[Erin]

Originally Posted by FirstYorkie

Erin,

You are describing a whole lot of different issues here - object guarding, food guarding, location guarding, and several others.

I think it would be best if you consulted your trainer - IF she is a positive trainer - about all of this. Some one-on-one sessions would probably be called for!

Several times you talk about him barking and "freaking". It's hard for me to picture exactly what he's doing. When your Mom reached to pet him, he barked. Did he growl? Did he nip at her?

When other dogs try to smell him back, what does his "freaking" look like? Barking? More?

How does he act when he is "jealous" of you petting other dogs?

We do go to training, though we have never done a private session in our home. I would like to do that although our trainer works full time at her facility. It's also hard to provoke him. It might be a week before he does it again. We have talked at length with the trainer about this. Mostly we are doing time-outs, ignoring him, etc.

When he is jealous he either tries to crawl in my lap (or up my leg) and push the other dog away OR he barks at ME (not at the dog).

He does have a low growl that he does if he hears a noise outside or something like that. But this is a bark. He has two different kinds. One I swear sounds exactly like a gobble. The "freak out" bark is a high-pitched almost screaming. It's similar to his alarm bark but less howling. The difference is the alarm bark would be directed at the car in the driveway and this bark is directed at whoever "disturbed" him. When he "snaps" he doesn't bite he just barks 4 or 5 times really fast and then stops.

The reason I am unsure if he is guarding the food is because I can stick my hand in the food bowl and he's OK with that. It's more like he's afraid we are leaving and he "needs" to eat. He likes to have someone in the kitchen with him when he eats, though he will eat by himself sometimes too.

The trainer says the bark is like "I didn't want that!" or a "don't touch me!" Like "I don't want to go outside I want to eat!" We've corrected the food/door thing by simply waiting for him to ask to go outside by ringing his bell. But he just has this temper that's crazy! The trainer also said he might just grow out of it IF we don't tolerate it and he's testing us.

She's seen him in action with other dogs at daycare and at class and is not extremely concerned. He's never been hurt nor has he hurt another dog, they just have a bark-off. The problem is I'm afraid he might do it to the WRONG dog. He also doesn't do it every time and she says he is 10 times worse when I am there. (And I do NOT spoil him at home. No free lunch program all the way.)

He just barks, he doesn't bite. At first it spooked me but now I'm confident I can pick him up and say "time out!" Sometimes I can even say "Loki, crate!" and he trots over there like nothing happened. The tantrum is over as quickly as it starts and it's easy to calm him down. Also, recently I've been trying to distract him from it. If he starts up I immediately ask him to sit, his oldest and most reliable command. He usually complies and calms down immediately. I just keep thinking redirect him.

The thing is, this doesn't happen every day nor even in the same situation more than once. It happens maybe once a week. It's not a huge issue that's taking over our lives but I want to take care of it now. I have to say that it IS improving just not as quickly as I'd like. He is learning it's not cool and he can't get away with it.

I'm going to try all of your suggestions and report back in a few days