Aggressiveness in Min-Pins

I live with 4 min pins and I can definitely answer your question... Yes and No. Yes, min pins do have an attitude problem, No the behavior you're seeing isn't normal in the context of a happy secure dog who loves and trusts it's owner but it IS natural behavior. What did you do? Did you stiffen up when you tried to take the slipper away? Speak first? Yell? Did the dog growl at you? What sort of home did it come from? Is it male or female, neutered?

IMO the best way to get ANYTHING away from any dog, especially one you don't know(because you and this dog are still very much strangers) is to lure it away with a treat, or trade for something the dog wants more. Don't act scared, don't be tense... make it a 'happy puppy silly human NO BIG DEAL" sort of thing because after all, it's just a shoe... when you need to take something from the dog. We've got one min pin, a male, who is really wierd - if someone gives him a treat he immediately spits it out, he won't eat it unless you wiggle your fingers at him and pretend like you're going to take it, he gets mock possesive and then he'll eat it - for years I disapproved of this game because I thought it was making him mean until I started playing it with him as well and realised that it's very much a game for him which is wierd I know... sometimes they just have attitude problems and a very different style of doing things, it's not always "agression". Min pins, ours at least, are pretty extreme little dogs with high prey drive and they're super sensitive as well meaning they can be nervous and unsure quite a bit... through trial and error I've found that only being calm, unfazeable, and very silly will make a min pin feel comfortable in it's own skin otherwise they can just turn into complete head cases.

 My advice is definitly going to be to throw any ideas you have about dominance or "showing the dog who's boss" out the window, if the dog gives you nervous looks or growls - LISTEN to him! He's telling you he's not comfortable. That doesn't mean you don't do things like take something away when you need to just find a better more patient nurturing way to do it.

I'm not a fan of the dog whisperer - but from your post I can only recommend being proactive and creating the type of interactions YOU want, instead of thinking about and worrying about what you don't want because the dog really will do what you want if you make it happen. A good example would be several times a day get all three dogs together and have them lay next to each other, sit on the floor, watch TV, and hand out bits of kibble or dog treats. That's a great non-threatening way for the dogs to be near one another, just make sure you keep control and don't let any one dog boss the others or steal treats.

There are many types of bites, growls, and postures. If you could describe in detail the body posture of the dog before you were bitten and what you did as well as what the dog did afterwards it would help make the problem a whole lot clearer!

Excellent post Boredpuppy09. 

When bringing in an adult dog into a home with family members and existing residence dog, confrontations and conflicts have to be avoided as much as possible.  Normally, dogs will give many warning signs such as body stiffining, cover the object, growling, curled uppper lip, etc.  You may want to replay the situation to see what you missed.  How did you introduce the new dog to your existng residence dogs?  How that meeting is done helps to define the future relationship amongs the dogs.

Min Pins do have a reputation for being little stinkers, although that label certainly isn't applicable to all of them.  However, any dog that guards resources and bites you at the first attempt you make to take something, is a dangerous little dog that needs training.  If you have children in your home you need to be particularly concerned, as resource guarders, even after training, may decide that the kids aren't high enough on the totem pole to deserve their respect, and will continue to guard from them despite the fact that they don't guard from the adults any more.  Jean Donaldson's book, "Mine! A Guide to Resource Guarding in Dogs" is an excellent reference on the subject that you can use to institute step by step training, and one that I recommend highly.  Dogs that do this don't usually get any better on their own, and can get a whole lot worse.