whats going on?

bunny&spoon

Hi Guys,

Hoping someone on here can advise me on my dogs behaviour.

Myself and the OH have 2 intact males dogs, a westie cross and a gordon/english setter mix. The setter is the one i need advice on. Bailey is nearly 2 and a half years old.

My OH was out walking the two boys last week as usual and they were walking off leash around our regular walking route. He met a fella and his 2 dogs (1 male 1 female), now we meet this man and his dogs at least 2-3 times a week so our two knows his two fairly well and have never had any problems. we have been meeting this man for the last 3-4 months without problems, all 4 of the dogs are always off the leash. they did love messing around together until recently.

Upon meeting them, the OH stopped for a chat and bailey and his male went off for a play together. Bailey went for a sniff of a patch of grass and the male dog came over to have a sniff too. Next minute bailey was snapping at the other dog and was been very defensive over this patch of grass. they were best friends before this! I assumed that maybe a bitch in heat had left her scent behind or something and he was "guarding" the scent as he's never reacted like this before.

Then today, we were both out walking the boys and we met the same fella and his two again. Bailey again was off leash and was in the middle of the field happily chewing on his squeaky ball and the other two came trotting over to say hello. no problems at all, had a run around together, happy as larry. all 3 of them came over to us humans as we were chatting (our westie x stayed with us)
bailey ran up to the OH, got patted, again happy enough.
his male came up to my OH and bailey started snapping again and kind of throwing his weight at the dog. Not attacking, more of trying to warn him to get away if that makes sense. immediately back on the leash again, still grumbling.

These are the only times he has ever behaved like this and as i said he always loved playing with them before. i know this is cliche but its so out of character for him.

Can anyone advise on what could be happening here? Unfortunately we are both unemployed at the minute so cant afford a behavourist, considering the snip for him now since these incidents. does anyone think this would help? ive heard of dogs getting more aggressive after neutering, and i dont want to make the problem worse but We definitely want to get this sorted now before it gets worse.

Could it be bailey is getting possessive/over protective of my OH? He used to work nights but now is at home all the time and spends most of his time with him. when he leaves the house, the two of them will whine and cry and run back and forth between the door and window looking out for him, whereas when i leave they'll watch me leave, moan for a few mintues and thats it. they'll even wait outside the bathroom door for him....

Sorry for such a long post, thanks for taking the time to read it and any advice is greatly appreciated!

planetX

Hi, your post struck a chord with me as my dog has just started similar behaviour. He's always been super-friendly with other dogs, but has had a couple of snappy incidents lately involving food and ownership of me. It's resource guarding, and if you google it you'll find lots of info - have to sift through to find the positive reinforcement methods though.
My dog is neutered btw, so it's not necessarily related to your dog being intact.

bunny&spoon

Thanks for that planetx.
Shall google that now.
Is it unusual for his snappiness to be with just one dog? 5 mins after the snapping incidents we met someone else and he was total normal, playing away with them.