Would a 11 month old male Golden Retriever get more aggressive because you're in his pen?

Aggressive behavior towards humans and other dogs is not regarded as normal behavior for Golden Retrievers. Something is wrong with the dog.

@josie That’s what’s throwing me off. I’ve never met a Golden this aggressive in just this instance. He’s normally a big baby. But I’ve got the bruises to show what happened.

What’s he doing in a pen. Golden Retrievers are too social and affectionate towards people to be housed in a pen. That alone is a problem.

He was penned up during a child’s birthday party. He normally has full run of the place.

It’s territorial aggression, and it can be very dangerous in a dog that size, especially in a home with a child. I would strongly urge your brother to seek out a qualified dog trainer or behaviorist.

(We sometimes see “cage aggression” in the clinic setting – outside of that cage, the animal is perfectly behaved, but if you reach into a cage for the animal. you get viciously attacked.)

While Goldens generally have very gentle temperaments, the few that I have met that are aggressive are truly, truly frightening dogs. At 11 months, your brother needs to address this issue now. Best case scenario (if not addressed) is that the dog will be aggressive in a small space. Worst case scenario would be the dog expanding his “territory” to include the car, the house, the yard…..

@syz He’s working with a trainer. He has no children but the other family members have small children. I’ll talk with him. Thanks. Yeah, I can see it would be dangerous. The dog’s normally a sweetie.

I think @syz may be right, about the territorial aggression. I’m no expert on dogs and I don’t really know much about goldens, or any breed for that matter, but I experienced something similar with my dog when I took her with me on a two week visit with my aunt this past Christmas. There were times when I had to pen her up in a fairly large workroom in the basement and when she was down there she would bark, kind of aggressively, at my aunt, anytime time she went down into the basement.

The workroom was just to the left of the bottom of the stairs. That behavior continued for the whole two weeks I was there. At a certain point I started to refer to my aunt as “upstairs DeDe” and “downstairs DeDe” because Lizzie was fine with my aunt, she just loved her, upstairs and anywhere else in the house, or the yard or in the van, but Lizzie just barked and barked at her whenever she was penned in, in the workroom in the basement and DeDe went down there, even though, of course, my aunt was exactly the same person she was upstairs as she was downstairs.

She saw the workroom was her territory, I think, plus, penned in there, she had no where to run. If she sensed a threat of any kind there, she would have been backed into a corner, so she had to defend her space; no other option for her, no option to run.

And if it was unusual for the dog to be penned in and there was a lot of activity and commotion, that was out of the ordinary, like a lot of noisy kids around at a child’s birthday party, that could have added to the dog’s stress level.

But, like I said, I’m no expert. Lizzie is my first dog ever.

@lillycoyote No, this was worse. He was challenging me for alpha male status. He chewed on me pretty good. He’s never done that before. It hurt. I had to give it back pretty hard. I forgot one thing. At the end he just stood under my legs and leaned against me.

@Adirondackwannabe I never let anyone get into the penned in area, other than me, when she was in there. When Lizzie was acting that way at my aunt’s, I told my aunt and anyone else that went down there, to just ignore her and leave her alone, not to go into the workroom or even reach in there. I was the only one that went in. I went down there once, with one of my aunt’s neighbors who had stopped by, and who was “really good with dogs” :-) went into the workroom and I was sitting on the floor in there, with Lizzie, with the gate closed and Lizzie was barking and sort of lunging at her and the woman reached over the gate, to try to pet Lizzie, because “she was really good with dogs” and Lizzie snapped at her, but didn’t bite her. I had to request, very firmly, that the neighbor not try to do that again. I certainly didn’t want the encounter to escalate.

Has he been neutered? At his age, he is adolescent, which adds testosterone to all the above possibilities.

@ccrow No, he’s not neutered. Yeah, I thought about that too. I’ve been in his pen with him lots of time, but he might be feeling his oats a little more now.

@syz Thanks for the article and your comments. I think you’re right on. It was just shy of an attack. And that’s a lot of dog. I never thought of that from a Golden. I will talk with my brother ASAP.

@Adirondackwannabe I was told that often when a dog leans against you he is claiming you as his. We have an aggressive Jack Russell who does the same thing. I’ve been working on him since I got him just after my mom died as he was her dog.

Thanks for all of your answers. I’m glad I asked the question. We got lucky. I came out with just a lot of bruises. One forearm is bruised almost the entire length and the other a little less. If it had been one of the kids it would have been a disaster.

I have known many a nasty golden as well as labs, etc. There is no breed that is not capable of aggression or madness for that matter. Rage syndrome is common in Springer Spaniels. I would agree that this dog needs some serious training. It sounds as if it is past the positive reinforcement stuff. Hope your brother finds a trainer who is experienced in dealing with large aggressive dogs.

Turns out they’ve all had the same experience with him. You don’t go in his pen without a fight. Nice of them to let me venture in. That’s what there trying to stop.

So it’s not an isolated incidence. In my mind it makes it all the more important to get it under control as quickly as possible!

He graduated from this class. They enrolled him in another. I let my brother know what’s going on.