Sorry I went to the wrong place. I hoped to contribute to the discussion regarding aggressive behavior in puppies in this thread.

Thank you for your comment about prey drive and aggressive behavior can be in the same dog. I have purchased three of Mr. Frawley's tapes and thought I understood him to say that most aggressive behavior derives from fear coming from poor genetics. I also thought Mr. Frawley encouraged letting the puppy win tugs to encourage self confidence resulting in better prey drive.

I am so new at this I clearly did not integrate the two concepts well. However, I must admit that I'm confused. How can a dog have good prey drive genetically received and yet show fear based aggression genetically received?

prey and fear are two very seperate drives.
this is like asking how can the dog have sable color and yellow eyes.
a good dog needs to have a balance of prey drive and defense drive.
defense and fear are not the same either.
prey drive is the desire to chase something.
fear is being scared of things.
defense is self-protection.

What your Mal is doing as you've probably learned already is called resource guarding. I also own a Mal and have been in the same boat. Some things I've learned that have been beyond successful and have helped build a trusting relationship between my dog & I. Since Mals are so brilliant they do try and out smart their owners...they also remember things/situations that have happened in their past experiences and react upon them. So you want to try and keep your interactions as positive as you possibly can. You want your Mal to tust you..sneaking up on him, grabbing him & prying the mouth open aren't going to help build that...and probably will get you bit. It might work with some dogs but doesn't seem to work with you. One of the things we want to teach a young dog by our feedback is that we have the right to take things out of his mouth or food bowl at any time and that the dog doesn’t have the right to guard what he perceives as treasures. We do this gently by interrupting a puppy’s meals by putting an extra morsel of food in his bowl and by trading a toy for a second "better" toy or toy for treat. "Trading" is a good way to build a trusting relationship. When your pup steals something of yours and runs with it try to teach the pup to "Drop It!". Say it in a nice voice and make sure you have a really good treat with you.....when the pup looks up it will probably drop what it has...when it does lure him away from the stolen object and reward. Eventually you want the pup to learn that "Drop It!" means look up at me because I have something better. This will take a little bit of trial & error but it will keep your pup from developing bad habits of guarding property & putting it's teeth on you. Remember to try and establish trust - Not fearful behavior. Being consistent is the key. I am in no means an expert on training, just wanted to pass on what has worked for me. Hope this helps a bit.

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