Something new came up with my dog that's never happened before and threw me completely off guard.

My roomies and I sometimes horse around a bit roughly with each other, all in good fun, and is purely everyone laughing and being loud. The dog has always just watched from another room or ignored our behaviour until the other night. I tried to see if it was territorial behaviour, fear, aggression, or protection..

First instance was I was sitting on the couch and the dog was across the room watching us (myself and 2 roomies). Third roommate, Jay, runs in and jumps on me, and I scream and laugh and suddenly the dog jumps up and lets out a series of high-pitched barks, runs at Jay and halfheartedly snaps at the air around him and keeps backing up, barking, and running at him to get between us until he gets off of me. Her hackles were raised, her tail was up or straight behind her, her ears were up when she ran but lay flat when she was snapping (no growls, snarls, or "aggressive" behaviour, she almost acted unsure of herself) and as soon as I told her to leave it she sulked off into the corner and watched Jay for about 15 minutes.

Again it happened in my room. I was in bed, the dog underneath my desk, when Jay ran in and jumped on the bed (happily, not yelling or making noise). She again did a high-pitched bark and lunged out from under the desk, jumping at Jay (no snapping this time) and keeping her posture low, and trying to stay between me and Jay. As soon as she had done this she went back under my desk and watched us but didn't relax until he was gone.

She has never acted aggressive towards anyone before, especially not Jay (he's lived with me for over a year and loves the dog), and although she gets excited when people are being loud and boisterous it's always been playful.

This happened a third time in the hallway when Jay and I were mock-wrestling to get through a doorway and the commotion brought the dog running and once again she barked and, ears perked, tried to nip at his hands and arms (we were restraining each other) and get between us.

I apologize if a similar post has been posted, feel free to link me, I'm just curious if I should be much stricter about not allowing this. I refuse to let her jump on people, lick people, or be dominant/nip/bite and this is unexpected behaviour of her. Is she expecting me to be alpha and confused when my roommate and I play around? I crated her after the third time since I was unsure how to correct the behavior and calmed down so there were no more "stressful" situations for her, but what is this? I don't feel she's the "loyal protective will-kill-for-me" type of dog, and she's never had aggression problems with people, and since then has not acted anything other than her normal self. No strange behaviour around Jay, nothing.

Any thoughts?

edit: forgot to mention, I don't think it's territorial. She has NEVER exhibited any possessive or territorial behaviour for anything before.

Edited by Jinn Schmitz (08/15/2007 01:56 PM)
Edit reason: Added bit about territorialism.

Sounds like your creating a situation where the dogs nerves are getting turned on and she's not quite sure how to act.

How old is she? This could be a sign of her maturing, if she's a young dog.

My GSD does NOT like it when we wrestle around our house. It used to be something that caused him to try and act aggressive to anyone I was wrestling with. However, while my husband and I can temper our playing and make sure we don't go overboard when Carbon's around, we do have an 8 year old in the house and the fact is...he's going to wrestle with his friends.

So, the compromise is that no wrestling goes on around the dog. Even though I can have him under control if I need to, he's never going to like it or understand it. And that fact alone makes it a dangerous thing to do. All it take is one loss of control and someone will be bitten. Also, it stresses the dog out unnecessarily, IMO.

The dog can be crated out of sight if kids are over, or if my husband and I just HAVE to beat each other up

I don't look at it as me accomodating my dog. I look at is as just a responsible action when you have a dog that doesn't tolerate situations like that very well. It's just an aspect of my dog's individual temperament. And frankly, I like that my dog doesn't like people trying to whack me!

Now, all of this is assuming that the dog doesn't have other dominance issues that need to be worked out. If the dog has the run of the house and is being pushy and trying to gain control in other situations...well, that's a different story.

I've started to crate her in the other room or send her to "her spot" (my room) when we get out of hand so she doesn't see it. We keep it toned down most of the time, but it's those other instances I worried about. So far my roommates have complied with keeping it calm.

She was a shelter dog, I've had her 2 years, so she's between 2.5 and 3 years old, although looks and acts younger. She's never tried to dominate the house, and I'm still working on ground rules as well (didn't do that when I got her), so we're trying to keep it easy for her since she started doing that. The last thing I want is the dog stressing and someone getting bitten.
Thanks though! Sounds like full hands with an 8 year old, but you're doing the right thing by being responsible. My family had a new English Setter pup when their little girl was 6 or so and it was a mess - they never set ground rules for the dog or the kid and she got whapped a few times by an errant paw and nipped so often it was a joke because they just didn't correct the wrong behavior.

Yeah, I think it's best not to take chances. My Corgi loves the playful wrestling, but he's not even a tiny bit protective. The GSD is, that's in his nature. There's only so much you can do to change a dog's fundamental temperament...and it's best, IMO, to avoid risks, regardless of how well trained a dog is. I don't want to make my dog try to figure out the subtle nuances of human behavior, when I'm not that great at it myself!

Love her eyes in your signature pic, especially with that black "eyeliner."

Ditto to everything Amber said. I was going to say the same thing, but Amber put it so well

Thanks, Amber! She's got those striking eyes that catch everyone's attention, can be creepy sometimes if she stares at you, but very expressive. Definitely a diva or drama queen, and quite the b*tch sometimes to boot!

Definitely need to work on house rules, it's true, can't expect a dog to understand what we ourselves only touch the surface of! They're smart and can read us so well, but dogs don't understand sarcasm and other such conflicting emotions. :P As far as she sees, I'm getting attacked I suppose, but I'm laughing - humans, what befuddling creatures!