: How can a guest help an owner verbally discipline a dog when the owner's family gives inconsistent verbal discipline themselves? TL;DR How can a guest help an owner verbally discipline a dog when the owner's family gives

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How can a guest help an owner verbally discipline a dog when the owner's family gives inconsistent verbal discipline themselves?
TL;DR

How can a guest help an owner verbally discipline a dog when the owner's family gives inconsistent verbal discipline themselves? More background below.

My cousin owns a 2 year old male chihuahua. Whilst I was a guest in the house, I saw a lot of poor behaviour from the dog, namely:

Biting: I was bitten whilst walking past the dog's food. My main concern is that my cousin has a baby, less than 1 year old, and I am more concerned about her future safety
Growling: This was near constant, towards everyone in the house
Protecting food: Whilst the dog was a puppy raised on the farm it was bred on, it competed heavily for food, an issue that has not been addressed
Jumping onto furniture: This is a smaller issue, but the dog was constantly on the furniture, though my cousin permitted this

From what I've observed, the causes for the behaviour are:

Competition for food at an early age, as mentioned above
Conflicting verbal discipline from different members of the family, namely some will shout, some will make a joke about it, others will change the tone of the message part way through etc.
The dog decides when the punishment ends, as the punishment is being sent to his basket. The dog decides when it can come out and is not sent back
Lack of exercise
Has not been neutered

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