We had to give our puppy back.. :(

We are all so disappointed. Willie was awesome in so many ways, but he had one big problem that we should have noticed, and did, right away. He was just an alpha dog. He was not accepting that the kids were higher in the pecking order than him and, as the days went on, he was demonstrating increasing tendencies to challenge his pack order with the kids. Here's a run down of what made us make the decision to take him back:

Willie snapped at Trevor twice. The first time I noticed he was sleeping in the kitchen by the pantry where his food was kept a lot. I didn't think too much of it, as we have an AC vent near there. I thought he found it cooler there. Then, when I was cooking dinner in the kitchen, the dog was sitting in that spot and Trevor walked into the kitchen to talk to me. As he was talking, he walked over to Willie to pet him. Willie growled and snapped at him. It was completely out of the blue to me. I rolled him and got angry and kicked him out of the kitchen (not kicked literally, people). Then, when I saw him sitting there again later, I realized he was guarding his food in the pantry. He never slept near other AC vents in the house, only this one. Once I realized he was food guarding, I no longer allowed him in that spot, and chased him out of the kitchen whenever he settled there as he also started trying to settle in other spots around the kitchen.

The second time he snapped at Trevor when Trevor, Ray and Willie were out in the backyard while I was in the kitchen. The doorbell rang and Ray went in to answer it because my hands were covered in food. I thought I could watch puppy and child in the backyard through our glass storm door. Willie climbed onto the stairs leading into the house and put his paws on the grill to lick a spatula Ray had been cooking with. I rinsed and dried my hands and turned to take the spatula away from the dog right as Trevor was walking inside, too. On his way in, he had to pass Willie licking the spatula. As he passed him, Willie turned growled and snapped at Trevor. Trevor hadn't even made a move to take the spatula away, he was simply walking by.

He also growled over rawhides, etc. We practiced taking them away. I would have the kids take away his bones and have him sit and wait before giving them back to him. We practiced it quite a bit. He still growled at them whenever I turned my back, even if it was just to walk into the kitchen to get a glass of water. So we put rawhides and bones in his crate where he was allowed to be and the kids wouldn't bother him. He did learn to retreat to his crate, esp in the afternoons and when the kids were getting ready for bed. He did the same with his food, despite me having the kids feed him and taking his food away and giving it back to him. He would still growl when they walked near him while he was eating in the kitchen. Given that he snapped twice at Trevor when Trevor wasn't even taking food, we were both scared he would eventually snap at the kids. Yes, almost every time we fed him, we practiced taking his food and giving it back. We even pet him while he was eating. As long as Ray or I was directly.. and I mean, DIRECTLY over him, he was fine. If we stepped away, even in the same room, he growled at the kids.

We allowed him on the couch at first and he was fine at first. Then I started noticing that whenever the kids would get on the couch and he would jump up, he would get all playful nippy and they would retreat from the couch. I would encourage them to pull him off the couch and not to let him have it. But they didn't want to get nipped, so they reinforced his behaviour. I was afraid it would turn into a dominance issue over the couch, so he was no longer allowed on the couch or any bed. He learned pretty quickly and only jumped up when he was sopping wet. heh.

We should have noticed his dominance at the dog park. Whenever we took him to the dog park, he would find all the smaller dogs and play with them and dominate them. The only time he got the doggie beat down was if there was a bigger dog in the park who wouldn't take his puppy liberties. Then the dog would roll him and when he got back up he would avoid that dog. I don't know if there is anything in that, it's just an observation.

He listened to Ray really well. All Ray had to do was come stand over him and he rolled and acted submissive. I had my work cut out for me. He definitely wasn't aggressive to me, but I had to chase him down and roll him myself if he was stealing toys, or really doing anything.

Things he was awesome at.. he was a quick learner. In the few weeks we had him he learned sit and would heel on a leash, whether prong or flat collar, with minimal correction. We introduced him to farm animals twice at the farm. He learned to sit politely when people were petting him while on leash and he was doing reasonably well passing dogs on the trail and staying walking at heel. He sat politely while I put on his collar and leash. When he wasn't a basket case of energy (ie: after we walked him and let him play) he would settle with a chew toy or sleep and was not a problem at all. He never pooped in the house and only had accidents when I didn't notice his pacing. So he was pretty much house trained. He slept fine in his crate all night, though he barked in it for a few minutes during the day. His puppyness, while exhausting, was doable. In fact, much of it I knew was normal behavior he would outgrow.

I talked to a number of people about his behavior and as we came to the realization that we couldn't even safely leave the room to go to the bathroom or clear a table without the kids or dog being with us, we had to make the decision to return him. I have to reiterate that the kids were not harassing Willie, they loved to pet him and play with him but they weren't invading his space or poking him or treating him roughly. We loved Willie, he was a great dog in so many ways and our last day and this morning has been so quiet. We all loved taking him for his walks and letting him run through the creek by our house. But we knew we made the right decision when we took him back to the rescue and he rolled a dog twice his size. Even the rescue people said he looked like he was a definite dominant male dog and we were making the right decision.