Thank you all for the help you have been giving me with this new puppy! It's a lot different starting from scratch with a puppy, than when I first started doing marker training with Kasey when he was 4 and already knew a bunch of stuff!

I seem to be confused about how to be 'alpha', pack leader, when your puppy seems to look at you only as a treat slot machine. He LOVES food with a passion and quickly learns obedience behaviors like sit and down, even wait for coming out of his crate and before he can start eating. But when it comes to looking at me as head of this 'pack', I'm not sure I'm making headway. And since he's 12 weeks now, he's starting to show some of that adolescence behavior I know is coming, and I need to know how to deal with it.

Tonight he had a bully stick and when one of us would start to walk towards him he would quite viciously growl and act like he would fight us if we tried to take it away. I was stunned. He has never done that before - doesn't do it with toys, and you can even sit by him and touch his bowl when he eats meals. But this bully stick was obviously important to him. So it makes me think I am not in charge. He will also, when he's excited or tired, do that humping your leg thing - is that because I'm not seen as top dog??

What things should you be doing to ensure they see your position correctly? (We make him wait at doors, wait before he can exit the crate, wait before eating, I do short training sessions with getting brushed and handled, sit, down, etc).

 Quote: Lori Hall

Thank you all for the help you have been giving me with this new puppy! It's a lot different starting from scratch with a puppy, than when I first started doing marker training with Kasey when he was 4 and already knew a bunch of stuff!

I seem to be confused about how to be 'alpha', pack leader, when your puppy seems to look at you only as a treat slot machine. He LOVES food with a passion and quickly learns obedience behaviors like sit and down, even wait for coming out of his crate and before he can start eating. But when it comes to looking at me as head of this 'pack', I'm not sure I'm making headway. And since he's 12 weeks now, he's starting to show some of that adolescence behavior I know is coming, and I need to know how to deal with it.

Tonight he had a bully stick and when one of us would start to walk towards him he would quite viciously growl and act like he would fight us if we tried to take it away. I was stunned. He has never done that before - doesn't do it with toys, and you can even sit by him and touch his bowl when he eats meals. But this bully stick was obviously important to him. So it makes me think I am not in charge. He will also, when he's excited or tired, do that humping your leg thing - is that because I'm not seen as top dog??

What things should you be doing to ensure they see your position correctly? (We make him wait at doors, wait before he can exit the crate, wait before eating, I do short training sessions with getting brushed and handled, sit, down, etc).

Well, I'm probably a little bit too "old school" to answer this question in a Positive-Motivation-Only way, because Puppy would have learned The HARD Way at my house that SH!T is NOT tolerated So... I'll wait for more "enlightened" folks to give some better answers, LOL -- But meantime, he wouldn't get another Bully-Stick till the "cow it came from comes home" !!!

At 12 weeks, some of this behavior may be more easily attributed to adolescent phases than alpha mentality. At 12 weeks, I wouldn't label him as alpha. I"d pbly give him a year or so to prove it. At 12 weeks, if he thought he could keep a stick that I wanted, I would ignore any displays and take the stick. I would give no indication that I was intimidated by his juvenile threats.

I don't subscribe to the whole feel-good ideal that, once I give him a stick, it is unfair to take it away. I am also old school, and any time one of my dogs has growled at me over a resource, the whole world stopped turning while we immediately had a quick lesson on "everything that is yours is mine", and NILIF. The lesson usually consists of a few reps of giving the stick, then taking the stick. I also correct for repeated offenses, once we get to the point where I figure he "should have learned by now"

 Quote: Duane Hull

At 12 weeks, if he thought he could keep a stick that I wanted, I would ignore any displays and take the stick. I would give no indication that I was intimidated by his juvenile threats.

Exactly. I wouldn't put a lot of emphasis on the whole "alpha" thing. It's perfectly normal for a pup to try and treat you like one of his litter mates and do a threat display to try and keep a chew. When they're small I just grab the chew and take it. If I think they might try a bite I just grab the scruff or lift them a small bit by their collar so they can't bite and hold the chew until they drop it.

Don't react to puppy temper tantrums. I don't even really use "no". Just keep from being bitten and plow on. They'll get the message.

My Cattle Dog made a serious bite attempt at 4 months old when I took a rock out of his mouth. Pissed him off for some reason. I just hung him for a few moments till I saw him change his mind about trying to bite me and haven't had any other serious bite attempts from him. Plenty of little argumentative stuff but not an outright bite attempt.

 Quote: Lori Hall

He will also, when he's excited or tired, do that humping your leg thing - is that because I'm not seen as top dog??

It's because he's an excited puppy. Some will even air hump. I just grab the scruff and pull them off. I try to catch them before they get all the way up by lifting my leg or kneeing them. I'm gentle at first but if they persist I have no problem with sending them flying.

I'm with the answers above.

Managing basic house manners isn't necessarily connected to teaching behaviors such as sit, down, stay, come etc.

To many look at reward based, positive marker training as no need for corrections.

I can believe that to a point but reward based or correction based training have nothing to do with pack leadership as we look at it.

I firmly believe that most dogs need a consequence to bad behavior.

The level of that consequence can anything between loss of reward to physical corrections.

The dog's and the handler's temperament AND handler's skill determine that level.

There is NO such thing as PURELY POSITIVE, in particular for basic house manners.

I absolutely agree with Duane and Bob. Have nothing to add. (I'm still knocked off my socks from the answers I recieved to the topic Balabanov. Lol.)