Rage in Brittant Puppy

Question
We recently bought a Brittany puppy that resulted from an inadvertent breeding of a pair of Brits the owners had no original intention of breeding. We noticed at 6 1/2 weeks that if the puppy was in an energetic mood and we tried to subdue or restrict him from aggressive behavior or even playing he goes nuts and growls violently and starts biting and snapping. He is eight weeks old now and this happens at least once a day.  In all other respects he's a great dog, nearly housebroken, comes to his name mostly, and sits on command. We would appreciate any advice on correcting this behavior, however, we have two young boys and are realistic that this may not be corrected.  By the way, the breeder basically told me to pack sand when I made him aware of this and suggested returning the pup.  

Paul

Answer
Hi Paul,  It sounds like you have a very dominant puppy, and if you try to dominate it i.e. hold it down or do anything else domineering to it, it is going to give you a big fight.  You do need to get the dog into obedience training right away, but it has to be the right type of training.  If use dominance training, you will have nothing but problems.  You need to find a trainer who does leadership training.  Dominance training normally uses prong collars, choke chains and other domineering methods to train the dogs.  This type of training will normally tell you to either hold the dog down or turn him over on his back and dominate him to get him to give in.  Your problem is that he is also dominate so that will never happen, it will just make matters worse.  With leadership training you are using his natural instincts to train him, basically guiding him to do what you want.  With this training most trainers will use their regular collar or a Halti brand Head Halter or Gentle Leader.  They are considered more humane ways of training. You definitely do not want to wait to train him, and you want to get your kids involved in the training so that the puppy understands that he has to listen to them too.  Hope this helps,

Dawn