[Desiree3886]

I have a 10 year old boxer/american bulldog mix named Lola. She has hyperthyroidism, arthritis and she's lost some of her eyesight. My boyfriend has a 3 year old nova scotia duck tolling retriever named Emily. Lola has started 3 or 4 fights over toys/playtime. Yesterday Emily chased after a ball and Lola got to it first and Emily got mad and growled and nipped Lola in the butt. Lola dropped the ball and attacked Emily. We broke up the fight as soon as possible. Emily did not have any wounds but she has a luxating patella and it popped out and would not go back in so we took her to the vet and she popped it back in and gave her pain meds. This is the first time a fight has ended up in a vet visit.
We have had months in between fights. We have a baby due in 3 months and we are very concerned that he will have a ball/toy in his hand and Lola will get aggressive with him. Is this something we can train away or could this be a medication problem? Lola has way more energy since she's been on thyroid and pain medicine. We've had her thyroid levels checked and we were told they are in normal levels. We take them for regular walks and play in the yard often. We'd really like to find a solution so we don't need to rehome Lola. Do you have any training success stories about having a similar problem with a dog? We're getting training estimates of at least $2,000.

 

[JoanneF]

I don't have experience of children, but it sounds like the sort of thing that could be managed although you might need to be really self disciplined, making sure Lola and Emily never have to.compete for toys either with each other, or with your child.

Realistically it's going to be some months until your baby will be playing with toys - you can use that time working out where to put baby gates and so on to keep your little one safe.

Also, have a look at our resource guarding files to see if anything there is helpful, and do come back with questions if you have any.

Resource Guarding, causes, prevention and modification

What is resource guarding? Resource guarding (RG) is when a dog has possession of an object that HE thinks is valuable, and is growling/snapping/biting in an effort to protect/keep that object. The object may be something we deem silly, for example, a piece of kleenex is a common object dogs...

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