Our puppy is occasionally agressive to my husband when he hugs me?
Hi! My husband and I got our puppy when he was 8 weeks old. He is now 5 months old. The first 2 weeks that our puppy was home with us, my husband was away for work. When he came home, they reacquainted and are close again. We typically share responsibilities on feeding, walks, treats, etc depending on which one of us is able to come home from work during the day and who gets home first in the evenings. When I am not here, my husband and puppy are best friends. The puppy lays on his lap, rolls over immediately for belly rubs, goes on walks, plays ball, etc. When I am home, the puppy typically prefers me, but still is friendly and loving toward my husband as well.
Recently, within the last month, If my husband hugs me or kisses me or puts his arm around me, the puppy gets "aggressive", snarls at him, and has even lunged to bite a few times. I'm not sure why he does this. It is obvious to say that he is "protecting" me or "guarding me" as his resource, but he loves my husband too. I can understand that I am the owner who he attached to most because I was with him during his initial, formative weeks, but he and my husband are close, spend a lot of time together (some days/weeks even more than I can spend with him due to my work schedule), and they have fun. In fact, I'd say my husband probably takes the puppy on more walks than I do.
I'm not sure what we can do to teach our puppy that my husband is not hurting me, is not a threat, and loves him just as much as I do. I read on another advice website that the "hated person" must take on all responsibility and the "loved person" must back off and ignore the puppy, but I don't feel that our puppy hates my husband. It is only select times that he growls, snarls, and nips. And how do I, as the "loved person" ignore the puppy and back off on responsibilities when, some days, my schedule allows for me to be home when my husband needs to be at work? If our puppy needs to eat or needs to go outside and my husband is stuck at work, I'm going to be the one taking care of him so I'm not sure how I would ignore him and back off in those situations.
Any advice?