Growling: Growling is meant to avert aggression, not cause it

[Joanne ~ Spud*]

I've often commented here on DK when I see discussions about Growling.  I've even posted a video about different sounds dogs make to help new puppy owners understand that dogs have no voice. They communicate with guttural sounds.  A growl is not a cut and dry, one word, communication. It is not hate. 

They make sounds and these sounds are most likely to be play, excitement, disagreements, but not aggression. Often, others comment, " Growling is NOT ACCEPTABLE, under any circumstances"

I cringe when I see the absolute comments.

I was raised with the 'not acceptable' opinions too, but mine changed somewhat  over the years.  I've lightened a little.  I try to incorporate dog body language into sounds dogs make.  I'm no pro and it's tough.

Many of you know I lived with an aggressive doodle who never made a sound. It was all in her eyes and body language and those spoke powerful. 

I'm hoping I can get others to read an article and understand what I've been taught.

I'm seeing too many dogs given up at young ages because of just a simple miscommunication error.  Today was one of those  :(

I'm hoping that we don't overreact, correct the dog ( I see this a lot too~ the dog needs immediate correction).  I  was beginning to think I may be thinking wrong but this article affirms what I was taught:

Pay attention to the circumstances, dont react to the noise but react to behavior, is there danger involved?

If it continues and you see anger in your once pleasant dog, take him to the vet. If you have a young puppy, get to a trainer early on not when the problems begin. 

Understand the difference between Aggression and Communication.  If you dont know what's going on with your dog, find help!  

Otherwise, JUST LISTEN.  Your dog is speaking  :)   What is your dog saying?   Sometimes it's just all talk

Etc.  So, here is the article.  Enjoy

Why Growling is Good

A woman I sometimes chat with during my morning dog outings asked my opinion about an encounter she recently had. She’d been been walking her four-year-old mixed breed dog around a local park when she crossed paths with a man whose dog was off leash. As the owners walked toward each other on the narrow trail, the foot loose and fancy-free puppy ran up to the adult dog. With the usual lack of canine cluelessness that accompanies early dogdom, the pup leaped at the dog relentlessly in an attempt to initiate play. The woman’s dog, while not aggressive, did not want to be bothered. He growled. The puppy didn’t back off, and again tried to engage the older dog. The dog growled louder. The man made no attempt to put his dog on leash. The woman, feeling embarrassed that her dog had growled, ended up apologizing to the man and walking her dog away.

The adult dog’s hackles might not have been up during the encounter, but mine certainly were. The woman’s dog had done nothing wrong. She had nothing to apologize for! Growling is a perfectly acceptable canine warning. It’s a dog’s way of saying, “Hey, I don’t like that,” “Don’t come any closer!” or “Please stop what you’re doing.” Being on leash, the adult dog didn’t have the option to leave. He could certainly have snapped at the puppy, or worse. But instead, he gave an appropriate warning. That the puppy didn’t buy a vowel, get a clue, and understand what was being spelled out was a problem, so the dog growled louder. Hopefully that puppy will learn to back off when adult dogs warn him away, before his puppy license expires and an adult dog cleans his clock. And hopefully the man will learn to leash his dog when encountering others.

Understanding that a growl is a threat is hard-wired in humans, so it’s reasonable and even advantageous that we become upset when we hear one. But a growl from a dog is actually a good thing. I’m not suggesting that it’s a good thing for a dog to growl at his owner, but growling is a non-aggressive form of communication. Think about it. If someone kept shoving into you on line at the post office, you’d eventually say something like, “Excuse you!” But what if you didn’t have a way to warn the person that you were getting irritated? Eventually, you’d have to resort to either leaving, or physically getting your point across. Whether a dog is growling at another dog or a person, it’s simply a warning. If the dog wanted to attack, he would have. Growling is meant to avert aggression, not cause it. But people misunderstand, and punish dogs for growling. A dog then learns that growling leads to being punished and, unfortunately, once his early warning system has been removed, the dog is likely to begin biting with no warning. As a trainer, I’ve seen many dogs like that over the years and believe me, they’re no fun to rehabilitate.

If a dog is growling at you, whether the dog belongs to you or someone else, the best course of action at the moment is to defuse the situation. After all, the dog’s arousal level is already elevated. You don’t want to shout or worse, get physical, as those things could lead to a bite. Instead, glance down and to the side (this tells the dog you’re not a threat while allowing you to keep him in your peripheral vision) and back away slowly. Don’t turn your back on the dog if you can help it, as some dogs are more prone to attack from the rear. If the dog in question is your own, address the situation that caused the growling—for example, food guarding—at another time when your dog is calm, with the assistance of a professional trainer if necessary. Remember, growling is simply communication. If we take a moment to assess why a dog is growling instead of automatically taking the attitude that he’s behaving inappropriately, we will react appropriately ourselves.

http://wildewmn.wordpress.com/2013/10/22/why-growling-is-good/

[Joanne ~ Spud*]

I will add, my dog is extremely ticklish. At  night, when I touch his sweet, rolled upside down tummy, he jumps and growls. Is he growling at me?  No.  He is tickish, I startled him, and truly I was rather rude to want to cuddle and scare the heck out of a dog that is sleeping.

Should I punish him? No, I should leave him alone.  That's what he is telling me to do. 

[Stella]

I remember the trainer at the puppy classes we went to telling us to never punish a dog for growling. She said the growl is a warning, which is a good thing. You want to know when the dog is unhappy about something. If you punish for growling, you may end up with a dog that doesn't growl, doesn't give a warning, and who will 'appear' to attack without warning.

[Joanne ~ Spud*]

Exactly Stella!  :)  I was taught that too.

Here is another example and a point I am trying to get across.

A young owner continues to touch her Lab Mix on the leg. After all, she was taught that she should be able to rub his legs down without an objection from her dog.  Her husband insist on continuing to do this over and over for a 1/2 hour until the dog stops growling or else the dog is Out of the House forever.

Well, how about small steps at a time? How about not at all?  How about not making a big deal out of it!  Is it really that important?

if this jerk continued to rub my leg down, I'd have to hit his nasty mope in the head. Maybe even kick him in that... third leg of his and see what he rubs. 

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

I just can't accept this. There are lots of different schools of thought on dog behavior and training methods, and this one just does not make sense to me at all. Further, it makes me fear that people who follow this thinking that a dog growling at you is a good thing are going to end up with dogs who are so out of control they are dangerous.

I agree that you have to look at context, i.e. a dog growling while playing with a stuffed toy is not being aggressive, BUT a dog who you have owned and raised from a puppy should not be giving you a "warning". If you are doing something to or for your dog, there is a very good reason for that and the dog shouldn't be allowed to protest or to argue with you about it.  Most often we hear that someone's dog growled at them when they tried to take away a sock, or some other object that could be harmful to the dog. Or course the dog is "unhappy" that they can't have that cooked chicken bone, but that's too darn bad. You should look away and to the side so the dog doesn't think you are challenging him???? What??????? Is this author going to pay the emergency vet bill? 

The dogs don't call the shots here at my house, ever. The dog doesn't like you to touch his leg, so you just won't touch it? Not an option. What happens when the dog has a hot spot on that leg and you have to touch it? 

We will have to agree to disagree on this one. My own dog growling at me is never acceptable, and it will always get an immediate correction. 

[J and Riley (and Luna)]

Yeah Luna's "protests" don't involve growling at all.  They involve licking a hand to stay "hey, stop that!" or moving away.  She is a very calm and submissive dog and has NEVER used her warning growl for us, only scary wildlife, plastic bags and lawn decorations lol :p

[Joanne ~ Spud*]

I understand to a point. All my other dogs have never done this. But, I think some dogs do and if an owner has one of these dogs, just making a noise is not an act of aggression. 
For once, I am not afraid of my dog disagreeing with me. This does not mean he gets to call the shots, just that I get I know, he is not too happy. I never expect a snap with the argument. 

But what noise should your dog make?  Dogs make noises.  I remember you saying your dog groaned when you used to clean his ears. Did you ever mistake that sound for aggression?    No, you understood that moaning  to be a verbal sound of saying it felt so good.   People think some dogs should never make a sound. 

If I put Spud's harness on-  He hates the Easy Walk Harness but I use it a lot, he grumbles. Yes, Grumbles not growls.  There is a HUGE difference with his grumble  than there is his growl. I certainly know his growl.  We  need to know our dog.

I certainly would not second guess a dog I do not know, but my fears are that if a dog makes a sound he is thrown out. Or punished.

[Donna Bay & Buzz]

I agree. Growling between two dogs is one thing. Growling at his/her owner or any person in my opinion needs to be corrected. We adopted a Golden Retriever many years ago from a couple in town. He was 5. He always growled at me and it didnt take long before he bit me. 3 times. The third time he could have seriuosly hurt me if my husband wasnt there to stop him. Needless to say, we could not keep him. He was very agressive. I say correct the growling with humans while puppies or you could end up with my situation. It wasnt fun.

[Camilla and Darwin]

I completely agree with this Karen. Darwin will occasionally play growl when he's really excited (like playing tug of war with another dog, etc). It's obviously a play growl. But he does not growl at me or other people. If he did I would correct him.

I would not tolerate Darwin growling at me, regardless of whether I startled him, or he doesn't want me to clean his ears, etc. He has never done this - so it's never been an issue. However if he did, I would correct him. Does that mean I would give up on him and dump him in a shelter? Of course not. If he started growling at me I would immediately develop a plan to work on the behavior, I would not be okay with it continuing. 

Darwin has also started growling while looking out the window onto the street at the in-laws. This is pretty rare, and it's usually something odd like a kid on a 4-wheeler or something out of the ordinary. I can understand why he might do it - but it's still not a desirable behavior to me. Since he has never done it before and only started this year, I don't think this is just part of his personality - it's some kind of developing behavior. A behavior that I don't want to continue. So when he does it, I redirect him by holding a mini training session, which seems to be helping. I don't think it would benefit Darwin or me (or anyone) to allow the behavior to continue, or escalate. 

[Adina P]

I lean toward Karen's perspective.  But either way if a dog growls at a human*, with any regularity, it's a sign of a problem.  Blame the human or blame the dog...something is wrong and needs fixing.  I guess I'd rather have a warning growl before a dog decides to bite me (so I can prevent the bite) than a bite that seemed 'out of nowhere,' but I don't want either.  I don't want a dog that thinks it can object with warnings toward me because I don't want a dog that doesn't trust and respect humans.  I want a dog that defers to humans and finds other ways to object that aren't "hey if you don't cut it out, I'm gonna bite you!"

*Outside of playful vocalization, of course.

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

What I have noticed (and I'm not the only one) is that the "positive methods ONLY" trainers who do not believe in giving corrections for anything are the same ones who will then suggest euthanizing a dog who growls, snaps or snarls at humans. I have personally experienced this several times with rescue dogs whose owners were advised to use clicker trainer and never correct, and now are being advised to euthanize the monsters they have created. If the clickers, praise, and treats don't work, they have nothing else in their bag of tricks to deal with behaviors that need correcting, because in their world, there is no correcting. There is either praise and rewards for the behaviors you want, or there is ignoring (glance down, back away, stop doing whatever you were doing that caused the dog to growl) ) the behaviors you don't want. Then, when the growling and snarling has gone unchecked long enough to become habitual, and the dog has become a dangerous bully, these same "positive", happy trainers tell you to put the dog down. That's preferable to ever giving a correction, because after all, you won't be causing the dog pain or unhappiness. 

There is no one size fits all training, and as far as I'm concerned, the dogs who do growl, protest, and give "warnings" are the very dogs who most need correction based training. 

[F, Calla & Luca]

: (

[Jane, Guinness and Murphy]

I was talking with my trainer about this a couple of weeks ago because he was telling me that he now is booked all day six days a week and has a waiting list.  He said that more and more owners are coming to him with their young adult dogs who have only been exposed to the positive only training methods which are so popular right now.  In fact he said that in many of the training journals and publications these methods have become "the preferred approach", but the flip side of this is that he's seeing more and more about using medication or "avoidance" techniques when the dog starts to display behavior issues.  An example he used from one recent publication was advice that for dogs with food guarding and aggression the solution is to only feed them in another room....so the owner puts the food down in another room, then calls the dog, then shuts the door while they eat.  The dog learns nothing from this, so when a visiting child drops their cookie and the dog grabs it and then the child goes to take it back and is bitten.....it's the dog's fault.  That's when "rehome", medicate, or euthanize become the options the trainer recommends.  Most positive only trainers will not deal with a dog who is showing signs of aggression.  The want the cute puppies and Disney dogs.  To me ignoring a dog who growls at you or anyone you have invited into your home teaches them that you are "comfortable" with that behavior.  I'm not suggesting harsh corrections, but my guys know when I'm disagreeing with something they are doing, and I would certainly be disagreeing with this behavior.  I agree with Adina that growling is usually indicative of some problem.  A couple years ago Murph growled at my DH for grabbing his collar to remove him from the bed.  He was "guarding" the bed because I was in it.  He lost his bed privileges unless I invite him up and we taught him the word "off".  That put an end to that.  He learned that growling got him nowhere except off the bed.  I think this is a really interesting discussion and is actually broader than just the issue of growling.  Thanks for starting it, Joanne.