Aggressive Puppy
Background on my guy Mac -
He was found wandering the streets alone at 7 weeks old by a colleague’s daughter. I adopted him when he was 8 weeks old. He is about 6.5 months old now. Until a month ago, we really had no problems at all. He is a quick learner, house trained, knows several commands, love to play fetch, tug, and go on hikes. He was, and still is, great with other dogs and people, except for me and his dog sitter (my colleague’s daughter).
A month ago he started displaying what I thought was resource guarding around his x-pen. He would growl, snarl, and snap at me when I got close. Two weeks ago, after I grabbed something in that general area while he was outside of the pen, he freaked out and bit me. I had one tooth puncture and bruising.
Since that time, the resource guarding/aggression has gotten worse. He has snarled, growled, lunged with bare teeth when I try to pick up his poop, untie him from his tether, and put him in his sleeping crate. Monday night, he was on the opposite side of the couch from me. I got up to make some dinner and he freaked out, snarling, growling, baring teeth. I have started to live in fear of the dog. A few hours ago, around 1:30 am he started crying in his crate so I let him out to go potty. He also drank some water and ate some of his dinner he didn’t finish. While he was eating, I went to sit far away from him and didn’t look at him but could see from my peripheral vision he looked tense and kept looking at me. When he was done eating, he came over and put his head on my legs so I pet him. He eventually laid down next to me, chewing on a toy. I wanted to get up to lead us back to the bed and immediately his body language changed. He was giving me whale eyes and growling. I very slowly tried to back away from him without making eye contact. He started snarling and eventually lunged at me. I had to grab him by his scruff to keep him as far away from my body as possible but he still made contact with my other hand which has torn skin, bleeding, and bruising. I’m devastated and am not sure how to move forward.
I asked his sitter if he’s ever been aggressive with her, and she said he’s growled and nipped at her over a bone.
We had a pre scheduled vet for Thursday but I’m hoping they can see us as an emergency tomorrow.
I called some behavioral vets on Monday and have either gotten no reply or been told they are booking three months out.
He is so young to be acting like this, in my opinion. He lives a good life in my house and I would do anything to make sure he is comfortable and happy. It just seems like this has escalated quickly and without triggers. I’m scared that because he’s young and has already bit me pretty severely twice that this may not be a solvable issue. If you’ve ever dealt with this behavior in a puppy, I’d appreciate your insight.