Our re-homed dog has just bitten my teenage daugther (update @ post 53)!

Here's some back ground info. We re-homed our Giant Schnauzer pup 10 weeks ago, he is 11 months old now. We also have a 7.5 year old Giant who is the best dog you could hope for. The pup has spent 6 months of his life with a family that obviously didn't have enough time to devote to him and I think he has run riot and done exactly what he wants. There are certain aspects about him which are great, he has basic training and we are working on everything alse. The pup is a terrible thief and can steal things from just about anywhere and he is very reluctant to give them up if your are not firm enough with him. They both had a good walk this morning and their breakfasts and then I had to go out to my Spanish lesson, only gone for a max of 2 hours to come home and find a hysterical almost 19 year old shut in the kitchen because of the pup. He had stolen a lid from a yogurt pot and my daugther tried to take it away from him and he growled, so on the advice of a dog trainer friend of ours we have been trading up items with him to make him give up the item we want, well it didn't work and she got bitten, luckily she had thick slipper socks on and he didn't puncture her skin but he has left marks like you would get from a bad bramble scratch on the back of her calf muscle and he also went for her arm but missed. This, other than her trying to get a plastic lid away from him was totally unprovoked. He has shown a few aggressive tendencies and to be honest I don't think the people that had him before have been totally honest with his breeder, he went back there before he came to us, They had 3 young children and me and the breeder were led to believe that it was just a change in their circumstances that led to him going back. The question is after that ramble what do I do? I often have visitors with younger children, if that had been one of them I would never forgive myself and the outcome may have been very different. With him coming into a grown up family situation we thought it would be better for him because all 5 of us can take responsibility for his training. I have always said I would never tolerate a dog that is prepared to bite, When we first had him he flew at me one day again another occasion when he had stolen a food item and I tried to get it back, we feel at a disadvanatge because we do not know his history and at 11 months old and 35kgs it is a little daunting to know what to do for the best, my daugther says she doesn't want anything to do with him, she was so scared and she has always adored dogs and actually has been thinking about joining the police or army to work with dogs. Your advice/opinions would be greatly appreciated.
Regards

This is very scary especially in a dog of this size.

What you must consider is how much you ALL want this dog, or not.

If the whole household is not totally committed to keeping the dog then you need to rehome the dog.

It is not fair to keep a dog if a member of the family is scared of it.

If you ARE committed then I believe that if resource guarding is his only issue (ie it is the cause of all his behaviours) this can be cured easily.

It will take some time if he has a history of this behaviour being successful but it is perfectly doable.

The good news is that the dog obviously has some bite inhibition otherwise your daughter would now be in hospital.

Also, dogs rarely miss............. which again indicates a degree of inhibition.

I would suggest that a lot more work is required to get the dog to cease resource guarding, it is simple but time consuming and has to be followed by the whole family.

If this is an option, I can give you further advice.

Obviously I/we do not want to give up on him, we did not go into this lightly and thought long and hard before deciding. If you think you can help then please feel free, all advice will be more than welcome.

I Read this

http://www.deesdogs.com/documents/re...ndfoodgame.pdf

2 Buy Mine! A Practical Guide to Resource Guarding in Dogs by Jean Donaldson. This is the BEST publication on this subject and has a detailed step by step guide to prevention and curing this whether it is food, locations, objects, people.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Mine-Practic.../dp/0970562942

It is available on Kindle so you can download immediately and start reading.

3 Get some good 1:1 help from a reputable trainer.

I see you are in Hertfordshire.

I can personally recommend Steve Mann.

http://www.alphadogtrainingschool.co.uk/

Coincidentally he is hosting a seminar on Aggression with Geert de Bolster in May which may be of interest to you.

http://www.alphadogtrainingschool.co...e-bolster.html

Read the book several times and discuss with your family, this is really easy to sort..........

HTH

I can second both the resources recommended and the recommendation for Steve Mann

Thanks, book ordered and we will be discussing our next move when everyone is home a little later, he is a beautiful dog and we have to sort this out but you can't help but feel protective to your kids whatever age they are.

Is your daughter likely to change her mind?

I'd download the Mine! book - we use this with almost all dogs successfully. If you don't have a kindle, download the kindle app for your computer, and you can read it on there.

Put it into practise as soon as possible, and get your family to read it or teach them the principles so they can help too. When you start seeing improvement, your daughter may find it easier to believe he won't do it again.

Smokeybear made a good point saying that dog's dont miss - he was warning your daughter, so he has some restraint at least. That's something to hold on too.

We'll all be here to help you with this.

I can recommend Steve Mann too.

Yes I think she will, she's had a lot on her plate lately and I think that tipped her over the edge, as I said before we have had some issues with him and it is predominately a guarding thing be it a piece of food, a food packet or something from the bin. With our other dog we were more able to deal with these issues as they came along as we had him at 8 weeks old, dealing with a younger smaller pup is much easier and also I don't feel totally at ease with the new one as we don't know his history. I want to do the right thing, I do not want to fail him.

I know it is difficult. At this stage you dont really know each other so you are all weary - him included
I totaly agree with what the others are saying, resource guarding is possible to get over, at the moment he has been warning you
even the bite was a warning (a scary one) warning that he isnt happy

Hopefully it will make you feel better to know I had a dog like that. Very possesive and mad for any kind of food
It did take a bit of work but now she is great, but even better I trust and understand her and she trusts and understand me
So I know she is perfect with everything but can get guardy of a big meaty bone
So simple -she is always in her crate when she has one so she feels safe with it, I never take it off her or let my other dog near it