First time dog bite

Shaunoc

Yesterday, our 2+ year old Golden Retriever bit my girlfriends wrist.
The circumstances were unusual and it is his first time ever doing something like this apart from when he was a puppy in his nipping stage. We trained him out of that ok.

Yesterday, he found a nearly dead bird in the garden and brought it inside to his bed. The bird was beside him and not in his mouth and my partner went to pick it up and he bit her wrist (breaking the skin) without showing any signs before that of being aggressive (no growl).

I was not home at the time and after my GF looked after the bite and got over the shock and removed the then dead bird, she sent him to bed and showed him no attention for the whole evening. He had a guilty look on his face and still does.

Is there anything we can do now training wise in case of similar situations?
He is quite good at dropping his toys on command and generally his discipline is good (waiting for food, going to bed etc...)

Concerned parents

tk123

He's just resource guarding - it's common enough with retrievers - my older one guards but the younger one doesn't. Some good advise in this thread - http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=82049990

Irishchick

Shaunoc wrote: »

he bit her wrist (breaking the skin) without showing any signs before that of being aggressive (no growl).

He probably did show signs but your GF might not have picked up on them. Not all dogs will growl when guarding. I have a rescue dog who guards food and the only sign she shows is a lowering of the head and eyes looking back towards either ear. They were they only signs she showed before she would snap.

We are working on it though and slowly she's coming around but I still would never attempt to take food from her. I understand this situation was different though it was a half dead bird! I would recommend you read the thread in the above link too

Shaunoc

Thanks for the previous thread link - that is sound and good advice
He was a little snarly this evening with me over his tennis ball which is very unusual. I am being much stricter with him until he gets over this spell of petulance.

Maybe I'm being overly paranoid now, but he did have his first bit of raw food over the weekend.

For now he is back to his usual position, asleep at my feet

Thanks
Shaun

andreac

Has he been to the vet recently at all? Any out of character behaviours should really be looked at by the vet to rule out any medical issues first.

tk123

Shaunoc wrote: »

Maybe I'm being overly paranoid now, but he did have his first bit of raw food over the weekend.

Both my dogs are raw fed - it doesn't make them vicious or give them a taste for blood or anything like that. What's happened is that your dog got something really high value and didn't want to share it. You need to work on trading with him and showing him that you're not always going to take stuff off him. Ignoring him etc at this stage is a compete waste of time - he's no idea what he's done wrong and you could make matters worse - He'll be reacting to you being off with him. Try to work think of things that are the jackpot to him - e.g. for my guarder he'll always swap for a duck neck or a lidl dog sausage :rolleyes:

borderlinemeath

If you picked up something that was of very high value - ie a winning lottery ticket and somebody tried to take it off you - wouldn't you retaliate? It's a natural behaviour and there's no correlation with having raw meat - like TK123s, my pair are both raw fed and will give up anything for something better - mine will even drop a lovely meaty bone if you offer them a walk!

Being stricter with him will probably have the opposite effect with getting him to give something up, you're giving him a reason to hold on to it, he now thinks it's going to be taken away and he's also getting vibes that he's in trouble if you're using a stricter tone and withholding affection.

DBB

Ooooh OP! That's two out-of-character aggressive incidents your dog has had in 24 hours, for the first time in his 2+ years with you... is that a correct summary?
If so, I would consider it of paramount importance that you bring him to your vet for a thorough check-up, to include full blood panel (including thyroid), urinalysis, and a full root at his joints and spine.
It is very often the case that a sudden change in behaviour, such as this, is due to an underlying medical cause. There may not be anything obvious, in fact often there isn't, but dogs are designed to hide signs of illness until it gets pretty bad. Do not settle for the vet just poking at him and saying "he's fine".

Retrievers are definitely more prone to resource guarding, and a dead bird would be quite the prize for many dogs, and this incident on its own would have me thinking it was a bit of an isolated event. But your second incident today casts everything in a very different light. It's possible that his irritability levels are up because he's fighting an underlying medical problem.
Only when you know for sure that your dog is in full health can you embark on the behavioural treatment outlined in the linked thread with confidence that you're dealing with a behavioural issue, and not a medical one!

Shaunoc

thanks everyone, that's food for thought