We have had her just over a week. She is 9 month old Husky x Akita called Sasha. She is a big dog for 9 months.
My friend rescued her but could not keep her so I took her on.
The problem is when she is excited she nips and snaps but I think she is just playing.
I have a 9 year old son and she snaps at him when he goes to stroke her, she has never broke skin and my partner say's she is playing but she does get told "no" firmly by us. My son and the dog are never left alone together.
She is so gentle with me and a bit more rough with my partner, I think that's because he plays rough with her.
I am hoping that maybe she will grow out of it??
I do not want to give up on her as other people have because other than the snapping she is great. My son is not scared of her but he will not stoke her now.
Don't know what to do.

How much experience do you have with dogs? And what type of dogs? Are you familar with the breed traits of both these breeds?

You sound as though you may be out of your depth here and I am afraid where children are concerned a 100% temperament is paramount.

http://www.deesdogs.com/documents/in...dogshumans.pdf

I would strongly suggest you seek professional advice to determine if this dog is in the right environment and if you are the right owners for it.

You have no idea about her past and the fact that your "friend" has rescued her from an unknown history and then passed her on to you, gives me cause for concern.

I have done a lot of research on both breeds, regarding behavioural problems,on the internet but there is a lot of contradicting information on both.

We have started to take her to dog training classes and we are starting from scratch with her, the basics, and because we are starting with the basics I feel it would be a few weeks before we get to the biting issue so I was looking for advice now.

When we tell her "no" she does stop, but I want her not to do it at all.

We try to ignore for a while after she dose it.

We have not tried tapping her nose, would that work if we did? Its not something I want to do but a lot of people say to do it.

First off I would make sure you stop ALL rough play with her. It's not fair that she is getting wound up & excited if she is not able to control herself. She is a new, young dog & this sort of play should not be encouraged.

Good avice from smokeybear, dogs do not just 'grow out' of behaviour, she needs to learn what is & isn't acceptable through training.

Do you go to a training class? Have you thought of getting a behaviourist in to asses her interaction with you all - this probably would be really beneficial.

You need to be teaching her to be calm in your home & especially when your son is around, there is various threads on here regarding clicker training which may be really benefical to you but I still think if you have a dog that is snapping you need to get professional help as she could cause injury if things get out of hand

Editied: Just seen that you go to training classes, this is a great idea. Regarding the reprimand for snapping, tapping her on the nose is not an effective way, it may make her worse so please do not do this. You could try immediately removing her from the room & putting her by herself for a few mins when she does this (not shouting or anything though) but I still think that you should maybe get some professional advice regarding this.

When does she snap? is it at particular times? When she has been playing, etc?

I agree with smokey above and any proper rescue always say that if the new owner who thay trusted to take the dog on that if they cannot cope, the dog should go back to them. It's almost a contract!

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It is when she is excited that she snaps, I am at home with her all day and she is so gentle and calm its lovely, but when my son comes home from school she will jump up at him and then snap at his hand when he tries to stroke her and start running all over the house wanting to play and the same goes when my partner gets in from work. We do take her for long walks.

A lot of people talk about crate training, is it to late for me to start that as she is 9 months?

If you hit her (and tap is just a euphemism for hitting)

You will teach her:

Your hands are not to be trusted and maybe to bite FIRST.

You will never win with a dog, it, unlike you, is equpped with 42 lethal weapons, your son and his friends (if he brings them home) are at risk, and if I was the parent of one of them I would be somewhat less than impressed if you were exposing my child to an unreliable dog. Just as I am sure you would be.

I know you are right, that's what I mean about contradicting advice that I read, it's confusing, and not wanting to try that anyway.

However I do not want to give up on her, and giving her to someone else is just passing the problem on.

i wonder if she has never been taught not to mouth and it is an extension of the puppy mouthing. whenever Trouble got too excited all play stopped immediately and i folded my arms and turned away from her until she was calm and then we could start playing again.
my partner tried tapping her on the nose to tell her off and i could see she thought it was a game so would retaliate with her mouth! don't go down this route. luckily i was able to quite quickly show him this wasnt helping and once he joined me on turning away and ignoring her when she mouthed or snapped she learnt very quickly it didnt get her the attention she wanted.
hoe this helps a little, is she's going to training classes they should have lots of good ideas there too

She probabably isn`t used to children. Dogs don`t `know` that children are young humans. Children move and sound `different` to them and `different` = worrying.
For now keep them apart or supervised. When you have done more socialisation and training with her, then perhaps your son can train her too.
Read as many training books as you can, and join a (good) club. And good luck with her.
Impulse training will help -teach leave / wait / stay / heelwork. All those will help her learn to control herself and to respond to you. Train little and often . 5 minutes x 4 times a day is better than 20 minutes in a block IMO.
Look at management. Perhaps a safety gate to keep her confined when your son and partner come home? Maybe split your walks and do some leadwork on roads so she doesn`t get over-stimulated?
If she does start getting snappy, stop whatever she is getting excited about. The whole family has to join this one! The game stops if she gets silly. Say Too Bad and walk away or turn away.

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