If this would be better suited for the training forum, I apologize - please feel free to move it.
Here is my problem (it's long, I'm sorry!): I have an 8 month old female Papillon who I purchased from a reputable breeder. She's normally a very happy and friendly little dog, though I have had some issues with her in terms of food guarding. I have tried working with her on it, hand feeding and whatnot but it doesn't seem to have improved drastically. Aside from this, she has no problems with resource guarding of toys, treats, etc. It's also worth noting that although she was well socialized as a puppy, she is still somewhat timid with strangers. She will go up to people and wag and do a happy dance, but she does not let people touch her right away - it sometimes takes a few minutes for her to warm up. Part of this is just that she's very bouncy and doesn't stay still long enough, but that's only part of it.
In the past two weeks though, she hasn't been herself. She's begun snapping and biting at us. This happened once or twice to myself and my boyfriend - when she did it to him, he was picking her up, so he corrected her (gave her a firm no), but we kind of dismissed it because he thought he accidentally pinched her fur or something and she just reacted badly. When she did it to me, she was in her bed and I was moving her blanket - I also corrected her, but assumed it was because I had startled her or something.
This didn't happen again, until this past weekend, while we were visiting my parents. I'm not sure what happened, but she snapped/snarled a total of 4 times just this weekend, for different things - twice when my mom tried to put her in her crate at bedtime, once when she was napping on my bed with me and I petted her ear (I did this all the time when she was a puppy, it's not a new feel for her), and once when she was sitting on the ottoman and I tried to adjust the blanket she was on.
I'm extremely concerned about this, because for one, Papillons are NOT supposed to act like this. Nothing has happened to her to make her behave this way, it seems to have popped out of nowhere. This behavior needs to stop NOW, before it becomes a habit. Though she has bit us a couple times in these incidents, she does not do so hard enough to draw blood - I'm taking this as a good sign, as she really could do quite a bit of damage if she wanted to, but she does not.
Since this just came on suddenly, I have a vet appointment for her on Wednesday to rule out any health problems. I'm going to have them give her a once-over and also run some blood tests... but in the event that this is not a medical issue, what should I do? How do I handle this to curb this behavior before it becomes a serious issue and someone gets hurt? Since this just started in the last couple weeks, I do hope that it's not too late to reverse... I'm just so upset about this
Here is my problem (it's long, I'm sorry!): I have an 8 month old female Papillon who I purchased from a reputable breeder. She's normally a very happy and friendly little dog, though I have had some issues with her in terms of food guarding. I have tried working with her on it, hand feeding and whatnot but it doesn't seem to have improved drastically. Aside from this, she has no problems with resource guarding of toys, treats, etc. It's also worth noting that although she was well socialized as a puppy, she is still somewhat timid with strangers. She will go up to people and wag and do a happy dance, but she does not let people touch her right away - it sometimes takes a few minutes for her to warm up. Part of this is just that she's very bouncy and doesn't stay still long enough, but that's only part of it.
In the past two weeks though, she hasn't been herself. She's begun snapping and biting at us. This happened once or twice to myself and my boyfriend - when she did it to him, he was picking her up, so he corrected her (gave her a firm no), but we kind of dismissed it because he thought he accidentally pinched her fur or something and she just reacted badly. When she did it to me, she was in her bed and I was moving her blanket - I also corrected her, but assumed it was because I had startled her or something.
This didn't happen again, until this past weekend, while we were visiting my parents. I'm not sure what happened, but she snapped/snarled a total of 4 times just this weekend, for different things - twice when my mom tried to put her in her crate at bedtime, once when she was napping on my bed with me and I petted her ear (I did this all the time when she was a puppy, it's not a new feel for her), and once when she was sitting on the ottoman and I tried to adjust the blanket she was on.
I'm extremely concerned about this, because for one, Papillons are NOT supposed to act like this. Nothing has happened to her to make her behave this way, it seems to have popped out of nowhere. This behavior needs to stop NOW, before it becomes a habit. Though she has bit us a couple times in these incidents, she does not do so hard enough to draw blood - I'm taking this as a good sign, as she really could do quite a bit of damage if she wanted to, but she does not.
Since this just came on suddenly, I have a vet appointment for her on Wednesday to rule out any health problems. I'm going to have them give her a once-over and also run some blood tests... but in the event that this is not a medical issue, what should I do? How do I handle this to curb this behavior before it becomes a serious issue and someone gets hurt? Since this just started in the last couple weeks, I do hope that it's not too late to reverse... I'm just so upset about this