I got a daschund puppy at 8 weeks old. As he has gotten older when you pick him up when he his tired or sleeping he growls and snips at you. Today I have him a bath and while I was drying him he got very agressive and all I could see were teeth. How can I make him stop. We do have kids in the house very often and I don't want him to bite them.

RubyPitbull

duece, you are right to be concerned. Right now, your puppy is giving you warnings. Very shortly he will move into biting. When a dog that young shows aggression, it is due to human error, not his. It is a training and leadership problem. Your little guy appears to be under the impression that he is the one in charge. You would do well to find out from your vet, friends, or neighbors if there are puppy training classes in your area. Dogs view the world differently than we do. They are genetically predisposed to viewing the world in a pack structure. There is a male and a female as pack leaders and all the other dogs find their place within the pack ranking. You and all of your family members need to learn how to be the top dogs and to get him to understand that he is the lowest man in the pack rank. Here is a link to a website that will help you get understand what you need to do to accomplish this. Establishing and Keeping Alpha Position, Letting your dog know you are the boss
If you can't afford training classes you might want to invest in some books or a training DVD. Labman, our resident dog expert likes the DVD showing the Monks of New Skete techniques. Unfortunately, they don't sell the DVD on their web site, but you can purchase one of their books or CDs from their site. The DVD that exists is sold by outside sources. You can do an online search and see where the best buy is. Labman also has an excellent list of books on his sticky: http://www.askmehelpdesk.com/dogs/in...tml#post251804

froggy7

While I agree with Ruby, I will also point out that _I_ wouldn't like it if I was sleeping and someone came and picked me up. While you should take steps to establish yourself as the dog's leader, part of being a responsible dog owner is recognizing the dog's needs as well. You need to give him an established sleeping spot (a crate would work well for this) so that he has an area that he can go to where he knows that he won't be disturbed at.

RubyPitbull

You are right froggy. I was focusing more on the aggression at bath time which should be a pleasureable experience, than the first portion of her post. There is an expression "let sleeping dogs lie." Dogs, like humans or any other animal, don't like to be disturbed when they are sleeping. Picking them up when they are either trying to sleep or when they are fast asleep is a huge no-no. I am a bit confused as to why anyone would have a need to do that. Deuce, labman discusses crate training on that link of his that I gave to you. Your dog should have his own little safe den as froggy suggests.

bushg

Please, please get him neutered.