Protective Aggression At an early age, my husband and I worked with Gus to train him to be very gentle with humans. When he was playing and would nip - even if it didn't hurt, we would yelp and ignore him...to get to the point for him to think you have to be very careful and gentle with humans. he is now 10 months old and is just that. He still likes to nibble on fingers and toes, but is extremely gentle.
About a month ago, I was lying on the couch with Gus sleeping on my stomach. My brother-in-law was leaving and leaned down to hug me. This woke Gus up and he growled and barked very agressively. I had never seen him do anything like that! We both laughed and went on about our business.
This past week, he has done this same thing 5 or 6 times. It is always when he is with me -- usually him being startled (Gus and I went home this weekend to stay with my parents. One afternoon, my mom opened the door to wake me up from a nap. He went to the edge of the bed growling and barking very ferociously. Then he hopped off the bed and wagged his tail and jumped up on her legs to get her to pick him up.)
What do you think? How do I deal with this? Say "no"? Ignore it? My mom said that he sounded serious and it scared her some. Please help! |