5 1/2 month pup agressive bite

My pup ran off with a chocalate bar wrapper, knowing chocalate is bad for him I tried to get it off him, he growled and wouldn't open his mouth.

I asked him to 'give it' which is the command which he knows to give the item back, say if its a toy.

He wouldn't, he ended up baring his teeth.. I thought he'd bite at this point so I got my coat and put it over my arm and tried to open his mouth with my fingers, very hard to do because he had his jaw locked.

I got so far and he just snapped at me, I never thought he'd do this because he is not all aggressive.. He used to have food protection over his bowl but I researched it and sorted that out within a matter of hours.

Its only a problem with food in his mouth like a puppy chew or something, hence him thinking that a chocalate rapper is food.

The bite was definetly a snap, im lucky I had my coat over my arm because it probably would of done damage if not.

I was shocked and felt threatened so I tapped him on the nose and pinned him down and he gave up the wrapper..

I don't want this to happen again.. And to be honest, I don't know how to stop it...

Any suggestions?
Thanks

1) STOP reaching for things in the dog's mouth. This only teaches/causes dogs to clamp down and refuse to release the object.

2) if you need a dog to release something, take hold of the collar, and put gentle steady upward pressure on the collar. The collar should be up under the chin and behind the ears. This will cause any dog to release any object. Apply the gentle steady upward pressure until the dog releases the object. As it is releasing the object, gently say OUT. Good dog. Immediately give a food reward.

3) practice the "trade game" with your dog. Set him up on a leash or a line. Give him a high value object. Play trade with tasty treats.

4) Teach the puppy to bring his prizes to YOU. Do this using food rewards. Play a little fun game of tug with the pup when he returns to you with his object. Don't take it every time. When you do ask for it, have a nice treat ready to trade for it.

Force is counterproductive when trying to teach a dog to willingly come to you and release objects he feels possessive or proud of.

Many people unwittingly teach puppies to run away and duck and dodge their heads by reaching for objects in the puppy's mouth.

I NEVER reach for a puppy's mouth until the puppy has well learned that if I ask for something, I have something to trade. I play a lot of tug games with puppies with objects so that bringing something to me is FUN.

Sometimes you have to look at things from the DOG's point of view. You put your puppy in a position where he felt completely overwhelmed, and he reacted normally.

Try this way, and I guarantee you and the puppy will be happier, and you will have better results.

One more thing.

In my opinion, this was not an aggressive bite.

You FORCED this puppy into biting you by overwhelming him and putting him in a no win situation. He told you several times that he was not going to give up his prize by you forcing him to do so, and when you continued, he made good on his promise.

I agree ^^

I just wanted to add that once your dog understands what you want with the trade game use more and more difficult items that you are asking your dog to give back to you. I trained this with chew sticks, raw and cooked bones, and rawhides (I thought it was important to train with cooked bones and raw hides because I would never let my dogs eat them, and I wanted their 'spit it' to be reliable even if they got a hold of those bad boys)

And also; in correlation with Red's #1, your dog needs to let you look at his teeth for dental/vet purposes, and reaching into his mouth is reinforcing the negativity. Its important that he doesn't become tense, stressed, or aggresive when the time comes that you need to do so.

Good advice. He is just a puppy, just as a baby will cry if you take something off it that it wants, a puppy will snap at you, particularly if given no other option.

Having said that, you did try to do everything the only right way you knew, so well done for that. Chester bit me once, when I was walking him along holding his collar, when he ran away from me at the park. His lead was in the middle of the park where I'd put it down with my stuff, and I had to coax him over but hold his collar at the same time so he wouldn't run off again. At this stage he was about the same age as your pup. Well, he wasn't happy, he couldn't get away, and I'd left him with no option, so he bit me. Not hard, but just like, `Muuuum! Let me GO!!'. He had no other way of telling me that I was upsetting him. I realised then, that I'd left him with no other choice, and that he was obviously feeling threatened and intimidated, and it wasn't his fault he ran away, it was my fault for not teaching him recall more thoroughly. After all, he was just a little pup.

You have taken the first steps in teaching him the `give' command, you could also try teaching him `drop it' - there's a difference. In one, he gives up to you, in the other, he drops in front of you, although there's a fine line and `give' might be ok by itself.

We have been guarding against guarding since ours were baby pups - putting our hands in their bowls, playing with their mouths etc. Obviously you need to do this carefully, but I can go up to either of them and take a big meaty bone out of their mouths now with no protest. In fact, when I'm in an annoying mood I often grab Chester's front incisors and say to him `Wook at those teef!!!' in a stupid voice. It annoys him, but I can't help it he's so CUTE! Lol...

Of course, when you are initially teaching `give' or similar, what Redyre said is exactly what I would do, too - you need to get him to give it up and distract him with something else, like another toy, or a treat. He's a baby, so he's going to want something to play with, and if you just take whatever he's got off him and don't replace it with something he IS allowed to chew, he'll get frustrated, which can lead to destructive behaviour and other expressions of boredom and frustration.

It takes time, but it's well worth it. Having a dog you know is going to give stuff up to you when you ask is very nice.