2 Standard Poodles

Question
I have 2 standard poodles One female, one male. female is 5 years old, male is 4 years old.  the male is a complete baby, cries when we pet other dog, however he is much larger. He's afraid of his own shadow!  The female is the dominant one, sooo sweet and very confident.  Lately, my male is getting angry at the female when we pet her, he goes after her, and she cowers!  They were eating bones together, and the female ate some crumbs up(not unusual) and he got mad again at her. Now, when I say going after her, it's what dogs do, snapping kind of.  Sort of like when an older dog puts a younger one in her place.   I don't know what's changed, why he would be acting this way.  Usually, if we are petting her, he playfully chews on her, but now no.. weird.

Answer
Hello Mary,
You will need to decide who is the dominate dog and which is the submissive dog.  Then you need to treat the dominate dog like she IS dominate.  Pet her first, she gets the first treat, feed first, walk first, etc.  When your male acts like this you need to Dominate him and make him submit to you.  To do this, you need to place him on the ground on his side with his head on the ground.  You also need to look at him until he will look away.  Keep him in this position until he will relax and submit to you.  He needs to know that even if the female is the Dog boss, you are the ultimate boss in the house and your rule trumps even hers.  If you say "Stop That" he needs to listen.  
By petting the female first, you are also letting your male know that YOU see the female as higher than him and so he starts learning his place.

Give it a try and let me know how he is doing.  If you have other questions for me, please feel free to ask me.  

Thanks for using AllExperts.com,
Kim