Aggressive Parson Russell

Question
We have a 6 month old parson russell terrier (male and not yet neutered) and lately he has become very aggressive. He has just started this behavior in the last month and it is increasingly worse. We have plans to have him neutered but I know this probably won't correct all the aggression. Hurley (the dog) growls and shows teeth when we pet him but at the same time wags his tail. When we place him in his crate at night he snaps and growls (he'll be happy and just do a 180) and he has become very food and toy aggressive. When he does growl we will stop petting him and ignore him for awhile. He will come to us to be petted but when we start, he starts the growling. He has never biten either one of us but there are a few times he has snapped where if we had not moved we would have been biten, but these instances have been rare. He has been housebroken and knows the basic commands so I don't know what this is all about. He knows he's not alpha dog. If you could give us any advice on what to do with this bi-polar dog, we would be extremely greatful!!!

Answer
Hi Elsa and thanks for your question.

You should probably consider the methods in which you are training him (or should I say, he is training you). There is a program that has worked wonderfully with dogs such as Hurley. It's called Nothing in Life is Free and there is tons of info on this across the net. You can find it by googling NILIF. Basically, what this programs involves is letting the dog know that he gets NOTHING without earning it. You and the whole family MUST follow it to the letter. He does see himself as top dog and you need to show him that the people are providers of all good things. Neutering will possibly help and I do encourage it strongly, but it's not going to "cure" the aggressive behavior. It will escalate if you don't stop it now and you don't want it to come down to bloodshed.

This program is highly effective and it works. Please look into it for your boy and I'm sure that after you try it, you'll see results :)