Dog growling is a valuable means of communication, something that we humans need to appreciate and respect rather than punish. Of course, we don’t want our dog to growl at us, but neither do we want him to fail to growl if something makes him uncomfortable; that’s very important information in a successful canine-human relationship.
It’s quite common for people to punish their dogs for growling. Unfortunately, this often suppresses the growl—eliminating the dog’s ability to warn us that he’s about to snap, literally and figuratively. On other occasions, punishing a growling, uncomfortable dog can induce him to escalate into full-on aggression.
So, if you’re not supposed to punish dog growling, what are you supposed to do? The next time your dog growls at you, try this:
1. Don’t push your dog over his tolerance threshold. Whatever you’re doing, just stop.
If your dog’s growl threshold is near his bite threshold – that is, if there’s not much time between his growl and his bite, get safe. If his growl doesn’t mean a bite is imminent, stop what you’re doing but stay where you are. Wait until he relaxes, then move away, so you’re rewarding the relaxed behavior rather than the growl.
2. Analyze the reason for dog growling
Why is your dog growling? Does he growl when you touch or groom him? Growling when restrained? Does your dog growl when making direct eye contact? How about when you take something away from him? Or making him do something? If your dog is growling at you all of a sudden, try to determine what has changed in your shared environment.
3. Explore ways to get your dog to do something that does not elicit aggressive communication.
Try to get your dog to behave without eliciting a growl. Lure him rather than physically pushing or pulling him. Have someone else feed him treats or use a Licki Mat while you touch, groom, or restrain him. If you don’t have to do whatever it was that elicited the growl, don’t – until you can convince him that the activity in question is a good thing rather than a bad thing.
4. Evaluate the stressors in your dog’s world and reduce or eliminate as many of them as possible.
For example, if your dog is unaccustomed to strangers, then having your sister and her husband and three kids as houseguests for a week would undoubtedly stress your dog. Noise-phobic dogs might be under a strain if city crews have been digging up a nearby street with heavy equipment or there was a thunderstorm last night. The vacuum cleaner is a common stressor for dogs. A loud argument between you and your spouse could stress your dog as well as you, and your stress is stressful to your dog. Harsh verbal or physical punishment, an outburst of aroused barking at the mail carrier, fence fighting with another dog. The list could go on and on.
Keep in mind that stress causes aggression, and stressors are cumulative; it’s not just the immediate stimulus that caused your dog to growl, but a combination of all the stressors he’s experienced in the past few days. This explains why he may growl at you today when you do something, but he didn’t growl last week when you did the exact same thing. The more stressors you can remove overall, the less likely he is to growl the next time you do whatever it was that elicited the growl this time.
5. Institute a behavior modification program for your dog to change his opinion about the thing that made him growl.
One way to do this is to use counter-conditioning and desensitization to convince him the bad thing is a good thing (see “Reducing Your Dog’s Anxieties,” April 2007 WDJ).
Another way is through the careful use of negative reinforcement as in a Constructional Aggression Treatment (CAT) program to teach him a new behavioral strategy when presented with the discomfort-causing stimulus. (For much more detail about CAT programs, see “Modifying Aggressive Behavior,” May 2008 WDJ.)
If you need help to create and implement a behavior modification protocol, contact a qualified behavior professional who is experienced and successful in modifying aggressive behavior with positive, dog-friendly techniques. Good places to start your search are https://www.petprofessionalguild.com/Zip-Code-Search, ccpdt.org, or my own trainer referral lists at peaceablepaws.com.
My 18 moth shipoo male is regularly being aggressive and biting both his owners causing severe injuries. This usually happens when we disturb his sleep but lately he’s become unpredictable even when he’s stroked he growls then lunges at us biting and locking his jaw On our hands or feet casing sever cuts and lots of blood loss. We love him loads but can’t put up with it any longer. We’re both scared of him. He can be so loving and affectionate but just loses it. We are seriously considering having him put to sleep. This will break our hearts but carnt see any alternative
My dumbass dog bites me and growls at me and snaps if I’m *not* doing anything that interests him. I love him so much, but he is a no thoughts, head empty dog lmao
Also he is a lot worse towards me if he spends the day with my boyfriend at work. I do tell him no when he grawls. I’ve tried everything I can think of. He can be fine playing with me one second and growling the next. I’m lost on what else to do. I wish I could get him fixed if that would help but money is too tight right now. I’ve had dogs my whole life and have never had this happen with any dog I’ve ever owned.
My dog started growling all of a sudden at me. I will be giving him a treat and tell him to sit and he will then I say paw and he will either start growling or cower like he’s in trouble or something so I don’t give him the treat. Sometimes he growling just because I went near him to remove leash. I’ve done most of his training and he’s fine with my boyfriend but not me and not sure why. Is him not being fixed have anything to do with it.
Get him fixed. After 6 months, they need to be fixed, or have hyper training with lots of engagement, because otherwise your dog’s hormones will make them act like asses
I have a nearly 2 year old Jack Russell x Pomeranian but he always starts to growl if we tell him off for eating something off the floor that he shouldn’t be eating. Also every time we do something he doesn’t like he starts to growl, we have tried many things to try and stop this but it won’t work. Someone please help!
ADMINS please don’t allow commenting if you don’t have the resources to moderate. There are a lot of jackasses giving very bad advice here.
Maybe try taking them to the vet to get checked out. Sometimes this is there way of telling you there in pain. If it comes out that nothing is wrong then you will have to show the dog who’s boss somehow in a non aggressive way. I’m not sure how to do that my 2 dogs have never growled at me or anyone in my family.