Sleep Aggression / Territorial Behavior

[Banshee's Dad]

We've been having a bit of a problem with Chip lately. The other night, Chip was curled up on his dog bed (not in his crate) sleeping. My son (15) called Chip's name before reaching down to pet him. Chip lunged toward him snarling and snapping, etc. -- scared him (and me) half to death. This morning, again, he was curled up on his bed, but not sleeping. My wife was talking to him from a chair (he was looking at her, plain as day), then she moved closer to reach down and pet him. Again, he lashed out at her, but not as dramatically as with my son. This is a fairly recent behavior, although he has shown some signs of protective behavior (growling, showing teeth) when my wife and son were play fighting/wrestling near him.

Outside of leaving him alone when he's lying down, recommendations of how to curb this kind of behavior?

[Pam]

I have looked around on greyhound forums and all they advise it to leave him be when he's on his bed. Other suggestions were to crate him or muzzle him when he sleeps.

[shalea]

I have no idea how I missed this whole conversation, but very sorry for the delay responding.

If this is a sudden change in behavior, you might want to rule out medical issues which might be causing Chip pain and making him more defensive. The fact that he's also concerned about play fighting/wrestling close to him make me more concerned that something is going on. Are there any other changes in behavior you've noticed? Is his activity level outside the same?

That said, letting sleeping dogs lie is definitely the short-term solution, but I think you can probably train Chip to appreciate people near him on his bed. It's probably going to require a bit of trickery on your part because you're going to have to get near him on his bed (just outside the distance where he gets defensive) and surprise him with a treat. Repeat frequently and the distance will grow less and less (because he will associate people near him with good things).

Gryphon was a little defensive when he was on his bed when he first came to live with us, but we were able to use a similar process (Gryphon's more into scritches and ear-rubs than treats, so we used that instead) and now I regularly cuddle up on the dog bed with the ridiculous beast.

[Banshee's Dad]

He really seems to be ok otherwise. This issue hasn't come up again lately, although it's certainly made my wife more wary of him when he's lying down. I like the idea of approaching him with a treat! Thanks for the input!