Love this message board **and I would greatly appreciate any ideas and help.

We have had our new lab/pit bull puppy for 3 weeks. He is now 13 weeks old.
About a week ago he started to growl and “snip” it my kids- 8 year old twins when he was picked-up, placed in his kennel, basically when asked to do anything he is not willing to do. Sometimes he will growl at me when I try to take things from him (he is a rock eater!!!) We don’t let him on the couch, he sleeps at night in his kennel- he is not “babied” tho he is loved. I am afraid he is having alpha dog issues, dominance exc. Is this normal for pups to get so stubborn? With children in the house I don’t want the part PIT in him not knowing it’s place. It’s my first Dog ever, I’m a bit clueless.

This is a common thing for pups to do as they're starting to get a bit more confident and growing up - I bet your kids have said "No, I don't want to!" when you've asked them to do something, haven't they? It's just the same. But as you are aware, you don't want the pup to go any further than grumbling about it.

When he does grumble, just firmly say "No" and calmly put him in his kennel. If you are trying to take something from him, offer him a 'swop' of a nice titbit when you say "Give", then you can praise him, which will make it easier next time. And I expect he's getting a bit too big and heavy now to be picked up by children - he probably feels very unsafe and afraid he's going to fall - perhaps their fingers dig in and hurt him. So I'd stop them doing that right away.

Have you got a copy of "The Perfect Puppy" by Gwen Bailey? It would give you a lot of help and insight into how you can prevent/stop many problems.

Hope this helps.
:)