Agression In My Parent's Goldie...

[LuvGold00]

I currently still live at home with my parents. Before I got into breeding/showing Goldens (7 years ago), we as a family purchased a female Golden from a backyard breeder at work. Zena, is a great dog, smart has a whip! But, she has some serious dog aggression issues. She only gets long with ONE of my Goldies (Starr) and she has to be kept in our sun room, away from the rest of the gang and only gets to visit Starr outside for play. This really saddens me because I know she would have SO much fun running and playing with all my babies.

Zena, is from a litter of 12, in which the mother is dead, and 1/2 the litter is also. The other surviving 1/2 all have severe hip dysplasia (sp?) and seizures. Knock on wood, Zena has not shown symptoms of any heath problems yet, except hips. I have had Zena's hips x-rayed and evaluated by the Orthopedic Foundation for Animals and they confirmed that her hips are severe. She is on daily glucosamine and MSM.... and so far has not shown signs of severe hip dysplasia.

Agression is so strong in her lines, almost all her siblings are somewhat dog aggressive.(i know this because they were all sold to people in my town) Her brother recently attacked an 8 week old puppy, who was not introduced properly, and snapped his neck the day they brought him home. Sadly, her brother was put down the same day because they felt they could no longer trust him. This really upsets me because her poor brother had SO many problems, he was on thyroid meds along with tons of other aches and pains, and yet they brought a bouncing 8 week old puppy into the home and let it romp all over him.

Anyway, now that her brother has attacked and killed a young puppy it has really made me think. And I would love to hear some of your opinions on what you think I could possibly do to help Zena maybe ease her aggression.

Thanks-

[LorraineO]

Unfortunatly it sounds like the aggression is inbred in your baby as it is and was in his siblings.. Obviously a very poor breeder indeed,,,, I am sorry to hear of this... I suppose you could consult with an animal behaviourist.. but like I said,, it sounds like thats just the way he is and will always be...... I am no professional tho,, just going by what you have told us so far....

[BCBlondie]

Yikes.

It's sad how people think Goldens and Labs are all super sweet dogs and get along with everyone, and then you see all these dogs turning on you or other dogs. There was a 5mo purebred Lab puppy at our dog park once and he kept attacking the other dogs. I even had to pull her off another dog once because the owner was too far away to grab her when it happened.. And I remember this other time, a couple was leaving with their two black Labs, when one of them suddenly attacked a GSD/Rottie mix, and held on to the back of the dog's neck and wouldn't let go! Luckily, no dog ended up being hurt... But it makes me upset to see a breed that was once known for its great temperament go down the hill because of the problem of overbreeding and irresponsible breeding.

You said you purchased the dog from a BYB at work? Have you told the breeder about the litter's health and temperament problems? Are they still breeding dogs? You should complain to the breeder, and maybe even make the breeder help pay if your dog needs surgery for hip dysplasia or whatever... It is the breeder's responsibility and fault that the dogs ended up like that. If they had been more educated, and bred their dogs responsibly, your family dog probably wouldn't have ended up like that.

This is also the reason why I don't like people buying dogs from backyard breeders.. Then you end up with a dog with who knows how many problems and you have to deal with it. I've learned this too. Megan, my Pom (mix?), came from my aunt, who BYB her BYB girl dog to my grandma's petshop puppy. Now Megan has had two surgeries to removes stones from her bladder, and she has to be on a special diet for the rest of her life. The vet said it was probably due to bad genes. To tell you the truth, I didn't even want Megan and Monica in the beginning... I had been begging my parents for a Border Collie or Aussie, and then my aunt literally handed the two pups over to us without even my mom's say in it. However, my aunt was nice enough to actually donate $200 to help me pay off Megan's surgery.

Okay, so after having blabbed so much, I realized I haven't even answered your question...

Honestly, I don't really know how to help ease aggression. Monica is pretty aggressive towards dogs she doesn't know.. What I've been doing with her is taking her on walks, and just getting her used to seeing other dogs and correcting her if she starts barking and wanting to go after the dog. In your case, it's like a family matter... So, my advice - Maybe try to figure out what the source of the aggression is? What seems to trigger her being aggressive? And maybe go from there... Or does she just attack for no reason? Why does she get along with one dog and not the rest? Have you tried properly introducing her to your other dogs?
I think maybe consulting a behaviorist would be a good idea...

Good luck!

Edit:
After giving birth, Megan and Monica's mother also died...
I've been planning on taking Monica to the vet to make sure she doesn't have what Megan has...
*sighs*

[LuvGold00]

Originally posted by BCBlondie

You said you purchased the dog from a BYB at work? Have you told the breeder about the litter's health and temperament problems? Are they still breeding dogs? You should complain to the breeder, and maybe even make the breeder help pay if your dog needs surgery for hip dysplasia or whatever... It is the breeder's responsibility and fault that the dogs ended up like that. If they had been more educated, and bred their dogs responsibly, your family dog probably wouldn't have ended up like that.

Yes, my mother still works with this woman, and she knows about it. Zena is the reason I started to do all my research on Goldens and realized all the problems in this breed due to over breeding. The BYB is no longer breeding and her dogs are all fixed now.

Zena is a perfect example of uneducated breeders, and I wish my parents had done some research before we got her. But now that I breed Goldens myself, I have told Zena's breeder about all the clearances she failed to get and why there are so many problems with Zena's litter. Zena's mother was a petstore puppy, bred to another petstore puppy. And this BYB breeder kept 2 puppies from Zena's litter, one which has a hip replacement and the other that has seizures. It's just all very upsetting to me!

Thank you for your advice, we have never spoken to a specialist.... Might be a good idea, I just want Zena to be comfortable. I'm not sure why she doesn't like my other dogs... It's not fear, she is fine with them for a few minutes, then just attacks! I have tried introducing them on neutral ground and everything, same reaction! ?

[Kristl]

I'm really sorry the sweet girl had that problem! I honestly thought that goldens and labs were always sweet dogs...but my friend Lindsey had a black lab when she was growing up, and one day the dog just FREAKED OUT! It bit her head (she was about 6 or 7 at the time) and ripped her scalp back. She had to have something like 100+ stitches to fix her head. This is why she hates dogs now...she's just so terrified of them, especially black ones! And I saw labs not being so nice just last night with Bull and his sister Shadow. There was teeth baring, growling...basically a complete dog fight! Bull even made Shadow bleed! Thankfully they're only 7 weeks old, so I was able to yell and it scared them off each other! I just hope this doesn't continue on into their adult years. And we (me and the BF) got them from a BYB, well, actually a post office back parking lot breeder!