Our 11 month old “mix” Charlotte, has recently started growling at my BF at night/early morning when he walks in the bedroom. As he makes his way to the bed where Charlotte and I are. When we verbally get on to her and tell her NO o STOP. If he tries to physically move her off the bed she either runs to me or snaps at him and the growl/bark intensifies. If I move her off the bed, calmly and gently she doesn’t snap or growl at me but she continues to tey and get back on the bed. Even if he walks in and she curled up on me and I firmly tell her NO and touch her she continues to watch and growl at him. She only does this to him sometimes and it recently started around her first heat. She was spayed today but I don’t know if that has anything to do with it or if that will help. The first time she did this he yelled at her and wasn’t gentle about Moving her. We had a bit of an argument because I personally do not believe in being aggressive or rough with a dog. Especially when she already obvious has a fear of men due to what ever happened to her prior to us rescuing her. I don’t believe scaring her is going to fix these unwanted behaviors. I do understand it hurts his feelings so bad that she does this because he is the one who rescued her. His love for animals is one of the things I love most about him. She’s way more attached to me but I think it’s because I’m the main one to feed her, play wth her, take her out, etc. I’ve tried to explain to him if he’d do these things it would make a difference but he says when he’s tried to play she doesn’t want to. He doesn’t seem to understand we have to work on her play time or find something that interests her to play with.
She also rolls over in that submissive position when you call her or are trying to get her to go in another room etc. At first we thought it was because she was scared and mist have been beat before we got her so we didn’t really try to fix the behavior. We’d talk sweetly to her and just kinda forget what we were originally trying to do. Now for example if we’re going somewhere in the car and don’t put the leash on her from the garage to the car she sometimes will walk past the car and towards the driveway. When we call her to come back or get in the car and she doesn’t she will roll over as we walk towards her. I’ve tried calling her sweetly and with excitement in my voice if we’re going “bye bye” I’ve tried being firm but never yelled. If I try to nudge her or stand her up (all gently of course, never rough or anything mean) she will kind of nip at me then take off running to wherever it is we originally asked her to go. Any advice/suggestions would be very much appreciated. She’s so sweet and loves to cuddle and snuggle so the growling st my BF really bothers us. Once things are calmed down and we’re all laying together she’ll snuggle up to him or lay her head on him so I don’t understand the growling. If this matters when we come home he’s usually the first in the door and she greets him but soon runs past him and is all over me. Is there things I can do or should do? My BF says she’s way too attached to me but I don’t know if that’s the case or it’s him being a little jealous that she doesn’t “freak out” to get to him if he goes in another room.