[lumpsta]

I'm sure these questions have been discussed many times before, but this whole message board is pretty big and i haven't found quite what I am looking for. My 1 year old female, Scarlet, just had her first birthday yesterday. It just so happened that it fell on the same day that she growled at me aggresively for the first time after i tried to get a corn cob out of her mouth that she took out of the garbage can. My girlfriend said that Scarlet growled (not grumbled) at her a few weeks ago when she tried to take something else out of her mouth that she wasn't suppose to have. I didn't take my gf all that seriously but when it happened to her again yesterday and then to me, I am a little worried.

Scarlet is a wonderful, beautiful dog that just loves people and other animals. I've never had anything close to an aggression problem with her. I hope I'm not being naive, but I think she is just testing her boundries. What I want to know is how I should deal with it and not make it any worse.

The only other real problem I have with her is if I take her out of the house or her kennel and a friend is standing there she almost pulls me right off my feet trying to get to them and play. I can control her pretty good out on walks, but she does tend to wander toward people as they pass but a slight tug gets her back on track. However, if someone passes with another dog, I really have to hold on tight because she tends to get overly excited and lunge a little. Some advice on this would be greatly appreciated, too

Before anybody discusses obedience classes, please keep in mind that;

1. There is only one class offered in my immediate area, and Scarlet and I already took it. The class didn't touch too much on either of these subjects.

2. Even if there was a better class available close by, I probably couldn't afford it.

3. I'm looking more for tips that i can use one on one with her. I'm more than willing to work with her but i need a few more tools to work with.

please help, any responses are greatly appreciated! thank you