Dog nipped at 2 family memebers!!!

[sace]

Hi everyone. About 7 weeks ago i adopted a 6ish year old male black lab, hes was a stray. He almost immediately was comfortable and happy in his new home. He is very affectionate and soft. My issue is, the other day he made a nip gesture towards a friend. We were at the friends house when the friend walked in the door, tobi quickly ran over to greet him in his usually manner. Ears forward, curious, tail wagging. But he does have a sence of territorial pride. As the friend made a "jump up" gesture tobi happily jumped up to say hi, thats when tobi nipped towards his face! He didnt make any growl sounds or angry gestures. He even directly after tried to lick their face as if nothing happened? I got upset and got him to lay down etc to show he had done something wrong. I didnt think much of it tho assuming maybe he got spooked, but tonight it happened again. This time at my house with my dad who lives with us. The two of them met 2 weeks ago and have grown to be very close since my dads home all day with him. As my dad went out the front door to grab something he closed the door behind him. Tobi was waiting at the front door for the 10 seconds my dad was gone. When he re entered the house, he leaned over to rub tobi's ears. Thats when tobi nipped at him. He left a scratch on my dads chin. My dad yelled at tobi and tobi immediately obeyed, walked a few steps in a low positions and layed down, ears pinned back with a scared look. I ordered him to go to his room which he did. He is a little territorial of our home. He looks proud when someone knock. But we have had friends just walk in the front door and he doesnt do anything of this nature. It only seems to be when someone leans into him right after walking in. Im not sure what to think? Im worried if hes willing to have those actions towards my dad under those circumstances, is this the start of something? Im very confused about the whole thing! It was as if he forgot who my dad was. Any input/suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

[sace]

I should also add that the first incident happened a few days ago. So this behavior is very new

[hazelrunpack]

Since you're working with one (?) dog and it seems to happen during greetings, getting Tobi to sit for a greeting should be a fairly easy task. In addition, try having everyone ignore him as they come in the door until he settles down. That's what I do with our 8. hubby tends to sweet talk them and pat them all on his way in. So when I come in, they're well-behaved and just mill around. When he comes in, they're more likely to jump on him. Husbands! What to do with them?

Our Cole is also fond of the chin nip so he got additional training. What helped us immensely was teaching him a 'gentle' command. Because we have 8 dogs and working with them at the door is difficult at best, especially since we don't get many guests here, we've been less successful at the not jumping than we'd like. He's usually pretty good, but we make sure that the 'gentle' command is well-practiced so that if he does do a face greeting, he doesn't surprise anyone with a nibble. For 'gentle', we used a treat held between our fingers--we only let him take it if he approached very gently and softly. Then we transferred that to saying hello. Now, if he jumps up at all, he's a confirmed chin licker.

Welcome to the board, btw. I hope you post some pics of Tobi soon! We'd love to see him!

[reanne]

Also you might want to try not giving him pets and other attention unless he is invited. When he is told "okay, come" then give him attention, but when he comes up and asks for it, ignore him.

[millitntanimist]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lC_OKgQFgzw

Here's a good video on curbing jumping behavior.

I agree with the other posters, to me this sounds like overzealous greeting behavior (this has nothing to do with aggression from what you describe) - he just needs to learn to be more careful.

[ownedbycats]

I think the other posters are right and this is not aggression, just overly enthusistic, untrained greeting behavior. Puppies nibble and lick at grown dogs' mouths in greeting. Some dogs try to mimick this with humans they think are in charge. Usually this gets corrected while the dog is young, but if he was a stray, no one may have cared to take the time or effort to teach him manners. Teach him appropriate greetings routines. Yelp when he nips (sounds funny, but a high pitched "ow!" and 30 seconds of ignoring work really quickly to teach a dog that nipping means losing the attention they want so badly) Good luck!