# Dog acting aggressive at night time only



## Junior670 (Sep 17, 2013)

I have a 15 month old mix. (possibly pit/hound) She has been the sweetest most lovable dog for as long as I've had her since 16 weeks. I do have 2 other smaller dogs as well. Lately, the past week and a half or so, during the night time she has been acting funny. She has been aggressive towards my other dogs out of nowhere, and she has been growling at me as well. She has not bit me, but snapped at me last night. The usually happens when she is in bed with me. I try not to bother her while she is resting but even if you move she stares you down and will growl. I do not know what has gotten in to her. This only happens at night in bed. Could this just be a passing phase? Is this adolescence? Or is she just becoming aggressive? I worry and plan to seek out professional help, but am just here looking for some advice. Why only at night would she be like this? She does sometimes get into it with the other dog, but its usually if there is a ball involved.. but the fact that she is being aggressive towards me, the one who feeds and loves her, is troubling. Thanks in advance for any advice.


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## Shell (Oct 19, 2009)

One possibility is that she's developed resource guarding issues in regards to the bed. The good thing is that resource guarding is generally a very trainable and manageable thing.

Do some reading on the topic and in the meantime, I suggest restricting her access to the bed so that the problem doesn't have a chance to escalate.


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## Junior670 (Sep 17, 2013)

That is very possible. Thank you for the reply. Another thing, that I forgot to mention in my initial post, is that although it does generally happen at night in the bed… Also she seems to get annoyed lately when my wife comes in to the bed (myself and the dogs are in there about an hour before my wife comes in) She seems to be upset by her coming in which recourse guarding would still make sense.. So Hazel (the dog) will generally leave the bed, and go to the living room either on dog bed, or on the couch, and when I go to get her (to put in crate, if she's not in bed she goes in the crate. Does not have free range) she gets nasty then too.. I guess she could still be upset about the whole bed situation, and maybe recourse guarding still the answer? I do not know, but it upsets me because she has been the sweetest girl up until recently. Thank you again.


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## Shell (Oct 19, 2009)

How to you ask her to get off the bed/couch and how to you put her in the crate? As in, do you have a command word like "Off" and "Crate", do you reach for her collar and lead her off the couch and into the crate, etc? How well does she do in the crate? 

If the change is sudden, a vet visit is generally a good idea. A basic physical exam can help rule out (or diagnose) potential areas of pain that can cause aggression. For example, if she has joint pain then getting down off a bed or couch when she's gotten comfortable and settled can make a dog snippy. She's young for arthritis or such but that doesn't mean she can't have pulled a muscle or broken a toe (or whatever). Tooth pain makes dogs grumpy too and any age of dog can crack a tooth


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## Jen2010 (Feb 12, 2013)

Kane has gone through the same thing (at about the same age). At night, on the bed - grumpy toward our other dog to the point where Pepper could tell he was in a "mood" and would not even try to jump up on the bed even though she wanted to. (we normally allow them on the bed until it's time to turn the light off and go to sleep, then they go to their own room)

At first, I would put myself in between the two dogs so Pepper could jump up without Kane giving her the evil eye. I also tried making sure Pepper was up and settled in before Kane could jump up. Both of those things worked to a degree, but I didn't want it go get any worse so I started telling him to get off the bed when he got grumpy. Being cranky = no bed privileges. He growled at my husband when he tried to move Kane over one night. He lost his bed privileges and had to go straight to his crate for the night. He's definitely improved a lot since we've been managing the situation.

I think for him it was partly about resource guarding the bed, but mostly about just being too tired to be nice.


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