Jan
21
Why is my dog aggressive towards me and not my husband?
By adminWe got our beagle mix/mutt from an animal shelter a couple months ago and she has been sweet and loving, but she recently started showing aggression towards me. She NEVER used to bark (not even at other dogs or anything) and all of a sudden she started barking at me and growling. My husband doesn’t really show her much attention, while I play with her and walk her. One night I was sitting on the couch with him and she just started barking at me. She always jumps on me too but never jumps on him.
Categories : Dog Medical Questions
5 Comments
January 21st, 2010 at 10:12 pm
She either thinks she is the boss of you or has a unstable temperament.
Most likely the first one. Try some training classes and looking up “no free lunch” training methods.
January 21st, 2010 at 11:08 pm
thats very odd especially a beagle, the dog may be upset with you or maybe trying to be dominate with you. If you raise your voice at the dog or even someone in the house it could cause the dog to start not trusting you. Emotional changes are very common with shelter dogs they are trying to find their place.
January 21st, 2010 at 11:22 pm
Bitches seem to prefer the male members of a household and males the female, no idea why, perhaps the dog sees your husband as the alpha male of the house and is one of those dogs that only has one owner, she may be jealous of your relationship with your husband.
Looking into training would be the solution, I cannot see why this attitude would suddenly have started though.
January 22nd, 2010 at 12:16 am
Sounds like the honeymoon is over, and it’s time for some training. It may be the case that she wants to establish herself as the dominant female in your household. Enroll her in a good training class – check to see if the shelter from which you adopted her offers a reduced fee for training classes there or elsewhere. Ours did. Dogs really enjoy training and it also offers a great bonding experience for you and her. And, kudos to you for rescuing a shelter dog! You rock!
January 22nd, 2010 at 1:07 am
Is she eating well and getting plenty of water? She could not be feeling well to just start this sort of behavior out of the blue.
A dog should never growl at it owner especially when you are the main person that cares for her. This is the puzzling part of this.
I would think about having your vet check her out and make sure she is alright before I did anything.
If she checks out OK at the vet I would definitely enroll her in an training class and see how she does.
The trainers can hear your story and be of great help to you and your dog…plus it so much fun.
It would be great to know how old she is and how long she was in the shelter for. How many owners? There are so many questions I have…
Best wishes…
DP