I got my working cocker spaniel puppy in June and at the end of this month he'll be 9 months old. He's lovely and affectionate when he's in a good mood, very friendly with other dogs, he's highly intelligent - picking up tricks in a matter of minutes - and was toilet trained quickly and easily, as well as always having slept right through the night without an issue. He has a lot of good qualities.

But the one thing he's always had an issue with is biting. He was very nippy when he was a small puppy like a lot of dogs but we obviously attributed this to teething and used the tactics people often suggest, like yelping in pain, telling him 'no' in a stern voice, ignoring him, putting him in time out, anti-chew spray, putting him on his back, giving him chew toys instead, etc. But he still does it now, and it's very worrying because he has his adult teeth through as well as being much bigger in general. I'm so afraid that one day he will go too far and bite someone else and get into trouble for it.

He's a very high energy dog, but he's rarely alone in the house and he's taken for long runs in the woods daily, which he loves. He loves to play with other dogs and quite happily rolls onto his back to submit if the other dog isn't as friendly as he is. He's never tried to bite anyone outside the family unit, so we obviously thought we weren't being dominant enough with him and tried things like making him walk behind us into the house or out and about, and making him look at us properly before handing him his bowl of food. But nothing seems to get through to him - he'll jump up and take a snap at you if you tell him off, bare his teeth, yank at your clothing, leap up at you repeatedly and nip at your hands holding his leash if you go in a different direction to the one he wants. He does it whenever something doesn't go his way.

He displays other aggressive little behaviours too, like wrapping his paws around your leg to try to manhandle you into doing what he wants and shoulder barging closed doors or the fence outside. But if he's told off sharply for them, he does stop and will reluctantly sit down. The biting is the most worrying issue.

It's not just mouthing, either - he pulls back his upper lip and wrinkles his muzzle to properly bare his teeth and deliberately digs his teeth in hard. We've bought help books, looked online, asked the vet, asked people we know, but either the tactics don't seem to register with him or else we're just told 'oh yeah he's a puppy, puppies do nip a bit'. But we've had many dogs over the years, from border collies to staffies, and none of them have ever done anything like this.

If anyone has any help at all it would be greatly appreciated.

[Some extra context: he's never bothered by children as the youngest member of the family is 19, and he was neutured 2 weeks ago.]

I was going to ask if he was neutered, and I thank you for posting so much information. I wish all posters would go into this much detail, it makes it much easier for us to answer.

The only issue I see is that you put him on his back. That can backfire if you don't know what you're doing, and it can actually create more issues. I would stop doing that if it is something you're continuing to do. You stated you're not dominant enough, and that's why putting him on his back won't work. He'll just fight it more.

This is no longer playful teething puppy behavior, this is now an issue and it needs to be addressed. I would really suggest an animal behaviorist, someone that can come into your home, assess your dog, and help you with a course of action.

Do realize that a dog that's neutered doesn't instantly have those hormones out of his body. It takes a few months before that surgery will have a noticeable affect on his behavior.

For now I'd continue with sharp no's, or just walking away from him. He needs to know that he won't get attention for this bad behavior, and if he continues, he will be ignored.

I wish I could be more help, but without being able to see your dog, I really can't offer any advice on how to fix the behavior. I'd have to see you all in action, together. That's the downside of the internet. :(

How does he react when you put him on his back? A human forcing a dog on his back is an absolute negative. Dogs do this only voluntarily to show trust/submission to their alpha.

Tickle, sadly this is something Cesar Milan does, and it's something a lot of dog owners have adopted into their training methods.

I'm actually a fan of Cesar, but I quickly learned, the hard way, that unless you know what you're doing, and have the right attitude, and expertise, putting a dog on his back to control a bad behavior, can actually make the behavior 10 times worse.

In other words, I totally agree with you. This is not the type of thing just anyone should try, and it shouldn't be attempted just for a simple issue like puppy nipping, and it seems that this is when the OP did the back submission technique. Now she/he has even bigger issues.

I guess it is pretty obvious that OP's dog has absolutely no respect for 'alpha'.

Putting him on his back was something we did when he was smaller, but not now - although he has learned that if he lies down on his back, we can't get a grip on his collar to pull him out of the room, put him outside, etc. if he's misbehaving - he'll roll on his back but uses it as leverage to get what he wants and take snaps at us from that position, so I doubt that counts as submission from him!

I'll look into a behaviourist, thanks for the advice.

No I wasn't saying that was submission from him, obviously not! You didn't read it correctly.