I have small children. My 8 week old puppy snapped at food from my hand yesterday. What should I do?

I don’t hand feed puppies. There is no reason for this when you have children. In fact it’s a bad idea.

I would recommend you purchase the video I produced titled Your Puppy 8 Weeks to 8 Months. I have owned and trained German Shepherds for 40 years. In the past 25 years I have bred over 300 litters of working bloodline German Shepherds. I give this video to all of my puppy customers and never get questions on how to raise a pup. Read the description of the tape on my web site. Dog training is not rocket science its simple common sense ideas on how to handle and train a dog. The DVD version has 2 ½ hours of training information.

I would also recommend my Basic Dog Obedience training video. I did my first obedience video in 1982. That tape had a new version released in 1988. Then that version was replaced in Sept 2004 with my current 4 hour DVD that we now sell.

If you go to the URL for this DVD you will be able to read the outline of what's covered. This DVD not only deals with teaching people how to train the basic commands that every pet owner needs, it also tells people how to structure their lives and homes in ways that make living with a dog very easy and trouble free.

Small changes in how you handle a dog result in big differences in how the dog relates to you. The average pet owner does not realize how pack drive and rank within the pack control a domestic dog. The DVD goes into detail on pack drive. Becoming a pack leader is not about bulling a dog but rather becoming the dog's friend and then establishing the rules in how you relate to the dog. When this is not done correctly owners end up with dominance and aggression problems.

Occasionally I buy an adult dog to introduce into our breeding program here at the kennel. Even if the dog is already trained I run it through my obedience program. I never assume the previous training was correct. I never assume the previous owner had a good relationship with the dog or that the dog enjoyed training. So I teach the dog what I expect and it learns through our work that I am always fair, that I am always consistent, and that I make training fun. This is the foundation of the relationship that I have for the rest of this dog's life.

I have been doing training tapes for almost 24 years - I feel this is the best tape I have done.

Go for it – I am always impressed with a smart mouth.

The fact is that feeding from the hand is exactly the opposite thing to teach your dog when you have kids. It teaches them that its OK to come up and take food from the hand. Then when it comes up to a child with food and the child rears back and screams because the dog is going for the food – the dog strikes out and bites.

The way to control this is with correct obedience training. Then the dog learns the meaning of the word “NO.”

So go find someone who knows more than I do.

I have this saying:

You need to be careful about who you listen to on training your dog. “Everyone has an opinion on how to train your dog – just ask your mailman, your neighbor, your hair dresser or barber, or your best friend – the problem is that very few people have the experience to back up their opinions which results in a lot of bad information being handed out.”

But when your kids get bit you can always refer back to my web site because I am going to put your stupid response on my site.