Question about dog starting to growl

Is the growling just surrounding possessiveness? Where was he and what was the situation when he growled at your FIL?

It's really hard to say without knowing the dog's history/personality. I had a dog that started exhibiting a little bit of possessiveness around food/bones just shy of his first birthday. My solution was gradual, but I basically started by feeding him out of my hand. At first, he ate but did so very tensely. The second I could tell he relaxed, I would praise him. After a few days he would eat out of my hand completely relaxed. I then transitioned to the bowl and would put a handful of food into his bowl and continually feed him as he ate to try to create a positive association with hands and food. I required him to sit, then I placed the food bowl in front of him, then released him to eat. Once he got comfortable with that, I would then place my hand in the bowl while he was eating sometimes.

Over time, his food possessiveness went away. Another method is to spread food out all over the floor. The idea is that this confuses the dog and he no longer has a small place to guard. Most dog behaviorists will tell you that you should not take the dog's food or bone away in response to aggression. I've never had a really serious issue with it so I can't speak to the merits of that theory, but I never took his food or his bone away from him. I just gave him bones less. The consensus, however, is that you should not address the issue with force as it is likely to compound the problem, which could be dangerous for you.

Our pack had problems with animal chews ..ears,hooves, rawhide. Nyla Bones and ropes made them less possessive. The ropes are good to play tug of war with when they get funny.

I feel your pain. We have a Frenchie who is Jekyll and Hyde. Loves people and very active. Has never been aggressive with other dogs.

But if he gets something he shouldn’t have, or we try to give him a bath or something, the demon appears. After biting some family members we got him on some behavioral medicine and sent him to a board and train. It’s not cured and we hope the training tips are slowly helping. Teaching “leave it,” “place,” etc. it’s all positive feedback and treats, which is the way to go.

Sounds like a cur dog to me. He’s just talking to you.

Can always strap a e collar to him and when he does it give him a little nick. I would run the collar on like 4-5 if 10 is the highest. Tell him no he keeps on tell him no again and nick him.

Some ppl may say it’s mean but before I put a ecollar on my lab I shocked myself with it so.

We have a black mouth cur. He’s 7 now and the last two years he prefers just to chill and not rough house with the littles like he used to. I think it’s just how they are getting older. He’s super protective of the kids and the property. If a tick farts the wrong way on our land he’s barking and letting us know.

The only time I’ve seen him get really mad is if our boxer is playing with the 4 year old and he perceives it as the 4 year old getting hurt, he’ll snap at the boxer pretty aggressively in an effort to protect.

3yo pushing for position in the pack. It will most likely get worse and is difficult to fix at this point, at least by an inexperienced owner. Most cur lines don’t generally make great family dogs.