Our 5mo Yorkie, Kilo, has always had a bit of a problem recognizing our 7yo (we have me, my husband, the 14, 13, 9 and 7yo kids) as higher than him. It only comes out when he has a particularly special toy (rawhide bone - we've gotten rid of all rawhide today though). She can take food out of his mouth, she can remove his food bowl while he is eating, she can make him sit and he will not start to eat until she releases him, she can play fetch with other toys and he gives them up or plays tug-of-war but if he has his special bone he'll aggressively growl (don't know how to describe it but you know he's not playing) at her and won't let her have it.
Whenever this has happened I will alpha roll and get very very angry at him and yell at him saying, "no bite" and "no growl" and basically yelling at him not to even think about growling at her again and of course, "bad dog". I do this on the advice of a friend who has a Dobie and 2 Mexican street dogs.
But since I keep having to do this, I'm starting to think that it isn't working (I'm not normally this slow
). Does my daughter (the 7yo) have to do the correction or will it "work" (eventually?) coming from me (the acknowledged alpha)? Is there something else we should be doing?