I have a 17 week old French Mastiff who is a loving docile fun loving puppy who adores people and other dogs,and we are taking her to training puppy classes which does seem to be going ok.

The problem is that she seems to be headstrong at times and gives me cause for concern with her temper. Its mainly when we tell her off she growls and snapps at us, if she is doing something that we dont want her too and she wants to do it she will carry on doing it over and over each time being told firmly NO, it could be something like trying her luck to get on the sofa with us, she is told no, but growls and trys to get up again and again till the point of us holding her back then she bites us and shows a temper. If we continue saying no to her it seems to make her worse and eventually we put her outside in the kitchen (dog gate closed) so she can have time out, she comes back after 3 mins as good as gold again. She also often turns her head a bites (non aggressively) when we stroke her which is something that we are trying to stop but that doesnt seem to be going very well either. Not sure what we should do with her, should i call in a pet behavior trainer??? Has anyone got any advice which will help us to control her biting/temper? we do all the alpha things, doors, meals etc after us but she still dominates. Thanks

She's just a puppy, while you need to make sure she doesnt grow up continuing to bite, some mouthing is inevitable at her age.

It looks like you are already following good practices, you will just have to be patient and wait for her to grow out of it I'm afraid.

THere are mountains of threads on mouthing, do a search and you will find some excellant advice

I agree, she is just doing puppy stuff, and that can include a tantrum <g>

Many pups will growl if told off, but when i have actually seen owners doing the telling off, they seem to be scaring the pup and making it defend itself. Watch out for threatening body language, finger pointing, etc

Having said that, i do agree a pup must be trained to follow the rules of the house. If it is possible use a house line or lead to reinforce your command and calmly pull her off, then praise for accepting the command. I would also use treats to do this and gradually phase them out as she will be big and you need to get control of her.

If you are actually sure she knows the meaning of the command (don't whatever you do use the word "Down" - as to a pup or dog, this means "lie down" and often they are lyingdown, albeit on the sofa!! ;) then simply tip the sofa up if this is possible. It works very well, no confrontation but she has to do as you say.

Just a few ideas anyway, good luck with her.

Lindsay