[Nathans_Dad]

So after doing some research on the net yesterday I think the issue comes down to a couple possibilities.

First, Lucy is a very submissive dog. My wife and I were working with her last night and we were able to put her into a submissive position (on her back feet in the air) without any difficulty at all. My wife was holding her paws (which she says dogs usually hate...she works with dogs more than me). My neighbor, who trains dogs as a hobby, said she thinks Lucy is naturally an "Omega" dog (i.e. the opposite of Alpha). She wants to just be at the back of the pack, letting everyone else be in charge.

I think the issue is that Lucy, who wants to be an omega dog, feels like it is her job to protect the house from intruders and this makes her very uncomfortable. She gets nervous and scared and does the only thing she knows how to do in that situation which is either hide or growl.

So, hopefully with training and with myself and my wife showing her that we are the alphas and it isn't her place to defend the house (ie pack), the behavior will go away.

We're going to get her evaluated by a professional trainer this week and I bought a book called "SitStayFetch" which came very highly recommended by multiple sites on the net.

After a long discussion, my wife and I have decided that we will give Lucy and honest and thorough attempt at training. If her behavior does not disappear with training or if we feel at any time that we are putting a child at risk by keeping her we will turn her over to a shelter and get a pure breed Labrador (which is the breed we usually have). I completely understand the position of those on the thread who are advocating either just putting her in a shelter now or euthanizing her. My issue with that is I don't think it would be right to euthanize her before we even give her a chance at proper training. If she is simply confused (which is our fault, not hers) at her role in our pack then correcting that confusion may well eliminate the problem. Let me emphasize that Lucy has never actually bitten anyone and weighs about 30 pounds. We aren't talking about a large powerful dog here.

Her training in the past has been hit and miss. I worked with her with a clicker for a couple weeks for a while and got her to sit and lay down. We've never done stay and come only works sporadically. She walks on a leash reasonably but certainly not perfectly. I haven't worked with her on training in about 6 months now.

In short, I think a lot of her behavior is our (ie my) fault for not training her consistently and letting her know her role in our house. For this reason I don't think it is right for me to just take her somewhere and dump her in a shelter or have her put down. Again, if she is still acting this way after training we will get rid of her.

Thanks for all the input guys.