However, there are a couple of issues that I think I need to deal with ASAP.
Firstly, on three occasions she has snapped at my face without warning. Once when the sky engineer was playing with a ladder outside, she had been growling, had seemed to have calmed down when he came inside, but as I held her on my knee while he left, out of the blue she turned her head and snapped. No injury, but I did feel her teeth graze my cheek. Another time I was again sat on the sofa she had jumped on my knee and was looking out of the window. Suddenly she turned to face me and snapped and I felt her teeth on my nose. Then last weekend, thinking these were just new to the house incidents, when I picked her up and over zealously kissed her head she snapped but no contact was made. So the last incident was certainly my fault, as she obviously doesn't like me being too close to her face. But I'm worried that this could happen to a guest, worse still a child. All incidents have been without warning, no growls etc and most of the time she comes to me and initiates attention so I don't understand. She also happily approaches visitors for affection. Perhaps she's had bad experiences, and/or simply being shocked having turned around to be face on with me. But I've also been told that these incidents are often indicators of a dog that will later attack. What do I do?!!
The next problem is she is a bully to other dogs, the bigger they are the more of a bully she becomes! If we are approached by a friendly dog and dog owner in the neighbourhood who allows her to sniff, she will have a sniff before jumping up and nipping the poor other dog at the neck! No provocation. I took her for a walk with my colleague and her dog in an attempt to socialise her, and she did the same throughout. My colleague's poor dog was good as gold and submissive to her despite being twice her size. But the longer the walk, the more stressed she became and she started to bark at every dog that passed which she has never done. We removed her from the situation and she immediately relaxed. Luckily everyone has been very tolerant her being a rescue dog. But I imagine there will be no more dog play date invites for me
I know it's only three weeks in, but I was hoping to take her to good citizen dog training classes soon which I can't do if she will be picking on any dog that dares to say hello. I'd also like to start a family in a few years and want to make sure she's not going to be a threat to a child. I feed her at set times and she is walked twice a day, and as I say apart from these instances, she's a lovely little dog and we've been very lucky with her indeed.
Help!
But if she had meant to break skin, she would have done, so that's a positive.