Hi again everyone 
Thank you for taking the time to respond and help us with our problem. I am going to at least call and speak with a trainer, and go from there. However, I have some questions, as I have no ideas how trainers work, Tosca is my first dog, and we have never had reason to consider a trainer before. I know several people with other dogs, but none that have used trainers, so when it comes to them, I am pretty ignorant on the subject.
1.) How do you know a trainer is reputable? I don't have anyone to go to for references in this area.
2.) I doubt any of them in Sheboygan have experience with Basenjis, do you think this will be a problem?
3.) What will a trainer do? Will he/she teach me how to manage Tosca, or will he/she work with Tosca and try to fix the problem for us?
4.) What if Tosca doesn't display the aggressive behavior/problem when the trainer is here? That is most likely to be the case, since we have had her 3 years and she's growled a total of 3 times ever.
Thanks again for your help…I agree with most of what everyone had to say, and to hear it now it seems very obvious we need to do something now, not when a problem gets worse. There are simple things I can now see to do, like not letting Tosca near when we are nursing. They are obvious, but I never had the need to worry about it before, which is why I allowed it to happen. That will change now, though. There are, however, a few things I want to respond to...not that they matter so much, but things I want to clarify, because I feel they are misunderstood. I am not trying to be snarky, but just want to be able to defend myself a bit
"you don't want to scold a dog for growling." We did not scold Tosca for growling. I did make the mistake of ignoring her growl, as she makes a similar noise when she is happy, and I misread that. I completely agree that it is not good to scold a dog for growling, and I am glad she displayed that warning sign, I just regret not reading it correctly.
"Certainly if you, or your husband continue to handle it in the manner you did (scold her (well after the fact I might add) then put her outside) you will actually increase the odds that this will continue and will probably escalate to a bite which breaks skin." He did scold her, and put her outside for about 20 min, but it was immediately after the incident occured. Tosca nipped, I grabbed Colton away, and he came right over and dealt with Tosca.
Also, while he may not have acted completely appropriately, this has worked with Tosca in the past. I disagree with negative reinforcement also, and we have argued about this when we first got her, but I have to admit it gets him results. Tosca respects him, listens to him, and does not get into mischief when he is around, therefore he rarely has to do that with her. She is also not afraid of him a bit, loves him, cuddles with him all the time, and has never growled at him once. It's hard for me to argue when it worked so well for him, even if I choose not to behave the same way
"The question begs - why was the dog put at risk? By that I mean - why do you have a prized possession (a rawhide) accessible to a toddling nephew who has no respect and certainly no concept of boundaries in the same room, or area, as the dog whose prized possession it is? You are asking for trouble." The reason we allowed this was because we had done it in the past before with no problems…however, I agree it was not a smart move, and we have never allowed anything like it since..I agree we need to make sure we don't set Tosca up for failure
Thanks again everyone for your input, I greatly appreciate it!
