growling at son

Question
Dr. Connor,
We have a 7 year old red Golden Retriever named Maggie. She has been part
of our family since she was a puppy. With in the past year in half she has
been growling at our 14 year old son. When he walks into the room she
growls. When he tries to pet her she growls. Our daughters that are 11 and 9
can do almost anything to her and she does not show them any of this kind of
behavior. If I am in the room she hides behind me when he tries to pet her.  
My son has not done anything as far as we know to have her "change" her
behavior towards him. He wants us to get a new puppy so he has a "dog". We
would like to figure out why she is acting this way and if there is a way we can
get them to live in harmony. She does have a history at growling at some
strangers. If you can offer any advice that would be welcomed. Thank you for
your time,
Sincerely,
Lisa

Answer
Your dog HAS A REASON for growling (fearing) your son; that's just the bottom line.  You will never know what it is that caused it (he won't tell you the truth, trust me) and, in fact, it may have been caused in an instant of adolescent pique (certainly not intentional on his part, he's a kid at the worse time of life, adolescence.)  His attitude of wanting his own dog is further proof that he's well aware of whatever it is that may have caused this (and let me give you some advice: DO NOT DO IT, do not introduce another dog into this situation, especially at this time; in two years or less, he'll be fed up with the new dog and onto girls.)

Your son must stop attempting to force himself on this dog, it's only making things worse.  No matter how he feels about it, a growl is a bite waiting to happen and one day he may reach out at the wrong angle, with the wrong intention (anger, which you may not see but the dog will) and be bitten.  If the dog hides behind you when he enters the room, remove yourself but do NOT address the dog, attempt to correct her or cajole her in any way (that is rewarding her behavior.)  Furthermore, this dog must be protected from your son's friends, NOT because they are in any way "bad" (I'm sure they're all terrific kids) but because he is angry at her (although he won't admit it) and hurt, and may inadvertently influence a friend in a manner that will further frighten and alienate this dog.  Her history of growling at some "strangers" is a large clue that she is fear aggressive and has a tendency toward its further development.  you are seeing her fear aggression when she growls at your son.  DO NOT FAULT HIM, as I said above; I doubt that whatever occurred was intended; I hope his hurt and anger and frustration is not spurring behaviors that are worsening this situation when you are not home.  An adolescent cannot manage his/her own emotions and is not fully "rational" in the sense that adults are; a child of this age is capable of being quite angry and vindictive when confused and rejected.  You really have no way of knowing what's transpiring between these two when you aren't present.  Normally, I would advise that your son be responsible for feeding her and working with her using positive reinforcement training, but I'm not going to do that right now.  I'd like you to ignore her growling, have your son ignore her growling (in fact, he should totally ignore her for about two weeks) and then REPOST if her behavior lessens or worsens, and we'll take it from there.