How to punish a dog that snaps?

I have a male dog for 7.5 years now and he has a very bad habit of snapping. If he does not get his way or someone casually walking past him, he has the tendency to chase the person's foot and bite for 2-3 seconds only to realise that its wrong and he'd run into his cage and hide. He's a very anti social dog that only sticks to us most of the time.Thing is, I do not know how exactly to punish him to make him know that its wrong (you dont snap at your family members). I searched online only to land on several differing opinions. I tried to cane him some times and he'd snap at the cane; tried ignoring him only to get the happy innocent dog playing around half an hour later; tried the hunger punishment but its just too heartless to starve him; tried spraying his face with water but the attitude does not change.I'm running out on ideas but putting him to sleep is definitely out of question. Really hoping to pick some brains here. Thanks loads in advance!He's been to training classes but once he got home he became that old self. Vet suggested that we were too protective of him that he became daring only when we are around. Also thanks for pointing the obvious that I'm at fault and I admit that I did pamper him too much due to his bad past. But I reckon I'm here to find possible solutions than who to blame. And how I wish I'm trolling but maybe only Asians have the habit of caning? I don't know but back to topic, he does understand simple commands but if I said 'No' when he snaps and he obeys, won't he be associating rewards with aggression? If muzzle, how long do I keep him muzzled?Btw Thanks loads for the useful feedbacks guys. Really appreciate them! :)Sorry I just realised some dislikes on muzzles. May sound stupid but why ?

12 gauge shot gun

Muzzle him when he snaps. Set a time to leave him muzzled and he will learn.

How about training the dog?

Rent every episode of Dog Whisperer or buy Cesar Melan's dog training books. Your dog is violently aggressive, and it's good that you want to correct this. Dogs are not able to follow deductive reasoning, so most "punishments" that make sense to us as humans don't make any sense to dogs. The correction has to happen the instant the dog misbehaves, so you will probably have to set up scenarios where the dog is most likely to bite, then give it corrections at that instant. Again - starving a dog hours after they do something wrong does nothing but make the dog think it is being treated poorly. It can't associate its actions with a later punishment. It must be AT THE INSTANT it occurred.

Well frist thing i have to agree with frist three answer. However you are the responabuly for your dog he he bites anyone your dogs goung down for sure. Muzzle outside you need to. It might keep him alive longer. Try the stomp foot clap hands frim voice NO BAD DOG!!! noise like this from you should work you should have stop this in th begining. If all eles fails trainng class would work. Then socialliz him more if your is a small dog they tend to get meaner as the get older. Hope you dont have kids. Good luck

You don't punish the dog, you punish yourself for not properly training and socializing him. If you had taken the time to properly socialize and train your dog, you would not be having these problems. You need to hire an Obedience Trainer to properly train your dog or one day he's going to snap and bite someone and you will really have some problems.

Are you physically stronger than the dog? Does the dog have ANY training, specifically, does the dog know what "down" means and consistently obey that command?If not, you need to go find a REAL trainer to teach you the basics.If so, get a leash and put it on the dog, if you have and know how to properly use a choke or prong collar, use that. Provoke a situation where the dog usually snaps - the INSTANT the dog goes to bite, give a HARD collar correction along with a verbal correction, follow it up immediately with a "down" command. Correct and command until the dog IS laying down. Then praise, give a treat, and release.You are teaching the dog that it has a CHOICE, dogs are creatures of instinct until we teach them otherwise, the dog has no idea that there is an alternative behavior or that he can CHOOSE to do that behavior instead. You are also teaching him that his choices have CONSEQUENCE - if he CHOOSES to bite, there will be unpleasant corrections, but as soon as he CHOOSES to obey, there are pleasant results.If you are NOT confident you can physically control the dog on a leash or if you have never trained a dog with collar corrections so you have no intuitive sense of their proper timing, then go find a real trainer to help.His behavior is continuing because no matter what you do to him, he has no idea what ELSE he can do in those situations. Offering the "down" and obedience as an alternative lets him know not only what NOT to do, but what to do.Oh, and don't think about "punishments". The dog is not doing anything 'wrong' and does not need a punitive, retributive action for his actions. He needs a "correction" which MARKS and STOPS the bad behavior WHILE IT IS OCCURRING and stops the instant that the behavior stops, a good correction is ALWAYS followed by guidance into acceptable behavior, just like a correction on an English essay tells you how to fix the sentence, not just that it is wrong.

I'm not sure whether this is a troll q. or not (caning him?) but for sure the mindset should be altered from 'punish' to 'correct', which should have been done when this dog was a puppy first coming to you.Why on earth would you think starving him (withholding food) is going to help anything. The more I read this, the more I hope you are making this up. For sure, all attempts you have, apparently, made to sort this out have only made him worse. No surprise there. I'm actually feeling very sorry for this animal because he's not been corrected properly from day one, hence the running for his crate - and he is now fear biting. He's now the worst kind - unpredictable.I'm honestly at a loss as to how to advise you really other than to avoid the situations that produce this kind of reaction - reward him when he's good, prevent the situations that produce this and if he does react like this, remove him without comment because if you give him the opportinity to behave like this, it is your fault. Ignoring him may be far more effective then any form of physical correction - dogs hate to be ignored. The only dog I've ever known to rush out and bite a foot or ankle, was a Corgi - cattle dog, bred to nip cattle!! He'd do this during stormy weather which he hated. You do have to put prevention in place because if he nips a child, he stands every chance of being put down.Hopefully others will have more advice than I have to offer.