5'9 makes me a monster in Mexico and the phillipines, you bastard.
That said, I work out, I keep my strength up and I work with these dogs so that they understand that any kind of aggression towards me will be dealt swift correction. He just bit my finger for pulling his food away and he -hopefully- learned that it is not acceptable behaviour. So he goes without breakfast for that, and was put on his back by his throat for a few minutes with very angry sounds coming out of me. (\"happy voice...
angry voice...you want happy voice yes?\") and I'll keep it up as long as it takes. He'll be an angry hungry dog until he clues in. I figure it's best to do it now when he's ~60lbs instead of when he's 100lb+. He'll be fine, he just doesn't understand his place yet. I probably should wear gloves doing this, but then he may just get in his head it's not okay to bite gloves, and this has to be a flesh thing. Ouch.
Dogs just want to know their position in the pack, this one doesn't get that I'm the one that gets the food for them. A dog, no matter how big, won't go against the alpha as long as he's fed, warm, happy etc. Also things like tug-of-war are important (that you never lose!). When he's strong enough to beat me at that, I'll win once and never do it again.