Dog Barking

GraceC92

Hey guys,

So I adopted a puppy from the <snip> when he was 12 weeks old. He had been found in Dublin Port about to be shipped over to England. He is a Golden Retriever X Collie. He is a great dog but recently he has been acting aggressively towards my teenage brother. My brother is 17 and they have a great relationship usually but lately he has every so often been barking at him for no reason and snarling as if he could bite him. He doesn't act like this towards anyone else and I was just wondering if anybody had an idea of why he could be acting like this? He is nearly 8 months old and has just been neutered but he was acting like this about a month before he got neutered and has done it twice since then. I know that it makes my brother nervous and I wouldn't want the dog to do something which could have negative consequences for both of them. Thanks for your help!

DBB

I'll cut to the chase op... You need to get a knowledgeable pair of eyes to visit you and see what's going on. There could be all sorts of reasons why the pup is uncomfortable around your brother, and I don't think it's safe to take advice on what it could be, nor how to deal with it, from an Internet forum... Forums have their place and can be tremendously helpful, but they have limitations and I feel your problem falls into this category.
Are you in Dublin? We may be able to recommend a good, qualified behaviourist that can go and assess the situation for you.

GraceC92

Hi DBB, that does sound like the best idea and I would honestly be open to anything. I'm in North Dublin so any recommendations would be brilliant! Thanks for the reply.

DBB

Hi,
There are a couple of really good certified trainers/behaviourists in North Dublin... Ciara D'Arcy runs The Dog Den in Raheny, https://thedogden.ie.
There's also Karen Kelly in Swords... You'll find her contact details (and Ciara's!) if you scroll through this link.. http://apdt.ie/index.php/find-a-trainer/dublin/
Definitely worth getting this assessed op, sooner rather than later. The very best of luck!

GraceC92

That's brilliant, thanks so much for all of your help!

Karma2017

GraceC92 wrote:

So I adopted a puppy from the when he was 12 weeks old. He had been found in Dublin Port about to be shipped over to England. He is a Golden Retriever X Collie. He is a great dog but recently he has been acting aggressively towards my teenage brother. My brother is 17 and they have a great relationship usually but lately he has every so often been barking at him for no reason and snarling as if he could bite him. He doesn't act like this towards anyone else and I was just wondering if anybody had an idea of why he could be acting like this? He is nearly 8 months old and has just been neutered but he was acting like this about a month before he got neutered and has done it twice since then. I know that it makes my brother nervous and I wouldn't want the dog to do something which could have negative consequences for both of them. Thanks for your help!

OP, I have a pup around the same age as yours. I ran into a similar problem in that my guy would bark aggressively when someone reached down to pet him. I have him since he was 8 weeks old and he only started doing it when he was 8 months old. It happened mostly walking around town. I suppose he was just scared.

A few months ago I toke him to some puppy classes held locally. It helped but he has matured so much in the meantime and that has made a big difference.

Did you go to the behaviourist in the end? How did it work out? Never been to one before so really curious in how you got on and did it fix the problem.