like it's most likely normal puppy play.

Have you tried hand feeding your pup some of the food?

 

[gdgli]

You have a very cute puppy!

You have a normal puppy. FWIW I do not do what you are doing while feeding. I am no expert but I leave my dogs alone when they are eating. And I do not feed them when there are other people around, especially kids.

 

[Nicole_R9152]

Thanks! After reading a ton of these threads It seems the hand feeding method shows great results, we’re going to try it out and see how he does with that!

 

[nolefan]

I'm another who leaves my dogs alone to eat. We do use mealtime to train some things, you can handfeed kibble as rewards also. I will say that if I had a puppy doing a lot of growling that was clearly not play, I would be researching obedience classes at an AKC obedience club or dog training club or have a private trainer come to the house for a few private lessons to get us in the swing of things. Structure and consistent rules are good for all dogs but they are especially good for individual dogs who are worried about their place in the pecking order enough to growl over things. It's definitely not too soon to be working with him on leash. kikopup on youtube has some great videos to get you started and dogstar daily does as well. You might also enjoy a public facebook group called "Life With Rune" that is hosted by a very experienced Golden trainer. She has videos organized by age of everything she's done with her current Golden puppy to train him for therapy dog work and socialize, work on skills etc. and it's very well done. Plus she's a really great human and does a lot of great stuff.

 

[rosegold]

Couple things you might try-
Hand feeding
Walking by bowl when puppy is eating to toss in a higher value treat than kibble (puppy associates you coming near bowl with good things)
Trading toys for treats (“trade” command)
No toys available during dog/puppy playtimes to avoid possessiveness issues

The book Mine! by Jean Donaldson is good.

He is just a really cute puppy.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[ceegee]

I agree with the others - hand feed your pup, or leave him alone while he's eating. And start formal training.

Also: your pup isn't aggressive. He's being a pup. Within a litter, pups can have very different personalities, ranging from laid-back or nervous to independent or assertive. It's why good breeders tend to choose the puppy for the family, rather than letting the family make the pick themselves, to ensure that the pup and the family are a good match. It sounds as if your puppy might be towards the more assertive end of the scale. Assertive pups make amazing companions, but they need more human input to get there than, say, a more laid-back pup who doesn't challenge the rules. You just have to be consistent. Formal training at a good obedience school will certainly help by showing you how to set up a good system at home where you're in charge, not the pup. It's not hard to do once you know how.

And he's very cute.

 

[3goldens2keep]

I agree with most above, like people, all pups have different personalities. Your pup sounds like he is outgoing and wants to be the boss! That is a good thing in a dog, IF you train him well. He will be fearless, full of fun, and a hard worker...playing or training. Get into a puppy obedience class or have a training do one at home with you and your dog. This will not only help your dog it will begin to teach you how to train your puppy...without training, he could become a problem if not trained.

 

[BrittMN]

First thing I want to say - your pup is adorable! The pics you posted are great... I love the third.
I'm no expert at dog behavior, but what you describe sounds much like how my pup interacted with her sister at that age. They would play wildly as long as they could last, and it wasn't long before they established a pecking order - my puppy's sister growled when she wanted to be left alone. We always feed our dogs separately to avoid any drama at mealtimes.