Hello everyone! Not sure if this belongs in the training forum, but need advice badly. About 6 months ago my family got a husky pup from an AKC registered breeder. The first day we got her home she started snarling and growling and trying to bite when she was resting or hiding with a toy. At first we chalked it up to her being in a new place and being scared. After a week though, she continued this behavior especially towards my 2 children if they even came near her when she was laying down. I’m sad to say the breeder ended up taking her back and found her a new home with no children and says she’s doing well. He even refunded our money and offered us first pick of his next litter.
Well, here we are 6 months later and we’ve spent the last month going to his home and meeting with the new pups and finally chose the one that seemed to really jive with and love our kids, whom are 6 and 7 by the way. We brought her home almost a week ago and everything was going great until yesterday. She was laying on the couch not asleep, just resting, and snarled, growled and lunged at my husbands hand when he reached down to pet her. I tried to pet her and she also growled at me. I am devastated because now I think we are the problem and not the dog. We must be doing something wrong for a second puppy at the same age to be acting so aggressively suddenly towards us when she’s been so sweet up until now. I don’t want to rehome another puppy, but I have little ones and cats to think about. What if this behavior worsens as she gets older and somebody really gets hurt. Is this normal 8 week old puppy behavior because everybody and everything I read says it’s not. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!

As you've read, it's *VERY* unusual for a puppy that young to have any idea about aggression so ... I'm going to toss a couple of different ideas out to you.

You brought home an 8 week old puppy who "jives with and loves your kids."  So what happened ... maybe absolutely nothing, maybe you just don't know what you're looking at.  (( Sorry if that sounds condescending but ... ))
That puppy has been in his pack and puppies play rough, Huskies play rough and there's more than a doubling of "rough" when you're dealing with a Husky puppy.  He knows how to play - Husky style - and my guess is that you don't know how puppies play at all.  If it's within reason, go back to the person you bought this pup from and watch the puppies play when they're at large and then watch how he plays with them individually.  Ask him for some ideas on playing with her.

You seem to not only know how puppies play, you seem to not know when to play with them - and there is a time and place.  "She was laying on the couch" - so who gave her permission to get on the couch in the first place - this dog has apparently way too much freedom.  I'll offer two suggestions for that.  The first is put her on a house leash (actually any 6 ft leash will work) all the time if she misbehaves you have a handle for her that doesn't involve getting a hand within biting range.  The other is get her a crate - they work wonders for any dog!  It gives her a home - and when she's in it, leave her alone - you can call her, if she comes out then work on playing with her but go easy on her.  If she gets, to use your word, aggressive use the leash and gently lead her back to her crate.  "Rough play means no play!"  (( She's used to playing rough with her siblings, she doesn't know that human skin isn't as thick as another puppies, you have to teach her that! ))

Puppies are basically a blank slate - just like your two kids were blank slates when you brought them home - it's up to you to set boundaries and make sure they're respected.

A few questions:
Who feeds her and when?
Where does she spend the night?
Who's doing the housetraining?
Who plays with her and how do they play?
Who supervises the play time for her and the two legged kids?  At 6 & 7 they're way too young to be playing unsupervised.

Search this forum for "aggressive puppy" and you'll find a few discussion on how to handle one (they aren't really aggressive at that age, they're expressing something that you're not understanding.)

Double what al Jones said, but I have question to add;
is this your first Puppy?

Yup. What Al said. Especially the house leash part.

Ass for husky play - I've always said it is not for the faint of heart.

When we brought my one year old, completely untrained tetrarch home, I quickly learned that leather gloves and a have Carhartt jacket were needed for play. He was(and is) a big boy. Flattened me many times, body checking me from a 50 ft run. And puppy teeth. Oh my you have puppy teeth. Sharp little razors they are. So I would not allow any unsupervised child play and what little child/dog interaction, I would watch closely, leash on dog and long sleeves on children.

No, this is our second puppy. Our 1st we also got at 8 weeks and never showed any aggression whatsoever and was very well behaved. She passed away unexpectedly at 4 years old. I am the one training and feeding her as I am a homeschool mom and always here with her. She eats 3 times a day, not whenever she wants. My kids play with her, as do I. Catch, tug toys, running and chasing outside. They are always supervised, and she has not snapped or growled at them yet. Only my husband and myself. As for the couch, she learned to jump up there pretty quickly herself and loves to lay next to somebody when they are up there. She just happened to be laying by herself when this incident happened. She sleeps very well in her crate at night and when we are not home. We were not trying to play with her when this happened, my husband just casually reached down to pet her while she was resting and she snarled and snapped at him.

Okay @kyraleigh17 it sounds like you're doing everything right ... I especially like the  "in her crate at night and when we are not home" (+1) it sounds like you're getting the major things right.

If she play chases with your children without being aggressive I'm going to suggest that this might be a one-off or something situational.  While she may not have been "sleeping" she may have been in her own private dreamland and he surprised her.  Other than this one incident how does she and the adults get along?  You feed her (on a schedule (+1)) so she's going to look up to you naturally.

You said that she has growled at both you and your husband, can you give examples of when and what else was going on?  I'm going to suggest one thing - you said that he "just casually reached down" which suggests he was standing over her - until there's been a fair bit of confidence earned most dogs don't like things, like hands, coming down at them.  I've had my male Alaskan for over 10 years and he still flinches when I reach down to pet him ... he's better but still obviously uncomfortable.

My old female will growl at my husband if he touches her when she's laying on the couch. Her issues stem from him leaning over her, which makes her nervous, and he has picked on her before, which also makes her nervous. She see's her couch time as part of her personal space and if she thinks someone is going to encroach on HER space or try to remove her from it, she gets grumpy. Think of it as communicating. Figure out what she is saying based on what the past situations are.

A pup is going to test it's boundaries eventually, whether at 8 weeks or 8 months. Huskies are stubborn and can be brats. think of them as toddlers who don't want to put on shoes. You may not want her to get off the couch but if she thinks you are going to throw her off the couch (make her put on shoes if she were a toddler) then she has a tantrum or lashes out. If your first husky was super easy I would be more inclined to count that as a fluke because huskies naturally are going to push their luck more often than not at some point and you will have to just work past it. Set boundaries and make her tow the line. If she can't lay on the couch without "guarding" her spot then she would lose the privilege of getting to lay there.

It is totally possible that he spooked her but if she did the same with you after he had already gotten her attention then it's likely she may be thinking you are encroaching on her space or that you are going to throw her off the couch when she doesn't want to get off the couch. I would practice making sure you have her attention before petting her when on the couch and see if that helps things. Talk to her normal and then pet and see if that helps. Talking (as long as it's not baby talk) can settle any nerves before you make the reach. If she continues to growl when only on the couch you may need to restrict her couch time to only when you are going to be on the couch with her and can make the invitation.

Completely non breed specific because shadow is a gsd, but we had some issues with him and hubby as a pup. Actually we got past the hubby issue but he has an issue with men. It had more to do with being leaned over top of than anything else. Also if he was startled he would growl. Basically we established "shadow will not be bothered" areas.

More along breed specific, squirt is mixed, she had some hoarding tendencies as a pup. She bit the hubby over him not wanting her in his lap. He bit her back. It never happened again and We did some major crate training and establishing boundaries.

And then there is spider. She has a whole range of roars and grunts and growls that have nothing to do with aggression. Shes definitely saying something. Some issues i still have with spider might come across as aggressive but really its a dominant/ testing thing. We had a nipping issue when my family was here. Its really easy to say " she is biting/pinching and therefore aggressive" but really it was a mix of play and testing boundaries. The real problem was they would get her going and then want to stop and to her, stopping is now on her terms.

I really think you pup and family may want to consider a good dog trainer that will work with huskies and families. It may be your pup feels your lack of confidence and feels the need to take control. The dog trainer may even benefit you more then the pup if the problem is you, and if its the pup you can work on properly correcting it.

Having a husky or husky mix is like having a non verbal autistic toddler.

So true:

@Kyraleigh17 For some reason it seems like more than just a couple of days since your first post. I'm wondering how you and the little monster are doing?