Hi! I am new to the forum and looking for any insight you have. My husband and I adopted a female black lab about a year and a half ago. Today we estimate she's about 5 years old. When we first adopted her, she was quite timid with new people but warmed up quickly to my husband and I and now is typically not very timid around new people. Occasionally she barks at the FedEx guy or someone who looks a little unusual on the street. I'm not exactly sure what triggers her barking, but we assume it is something that she hasn't been exposed to in the past or had a bad experience with before joining us. It hasn't happened often enough for us to notice a pattern. I interpret her barking at people to be more excitement than anything else - she barks and jumps - but there's never been any growling, snapping or other more serious types of aggression.
Recently (past 6 months) there have been a three incidents where she has been aggressive towards another dog. I'm not sure if this is a new development or just new situations that she's been put into. All three times were inside (twice at a friend's house and once in ours.) In all occasions she seemed ok for the first few minutes but then something triggered her to snap at the other dog. She has never made contact with the dog, but it is an aggressive snap with a growl and bark. To me it seems like a warning but certainly enough to make both owners nervous. We have tried to find the similarities between the situations to identify the trigger, but have not had too much luck. Here's what we've come up with so far:
1) twice the aggression seemed to start when she was given a treat (not a quick one, but one that takes a while to chew), however on the third occasion we specifically gave no treats and she snapped when the dog came near her toys and a corner of the couch that we allow her to sit on.
2) each occasion was a different dog, however we seem to think that all the dogs did not have a dominant personality. Two were very easy going and one was quite timid.
3) the aggression didn't stop after the initial snap, but continued when the dog would approach her. Sometimes she would walk right by the dog with no incident and sometimes she would snap - we couldn't figure it out.
4) Two of the times she played with the dog outside before entering the house with no incident. The other time she met the dog in the house (but in this case it was a dog she had met before on other occasions outside.)
My husband seems to think that my presence has something to do with it. He believes that she does not see me as a leader and is either protecting me or herself in the situation. I'm not so sure, but she definitely sees him as THE leader. He has been present for all incidents.
She has not had this reaction with various other dogs in seemingly similar situations. The most common other occurances I can think of have been with 3 fairly dominant personality dogs. This is the only link I can make between her encounters. As hard as I try, I cannot feel calm on the inside when this happens. I immediately tense up, which everyone says only makes the situation worse. I try to have my husband take over as I think he stays more calm in the situation. However I need to be able to properly handle it too. I have tried tecniques such as isolating her (outside or in a bedroom) - that was not effective, giving a stern "No" and a firm touch with my finger tips to her back to get her attention (NOT a hit! ) and finally keeping her on a leash and correcting her at the first sign of a snarl. Also, she is regularly socialized with other dogs at the dog park. She has virtually no aggression issues outside, although she's clearly more interested in exploring than socializing. The hair on her back usually stands up when she meets a new dog.
I'm looking for advice on how to either prevent such situations from happening, stopping them once they do or some insight into dog psychology to help me understand what is going on in her head and what I'm not doing/doing wrong to prevent it.