English Cocker Spaniel

Question
My "baby" will be nine in April, had him since he was one (friend rescued him from abusive owner) He absolutely adores my husband, follows him all over and generally listens to him. When it is just myself and my baby we are fine.  However, when I leave the house, if I don't get the gate shut quickly enough he gets out and I have to pretty much drag him back in the house.  If he gets into the car first, he refuses to get out and I have to pick him up.  As soon as I pick him up he starts growling quietly and when I set him down he will jump at me as if to bite me.  The other day he actually bit through my shirt and then jumped at me as if to attack me again.  I had to push him away from me with my foot.  My husband can leave him (even when I am not home - no problem, listens to him.  I did work until 18 months ago and was in accident with resulting permanent disabilities so am home all the time.  However, his behavior started before I stopped working.  He NEVER does this to my husband.  Other than that he is wonderful, knows who the "sucker" in the family is - me of course.  But he curls up with me in the chair and comes out of the bedroom at night to let me know it is time to go to bed (my husband is in bed early due to his work schedule) and Simon (the baby) will go back forth from the bedroom, sitting on the end of the bed watching me from there into the living room until I finally come in.  Oh, and if he is sleeping when I get to bed, if I try to move him he growls and snarls at me but lets my husband move him.  HELP!!!  I don't know what to do and I love him dearly.

Answer
Your dog is suffering from rank opportunism and, unfortunately, considers YOU to be much lower in rank than he is.  It's likely that you  won't much like the advice you're about to read, but this dog is escalating in his behavior and will soon bite you.  You need to get some psychological control.

You need to purchase a strong nylon leash and make him wear it in the house and whenever he is at risk for "escape" through the gate.  Using the leash, you can maneuver/manipulate his actions without touching him or his collar and you can easily step on the end of the leash to stop him from successfully getting away from you outdoors.  Do not confuse this with his normal going-out leash; this is a HOUSE TAB and should be used exclusively for this purpose.  Do NOT repeat any behaviors which he responds to with aggression as we do not want him to learn anything more about aggression than he already knows.  Use the house tab.

Get your dog OUT of your bedroom.  Buy him a nice fluffy bed and put it in a room that is as far from your bedroom as possible.  Ignore any vocalizations he might make the first few nights.  This dog needs to know that he is not part of the ALPHA pair!  Make him sleep in this new location for several months.

Go to Karen Pryor's website and learn about positive reinforcement training.  Using this technique, teach your dog a simple obedience behavior (such as "sit") using another word (NOT "sit"), even though he might already know this behavior.  Once you have a 100% compliance to your new command (ten out of ten successful responses in a challenging location such as outdoors), use it to make your dog earn EVERYTHING.  "Nothing In Life is Free" will be your dog's new motto.  He must earn everything with you: being petted, going in and out (and precede him through doors and up and down stairs using the house tab), eating, etc.  This NILIF must be maintained by you with this dog for the rest of his life with you.

Once your dog has been living on this behavior modification regimen for about 6 weeks, repost and remind me of your problem and progress and I will evaluate how your dog is responding and give you further instructions.