Jack Bauer Acts Like He Hates Me All the Sudden!

My dog has always been pretty darn loyal and loving to both I and my wife. Prior to marrying, the only time he was around both of us was when we were visiting each other; the rest of the time it was one or the other of us.

We've been married 6 weeks on the dot, and for about the last 2-3 weeks, Jack Bauer has been growling at me when he is in bed with my wife and I approach the bed. In the past several days, it has become a viscous growl. He won't stop growling at me even when my wife picks him up.

I'm not certain if we should allow him to sleep with us anymore because of this. We both enjoy him; he wakes us up in the morning, does cute things like roll around on his back asking us to pet him, and is generally awesome. Even though he growls at me, he is playful as soon as I am in bed.

Nonetheless, given that his growling is getting more intense, it is going down a road that is unacceptable.

I can think of two things that would have set him off:
1. Him thinking that I am harming her when we make love.
2. Him viewing the change up in sleeping arrangement as something he is more dominant in than he actually is.

Any ideas?

http://www.cesarsway.com/

If our dog is on one of my daughters' beds while they're in it, too, and I try to remove him, he snarls and snaps at me.

I think it's a "I must protect the females of the pack" kind of a thing.

Yeah, it's almost certainly a dominance thing. You need to communicate in no uncertain terms that he is not the alpha male of the house (pack).

When I got two puppies several years back, one of them thought he was going to be the pack leader. I had to put him on his back and hold him by the throat a few times before he figured out that he was, at best, the number two.

Which is exactly what Cesar Millan teaches.

Lanz and shootER, what do you think of this plan?
1. Hand feed him. He will ONLY eat from my hand.
2. Remove his stairs from the very high bed.

When I was a kid, my family had a Springer Spaniel that was very protective of my mother. As I got older, he started to growl at me more intensely.

Eventually I grew weary of it and found that the only way to establish dominance is the same way a pack leader would a pack of dogs, PHYSICALLY.

So, one day he growled and I tackled him and held him to the ground for a good ten minutes. It took a couple of times of this before he gave up. The dog eventually would never leave my side and became one of the best dogs I've ever had.

My dogs love me and will kill any female I tell them to, as long as the female is a lizard, mouse, or fly.

We think Jack Bauer is around 4.

So far he is not reacting well to the stairs being removed.

Well, he would not approach me to go on the bed last night, so he stayed on the floor. This morning, he seemed very submissive. I hand fed him as well.