Is my puppy showing signs of aggression??

I would guess she's just trying to see where the boundaries are and what effect she'll get from certain behavior - she's just heading into adolescence.  I think you're on the right track w/ NILF - implement it well and I doubt you'll have any problems down the road.  Is she in a training class?  If not, that will also be of great benefit at this age.  []

Thanks for your advice! We are looking into a training class.
 
My pup's name is Maggie as well, and we call her Maggie Mae!!!
 
Kristie

Hey Kristie,
Could it be that your dog is "smiling" at you when he's trying to engage you with the showing of the teeth and barking? Our dog started showing us his teeth and barking whenever we'd let him out of his crate. It was a little intimidating (big black dog, lots of white teeth) at first, until we figured out that its his version of a dog smile. Now whenever we come home or if he sees someone he hasn't seen in a while, he flashes the pearly whites, along with alot of play posturing. Its become a rather endearing part of his personality.

I am not sure, like I said I don't think she is being "mean". We are working with her, we see that she gets really out of control when my niece and nephews are over ( they range in age from 3-15) and get so excited, but it scares my niece she's only 3.
 
She is great though when no children are around!!
 
Kristie

Definitely look into an obedience class, but don't automatically assume it's aggression. Jess makes this funny noise in her throat that sounds like a growl (if you don't know her and haven't heard her real growl), which we all have come to know as her "pet me" noise. She makes the sound if you stop petting her and she wants more petting, or if you are talking to her and stop talking and she wants you to continue talking to her, or just if she's feeling affectionate. It's just her vocalizing (since it's just me and her, she likes to "talk" back to me sometimes, and since her high pitched "happy yap" can be hard on the ears in large doses, this seems to be her chosen alternative "speaking" voice).

It's actually quite endearing, though it freaked me out the first week before I realized that it was an affectionate noise.

Still, obedience classes are a must with a big dog, as many adolescent dogs will start to test their boundaries at this stage, and you want to nip that in the bud before it goes anywhere you don't want it to go.

Huskies are an independent breed, and need lots of training early in life.  Nudging and barking at you may be her signal that she wants you to play, but she is not just asking, she's "demanding".  Use it to your advantage - when she nudges, simply turn and ignore her.  A couple of moments later, get her to "sit" or "lie down", then reward her with a game or treat.  NILIF doesn't need to be "doggy boot camp", it can simply be "welcome to your new job".

great advise.  trust me you never want to be forced to put a dog down because of aggression and it all is determined in their puppyhood... while it seems safe to do anything you teach them how to treat you and others for life 

and it all is determined in their puppyhood

Not true. You can undo a LOT of harm if you work your butt off and have a dog who really wants to please. Jess was nearly a year old when I got her and she had not been socialized at all -- distrusted everyone, was aloof, suspicious, didn't like kids, didn't like people in general, and that's not even getting into the other difficult traits that went with being a serious guarding breed.

Today, she's a therapy dog and a service dog for me. She's off leash trained, does remote commands, is tremendously affectionate, adores my one-year-old niece and is, in short, a completely different dog than she was when I got her. And that's despite a puppy hood that included no love, no socialization and pretty much only bad experiences with an idiot who ended dumping her in a kill shelter.

Not every dog can be "saved," but the idea that it's automatically "too late" if they had bad puppyyhood is just not true. My dog is living proof of that. And I've seen many, many others make he jump from Cujo to Happy Dog.

It's not easy, but if you socialize them incessantly, train them like there's no tomorrow and have a dog who really wants to please you, "miracles" happen far more often than you can imagine.

I'm not saying your dog could have been saved -- I don't know your dog, so I certainly can't make judgements -- but I just didn't want a generalization like that to slip past. I see too many people "give up" on their dogs because they believe you can't "fix" them if they've had a bad puppyhood. And through training and rescue work, I've personally seen how often dogs that seem to have little potential initially can grow into GREAT dogs despite the worst of beginnings, with the right training and socialization.

Jan