My rat terrier, Ziggy, has aggression problems when people come over to visit.  He gets real territorial and will even snap at the person.  All that person has to do is barely move.  He is also real skittish around children.  Does anybody have any ideas on what I could do to help with this problem.  I have tried a behavior class but it didn't work too well for us.

Please help me with this.  I am afraid Ziggy will bite someone someday.

I have this problem with Henry, and Pat McConnell's books have helped a great deal (The Other End of the Leash and For the Love of a Dog.) These are not training books, but they do offer suggestions and will help you understand the problem's root cause.

My problem right now is that I have no one whom I trust enough to practice with. My friends close enough to ask for this kind of favor are not dog people, and I think that working on this type of aggression needs to be done with caution.

So, right now, what I'm doing is total positive reinforcement everytime the mail lady comes, the garbage man comes, or anytime sales people knock on the door. I have my husband go outside and knock on the door so I can practice calming Henry down, and then when he's calm he gets a treat, and I open the door. He gets lots of treats and positive reinforcement as soon as he's calm if he sees anyone walking down the street from the window, too. The point is for him to associate positive things with strangers near the house.

I don't know if it's working because I almost never have visitors, and as I said above, I don't have a circle of friends to practice with that I trust would remain calm if Henry had an outburst. I don't want my friends to get bit.

Best of luck.