Dog jealous over owner.

Dr. Marie replied:

Hi and thanks for your question.

These types of problems can be difficult to deal with. Sometimes it's hard to know why a dog is starting to get a little growly.

My first question for you is whether Keila is spayed. If not, then getting her spayed may help. This will reduce the hormones in her system and as we all know, hormones can cause grumpiness!

It sounds like she is jealous over you as she is growling when your boyfriend comes near or if the other dog wants to get near to you. This is kind of like how a dog can be jealous of having a bone and doesn't want anyone else near it.

This usually happens when a dog becomes totally dependent on one person. So, I would suggest that you do all you can to have your boyfriend interact with her. If you and your boyfriend live separately you could consider having her live with him for a couple of weeks. Similarly, have him do all of the feeding, petting, walking, etc. During this time period, as hard as it is, try to make sure that you are not paying much attention to her. The idea is to get her to realize that she can get affection from people other than you. Then, she may not be so jealous about sharing you with other people (and dogs).

If this is not working there are a number of other things you can do, but it would be too much detail for me to go into in this forum. It would be great if you could talk to your vet about a referral to a behavioral specialist. It's better to do it now before the behavior gets worse!

I hope everything works out ok!

Dr. Marie.

---This question was asked in our Ask A Vet For Free section.---


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