I have a client who, when she called me, described her dog as having "resentment issues." She described to me three or so separate behaviors, all of which she lumped into this category. The frustrating thing is that her vet was the one who suggested this "resentment issues" idea to her. Once I got out of her descriptive examples of what she meant by this label, I could identify specific antecedents and consequences that were controlling each individual behavior. Hopefully this will help in reducing the problems much more than labeling her "resentful!"

--Alyssa 

Sounds like you are on the right track. I always like to say that "100 trainers can argue about 'why' a dog is doing something such as urinating on a couch, but the only thing that we can all agree upon is that the dog urinated on the couch, so let's start there!"

When I studied with Jean Donaldson, she had an interesting way of addressing this issue, she would say that certain topics are "interesting to discuss over a cup of coffee", but let's stick to the facts that we have at hand. 

I always think it is dangerous giving labels like stubborn, resentful, or spiteful. That indicates motives that tend to be "against" the person. It is usually a matter of cleaning up a history of insufficient or sloppy training and management. 

Keep everyone posted about how things progress, and good luck!

Jeff