growling

[kschmi1721]

Hi I back again with another question Pantera is now 5 months old and the biting has gotten about 85% better. Not totally gone yet but now the issue we have is he growles and snarles showing his teeth at my husband when he tries to pet him. We tell him no and we use the can method but it only works for that minute then starts all over again. We are starting obedience class in two weeks but I would like to kick this in the but now. My husband is the alpha male maybe this is why but its pretty bad when he can't even pet the dog. He will occationally do it to me but not as much as my husband. Does anyone have any suggestions.

kschmi1721

[Nishasmom]

That is a little weird; it sounds like your puppy does NOT see your husband as "alpha". Does he participate in training? Who feeds and walks Pantera?

When he growls, is your husband waking him up from a sleep, getting in his face, or being "rough" with the petting? Has he ever snapped at either of you?

[kschmi1721]

The training that we do at home yes he does. We haven't start classes yet. We both feed him and both of us take him out. He was accually the one who was with him the most. When we got him my husband wasn't working.

He isn't sleeping and we don't rough house with him cause of the issues we had with him before.

He has snapped at us from the first day we brought him home. To the point he would draw blood and it wasn't playing. We are getting that under control though.

kschmi1721

[Nishasmom]

I think you should get into group classes, as well as some private lessons. I know there are members her that can help you with this. Do you have a trainer picked out?

[kschmi1721]

Yes we do have a trainer with a group of like 6 dogs as of now. The class starts in two wks. As for a private train not as of yet.

kschmi1721

[poohbearsmom]

Can method?

Has anyone ever pulled back from him reflexively when he does this? If so, he has likely surmised that he can "scare" you away.

What does your breeder say about this behavior?

A 5 month old snarling at his master is not acceptable. (Any dog snarling at it's master is not acceptable) You need to figure out why he is doing this. Could be a number of things, but a couple of things come to mind immediately without having seen the dog, his body language, or your handling skills:

1. Confusion with the relationship ("correcting" with a can instead of yourself can certainly cause a lot of confusion!)

2. Poor temperament

I'm hoping it's the first, because that's fixable. If you do not get to the root of this right now, this behavior will likely escalate more, and it's much easier to correct a 50lb smartass teenager than a 100lb pissed off dog who thinks he's the sh!t. Please put the can in the recycling bin, and learn how to give your dog an honest and well timed correction for an unacceptable behavior, redirect your young dog, make obedience and listening to you fun and interesting and be consistent with him.