Also, was the structured exercise question ever addressed?

now back to the real world. don't over think it.. it doesn't matter about food, couch's etc. to me a very small problem one good correction as a trainer you will have to determine that i have fixed dogs that behaviorist's gave up on. it's no big deal. Rottweiler or Jack Russell the correction is the same just a different degree. bottom line who is the leader you or the dog

I think it's a tad late for "one good correction" at this point.

We're not in a freeze-frame, with the dog and the son stopped in mid-occurrence while the owner consults with people about how to deal with the event.

I think the response posts, "real world" or not, are aimed at changing the way the O.P. lives with this dog so there is no recurrence.

JMO!

"... bottom line who is the leader you or the dog ..." Exactly.

the reason i'm hardcore on biting /growing dogs, years ago, i was at a training session. a new guy with a import GS SCH1,( nice dog) walking to the field. another handler & dog walked by. the SCH1 lunged at the dog the handler corrected him,, the battle was on. the dog bit him, hand. chest. arm the handler went down screaming, he's killing me. i ran over, blood was everywhere i removed the dog and he went into a crate. end result 78 stitches( most bite are not stitched) the handler later admitted the dog had been growling /snapping at dogs,food and him. this could have been prevented.

"...the handler later admitted the dog had been growling /snapping at dogs,food and him. this could have been prevented. "


Yes. He was beyond foolish.

That might well have been a dog who would have lost some breath at my hands.

I'm not really seeing that in this O.P., but of course, we don't know what we are seeing. So the "get a trainer, start strict NILIF, get the toys and food off the middle of the floor, and get the son off the floor and the dog off the couch" seem to be good first steps.

Also, it's potentially not only maybe unnecessary, but also dangerous, IMO, to recommend "one good correction" to someone who sounds relatively inexperienced as well as inexpert at reading the dog.

JMO! And I hope the O.P. does get some expert face-to-face advice.

Agree, I had not considered (my bad) how experienced or inexperienced the OP happens to be regarding living with dogs or the breed he currently has.

I am considering that the OP is simply asking "should I be worried or is this normal behavior for a 9 month old"?

The dog was not (from reading the posts from the OP) exhibiting the behaviors one would typically see with a "dangerous" dog. Of course, we also know that the most dangerous dog in the world is one that makes no indication that it is coming. The OP did NOT indicate that the dog was stalking the Son or even making intense eye contact before the dive on the Son's head. The dogs body language was relaxed from what I read. No teeth were used and we know that IF a dog wants to bite and is that close its going to get ugly very quickly. We know that in a case of true (or practiced) aggression the dog is going to take the being batted off as a reward to continue. Qualifying this... a reward if the dog has confidence as I am reading this dog does.

The OP indicates that the dog did not resist being put in his crate. In other words the dog was not continuing his "game" or his "aggression".

So IF the OP is experienced regarding establishing pack order then I believe that establishing pack order will most probably do the trick. The Son is above the dog in pack order. Based on the post that the OP had already done work in this area, I am led to believe this may be the case.

This, of course, is dependent on any new information that might come from the OP.

I applaud the OP for bringing this to a forum for ideas.

Each of my young dogs at one time or another has done this with people on the floor not paying attention to them, watching tv etc. In each case I set the situation up again, close, waited for the dog to make its move and stepped in quickly making the connection that this behavior was OFF LIMITS. I am fortunate that all my dogs have been voice sensitive so this may not work with a less voice sensitive dog. It worked for me 7 times now and my children continued to lay on the floor to watch tv as it was the dog that had to change its behavior not the children. Then again.... I recognized it as my dog thinking the children were pack members on his/her own level and needed to establish the fact that this was not correct.

Polly

OP stands for the person beginning this conversation.

"Each of my young dogs at one time or another has done this with people on the floor not paying attention to them, watching tv etc. In each case I set the situation up again, close, waited for the dog to make its move and stepped in quickly making the connection that this behavior was OFF LIMITS."

I'm going to say here that this kind of set-up is for very experienced handlers only, and only in certain situations. It doesn't really belong here.

I completely agree Connie but unless I missed something I currently do not know the posters level of experience. Did he tell us and I missed it? At this point the poster may be quite experience with dogs in general but just not with the breed or type he currently has. ALSO if the poster is leaning toward any dog activity that involves biting for the FIRST time (this being his first dog in this sport) he may simply be looking at things differently than with his other dogs.

If the poster is inexperienced there are other things that can be done UNTIL he has an experienced trainer there to help. We simply do not have enough information.

Polly

 Quote: Polly Simpson

.... unless I missed something I currently do not know the posters level of experience.

That's right. We don't.

I am an inexperienced dog handler growing up with an big, sharp adolescent pup. I assume he might bite (nip), nose bump, jump up, paw, etc. in any situation where it is possible that he might do so. My criteria is, "Injury Free", so I take steps at all times to ensure my pup can't get into trouble. I trust my dog to be an adolescent, with low thresholds for self control and high herding, prey, and guarding drives. Since I adopted this new attitude, we have had many fewer, and much less risky incidents of harm. At the same time, the pup is actually developing better recall, Leave It, This Way, Uh Uh (verbal corrective), Watch, Down, Sit, Wait, etc. skills.

What I had to get through my head was that he was not going to be the arbiter of 'the next thing to do', I was. When he gets in trouble, I say to myself, "handler error" and get him back into a safe situation.

I guess what I am saying is, if I expect 'out of control', I can prepare for it and reduce the possibility of that situation arising.