My 8 month old lab will not allow me to take his toys. Yesterday he bit me when I took his toy away. What should I do?

Question

Hello I was wondering if you could give me some advice. We have an 8-month old neutered German shepherd mix (lab and husky we think) and I am having trouble controlling him. We have a three-year-old daughter, so I know it is imperative that he listens and behaves.

He has a habit of picking up her toys and chewing them -- sometimes swallowing them.

No matter how I handle the situation, he will not drop the item in his mouth. Yesterday he got my mop cover and started chewing holes in it. I wrestled it out of his mouth and he turned on me, growling and he bit me in the hand.

It was a scratch, but I know if he wanted to, he could do much worse. I put him in his crate moving his crate from my daughter's room to the kitchen. Then I spent thirty minutes giving him a wooden spoon, telling him to drop it and then rewarding him with a treat. Although, that seemed to work, I think it taught him a good way to get a treat as well.

Then, today I was sitting on the swing set with my daughter and he began to bark and bit me in the back. This bite, although he didn't draw blood, is worse then yesterdays. I'm worried what he will do tomorrow - if this will escalate. What should I do?

Thanks for your help and advice,
Laurie

Accepted Answer

This is 100% a rank issue with this dog. The dog does not respect your rank in the pack. He thinks he is at a higher pack position. Read the article I wrote on Dealing with the Dominant Dog.

You have made a big mistake putting the dog crate in your child's bedroom. Allowing a doglike this to even enter a bedroom is as bad as it gets. Pet owners really misunderstand this.

It's time to do some serious obedience training with this dog and doing what you are doing is not going to cut it. I train with treats, but with dogs like this you must use firm corrections for every example of aggression. Read the article I wrote on the Theory of Corrections in Dog Training.

Trading treats for toys is OK in the learning phase of training, but the dog must go through the correction and distraction phase. With dogs like this, I use a Dominant Dog Collar - it works better than a prong collar.

If you would like to learn something about the principles of obedience training a dog, read the description for my Basic Dog Obedience video. You will probably find that you have not had the full picture on the steps of training a dog must go through before it can be considered fully trained. You can also read why I am not a fan of taking an untrained dog to obedience classes.

The only thing you have accomplished with the treat issue is to teach the dog that it should give up a toy when told. Now it's time for the correction phase. In other words, when it will not release the item the dog needs a firm corrections. Using the collar and leash - simply lift the front feet off the ground after saying NO!

What I would do is get one of the wire muzzles. Get the Basic Obedience video and Dominant Dog DVD. Then start working this dog. He can not hurt you with a muzzle on, but you can still give him small treats through the muzzle in the learning phase.