I have a five month old Akita who has been pretty well mannered so far.

At feeding time, I usually make him do some work for his food. When he was about 12 weeks old or so, I started with simple stuff like sit or down then wait for 30 seconds or something.

As he got older and learned new commands, I'd use those commands to make him work. One command he really snaps into is sit. It's kind of cute how he'll spring into a sit from the down position, so I do the "push ups" routine as part of his work for food.

The routine is usually 3 reps of sit-ups then play dead and wait for 30 seconds or so before I release with an okay command. I mix it up every now and then just so I know he's thinking and listening as opposed to getting into a routine.

Lately, he's been protesting. He'll make these little vocalizations. Sort of like when you tell a kid to clean his room and he doesn't really talk back but makes a "nnnrrrrwww" sound.

His latest one sounded like a growl. Not a from the belly growl, but it still sounded like a growl. I immediately shouted "AY!" which he knows is my sound of disapproval and then put up his food. After about five minutes, I brought the food back out and he did the routine with no protest.

I'm just wondering if I'm expecting too much from the puppy at his age or if I should be even more strict because his vocalizations are a sign of him "talking back" so to speak.

It's hard to say without seeing it, I am not hard on 5 month old pups at all, I didn't start OB till 5 months and I certainly don't expect a whole 30 seconds of staying in the same position, my pup protests at everything, she's very vocal and will perform all the commands she's told but will bark in a "OK cmon I did it gimme food" manner. I don't worry about it and I don't think you should either, but I don't know anything about the Akita breed so I don't know if there's any specific personality quirks to watch out for. At 5 months, I don't worry about anything, and certainly wouldn't opt at being harder on my dog if I don't know for certain what the vocalization means, some dogs are just naturally very vocal and it doesn't mean anything.

I've read that the Akitas can be quite food possessive, so that's been my main concern. But he doesn't care once the food gets put down. I can stick my hand in the bowl and he makes no noise, no change in posture. He just keeps eating. <img src="http://www.leerburg.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" />

I lightened up on the routine this morning and the little protests stopped and he followed the commands.

The 8 to 8 DVD makes no mention of making puppy work for his meal time, so I guess I was being a bit hard. I guess I was just being over cautious about preventing food aggression.

akitas are usually quiet
at 5-8 months they will start grumbling and making a sound not a howl but more of a wooo rooo
baby steps with him . he is learning how to talk
hoopefully wont learn how to talk bac <img src="http://www.leerburg.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" />k