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To help with the dominance/snapping: your kids should be dominant to the dog. Here's an idea we used for our dogs. They get fed twice a day. When one started being food aggressive we immediately changed the way we fed him. We filled his bowl with the normal amount of food and set it on the counter. We made him do a command (sit or down). Then he got a piece of food hand-fed to him. Then we did it again. It took a bit of time but he learned that he had to focus on us because we controlled the food. It also taught him that if he did not take food gently from our hand then he did not get the food. Now we feed him normally.
If your dog is toy aggressive, try trading him a treat for the toy. You don't want to reward him for growling, but you do want to reward him if he gives up the toy paired with a command. If the dog knows that he may get a reward for giving up his toy when told then he is more likely to do it.
Those are just some ideas from a non-professional.
The feeding comments reminded me...our trainer told us that leaders of the pack eat first. Therefore, the dog should always see you eat before he is fed. Clearly there won't always be time for this, but what I do is pour his food in his bowl, lay a napkin over the top, put a few cherios on the napkin...then I eat the cherios in front of him. He just lays down and watches me. It's a strange suggestion, but it helps us establish ourselves as leaders.
I just put my dog's food bowl down while she is in "stay" mode.
When I say "release" and she knows it's ok to eat. Sometimes I forget to say "release" and she just sits there and looks at me, which reminds me to give her permission.
Thanks for the ideas, all! I've started with "sit" today and he did actually sit several times, but at first he looked at me like I was a moron, lol. The challenge is going to be with my 4 year old on board with the rest of us. He does not yet really understand a lot about what I'm trying to do.
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