That sounds like a scary situation, and I hope it never escalates to a real bite.

I don't have any advice, but Caper nips two people in my family - my dad and my step mom's son. He does it playfully though, and it's because they don't correct him when he does it.

Hope you find a solution to your situation...

Can you try to stop fighting with him? I don't think that helps anyone in the house, including the pets. Have you tried talking to him about doing more things with the dog and trying to figure out how to stop it? When you call her to come back, does she leave him alone? Does she know the leave it command and will it work on him?

I am curious if when she was a puppy, did he ever rough house with her a lot? Wrestling, playing tug of war, or any other playing that was more physical. It may be why she is physical with him and not others.

When I was about 17, my friend got a german shepherd. I let that puppy jump on me, sit on me, and just go bonkers and I would give her attention. This was my first bigger dog experience where I was around the dog all the time. Then, years later, she still acted the same to me and 1 other people. No one else. Of course it was more problematic that she was 100lbs and thought she was a lap dog and could jump all over me. Eventually once I had my own big dogs, I learned better how to have them behave how I want them to behave. As she get older and I got wiser, we figured out how to stop it. But those things that happen when a dog is a puppy can stick. That could be what is happening here, not sure, so I thought I would mention it.

Is she a wolf hybrid? I thought I read that on another thread, but can't remember.

Unfortunately this is something all three of you would need to work on together.

There can't be any trust or relationship building if one or all parties involved don't want it.


If one of my dogs reacted like that to a member of my household I would start including that member more into our daily activities and routine. I'd include that person in almost everything I did with the pup.

Feeding times I would evaluate how intense the reaction towards this individual was around food and do a number of different things depending on that. I might just have the person close while I release food, or hand feed. If the reaction lessened, or wasn't that much of an issues to begin with, I would simply allow that person to feed the pup, and maybe even hand feed. Showing the pup this individual is capable of delivering treats or other types of food is never a bad thing, and as it is delivered and not taken away after should help build trust with that person.

Walks I would simply ask if that person wanted to come and once my pup was in the correct "working" frame of mind I would transfer off the leash and continue besides issuing voice commands or reinforcement until it could be done by that person alone.

Training tricks or behaviors is another great time to have this person help, as not only do they get to learn the tone, command, and hand signals you use, but can also help give rewards or praise... Both very high value with a breed who loves to work.


Stepping in between an encounter would also be on my list to things to watch for. If one of my girls is growling, nipping, or headbutting someone, I'm going to step in between it before it starts and stay there until they relax.... It shows my girls I have the situation under control, and they need to trust me enough to leave them alone. At the same time it shows the person in question they can also trust me to protect them.  

Play time can be a mixed bag.... Including an individual into a high excitement encounter such as play can have adverse results if they don't get along to begin with... It doesn't take much for a tickle, wrestle, or movement to be considered harmful or invasive and a dog think it needs to protect itself or someone else.

I would instead avoid unpredictable times until the trust has been built much more than it is now, and instead have that person close when the pup is in a calm and open frame of mind.



Alas until you guys can work out your problems there is no simple solution.... If the atmosphere inside a house is tense, don't expect your animals to be relaxed or ignore it. It has to be something everyone wants, and not just for the pup. Your step father will need to make the effort to work on his relationship with Nash, but at the same time you'll need to make the effort to work on your relationship with your step father or I can't see it ever going away completely.

Just my 2 copper,
~Chris~