Hello Mrs. Ferguson, Check out this video by Jeff Gellman, who specializes in aggression. Here he demonstrated safety measures (a back tie), when to have people reward a dog (during calmness and not during aggressive displays), and how to appropriately use punishment when treating aggression (with good timing, calmness, and in combination with positive reinforcement for calm behavior and with the appropriate safety measures for your guests). Aggression video: https://youtu.be/mgmRRYK1Z6A It sounds like he needs a lot of structure and boundaries in general to build respect. Have him work for everything he gets for a while by having him perform a command first. For example, have him sit before you feed him, lay down before you pet him, look at you before you take him outside, ect.. If he nudges you, climbs into your lap uninvited, begs, or does anything else pushy, make him leave the room. Teach him a Place command and work on him staying on place for up to an hour, even when you walk into the other room for a minute. Practice crate manners. Work on teaching a structured Heel. Forget about getting places during a walk for a while right now, instead go somewhere open, like your front yard, a park, or culdesac and practice a heel where his nose does not go past your leg. If you need to hire a trainer to help you with the aggression, look for someone who uses a lot of boundaries, positive reinforcement and fair discipline tactfully. Look for someone who is very experienced with aggression and different types of aggression - many trainers are only experienced with fear based aggression and you could have some other types of aggression happening also, so ask the potential trainer about their experience with aggression. Small dogs can have any of the types of aggression that larger dogs can have - they do not view themselves as any different than larger breeds. Place: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=omg5DVPWIWo Crate manners: https://thegooddog.net/training-videos/free-how-to-training-videos/learn-to-train-the-good-dog-way-the-crate/ Thresholds: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_-w28C2g68M Heel article - The turns method: https://wagwalking.com/training/train-a-poodle-to-heel Heel Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OTiKVc4ZZWo Dog Training Do’s https://www.solidk9training.com/sk9-blog/2016/09/08/the-ten-commandments-of-dog-training-and-ownership-do-2 There might be additional things that need to be addressed, but without specific details about his temperament, history, and the nature of the bites I can't include additional advice. It might be worth hiring a trainer who specializes in aggression to help you also. Best of luck training, Caitlin Crittenden

June 10, 2019

Hello McKenna, The fact that he cries actually means that he needs to practice being alone - in a crate or exercise pen if you will be gone for more than a few minutes, to keep him safe. If he is not crate trained I suggest teaching that to help him learn to cope with being alone. For the biting, check out the article linked below. Follow the Leave It method. Leave It will take some times to teach, so use the "Bite Inhibition" method while he is still learning Leave It - since the Bite Inhibition method is something you can use right away. When he cries stay gone until he gets quiet for at least two seconds. This might take a while at first and you may need to set up a camera to spy on him if he is not in an exercise pen, to make sure that he is not getting into things. Every time you return when he cries while he is still crying he learns that if he cries you will come back and he never learns to calm himself down. I also suggest joining a puppy kindergarten class that has time for off leash play for the puppies, supervised by the instructor so that no one gets too rough or overwhelmed. Best of luck training, Caitlin Crittenden

May 8, 2019

Hello Katrina, Check out the article linked below. Start by using the 'Bite Inhibition" method, but at the same time work on the "Leave It" command from the Leave It method. It will take a bit for her to learn a solid Leave It command, so use the Bite Inhibition method while she is in the process of learning Leave It. Once she understands leave it and can leave moving objects alone (the method describes how to teach that), then switch from the bite Inhibition method to using the Leave It method exclusively. Once she can do leave it, you can also use the Pressure method as a consequence for biting if she continues to bite after being told Leave it. It's important for her to learn self-control (which the bite Inhibition and Leave It methods practice), so that she is able to control her mouth when excited. Expect all of this to take a couple of months. It is normal and even beneficial for puppies to bite at this age. They just need to learn how to control the pressure of it and when to use their mouths (like when playing with another puppy gently or chewing a toy) and when not to (not to bite us). https://wagwalking.com/training/train-a-shih-tzu-puppy-to-not-bite Best of luck training, Caitlin Crittenden

April 16, 2019