I recently welcomed to my home a second Goldendoodle from Amy Lane .  I currently have an 8 year old Wheaten male and a 6 year old Goldendoodle female (who is also from Amy), both with excellent temperments (extremely social with people and other animals and overall well behaved). 

 

The puppy is being crate trained and interacts with the older dogs under supervision.  He is not yet allowed the same priviledges as they are, and he is learning the "Nothing In Life Is Free" Policy.  He sits for treats (something he learned in about 2 minutes time), and I hand feed him every meal (making him sit, give full eye contact for about 5-10 seconds before giving him the "ok" to eat from my hand). 

 

When he plays with the other dogs, if they allow him (they are still working out the whole "pack" thing and showing him his place), he submits appropriately and responds rather quickly to them.   He does however, like to challenge me a bit more, sometimes getting growly, snippy and "annoyed" if I pull him away from something he's doing.  I don't allow the behavior by making him stop and submit to a relaxed manner before I let him continue to play.  I reward him happily when he behaves appropriately and always encourage the good behaviors. 

 

I'm constantly practicing trades, and he does very well, allowing me to take anything from him, until he discovered a pig's ear last night.  I do not give my dogs rawhides/pigs ears etc because I don't believe it's great for their digestion, but I did want to see if the puppy would in fact try to guard something of higher value such as that item.  His little dominant streak with me proved true, he snapped growling nastily and tried to full on bite me twice.  The second time, I scruffed him as his mother would, and flipped him over, holding him belly up for about 2 minutes until the stiffness in his body relaxed and he submitted.  When I gave him back the pigs ear after having him sit and make eye contact, he waited a bit before accepting it and did allow me to take it from him a minute later without a fuss. 

 

So now that I see the potential is there, I want to be sure that I head off such behavior immediately while he's still a little pup and not a 75 pound dog.  This morning I separated him from the other dogs and gave him the pigs ear to chew for 5 minutes while I got dressed.  I then approached him with a handful of his favorite treats and called him away from the pigs ear in a happy tone.  It took him a minute or two, and he did try to bring the pigs ear with him, but he eventually gave up, let it drop and opted to come for the treats in my hand.  When I reached for the pigs ear he left, he showed a bit of intensity trying to get back to it, sniffed all over looking for it, and nibbled at it a little from my hand but didn't try to pull it away from me.  I encouraged him for then sitting, gave him a couple more treats, and put the pigs ear away.  I figure this is something we will continue to practice for short periods, calling him away with higher value treats and happy tones.   Although he won't be getting raw hides and pigs ears on a regular basis, I want to use the knowledge to correct a behavior that may translate to other items.  I don't want to ever be in the situation where someone reaches for something from him and he snaps.      

 

My question to you is do you have additional recommendations for addressing this behavior in a 10 week old pup? 

 

I appreciate any suggestions you may have!

 

Lisa