Hi Bif, Our 3 year old male Malamute/Collie cross is driving us crazy with his need to dominate visitors to the house. He is especially agressive towards women. He is a kind, gentle dog but feels the need to mount, crotch sniff and shadow the women who visit the house and is constantly sticking his nose in their butt. He also suffers from incessant licking. Licking everything. He favourite thing to lick is anything that smells like your crotch including underwear, where you have sat and where you sleep. His second favourite is licking metal. Can you give any advice? Thanks, - David & Heather Stiff Erin, Ont. CANADA

Licking metal? That I don't know about. But the rest is left over wild dog/wolf behavior. You need to teach him that this is unacceptable behavior; read him the riot act. Pull him off - use the shake can with pebbles, squirt gun, prong collar - whatever works. Don't let him! If you must, confine him in a crate to get the point across - fine! A friend of mine kept cayenne pepper (ground) near the front door, and when her dog mounted, and the visitor gave her the look (you know the look - "what do we do about this?") she gave some to them in the hand. The visitor says "no" or "down" and if he doesn't stop, give him a snoot full (palm his nose, they hate it!). If you are not sure about his true aggression, you do it - not the visitor. Also getting him neutered may help. It almost always does when done before these behaviors show up.

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