Possible aggressive behavior

[Haley, Yeti, and Phin]

Hello! Yeti my Goldendoodle is 12 weeks old! We are in training mode full time and as many of you know that often means using the word NO! ... A lot!! Sometimes (not everytime) when we tell him no he will hunch down and bark at us. Iits never a growl and he is never showing teeth. My question is, is this considered aggressive behavior? The last thing I want is for my boy to be an aggressive dog. I've never owned a puppy or dog before so I'm not sure what the reasoning might be. He isn't aggressive with his food or toys just usually when we're scolding him. Has anyone had this experience with their puppies?!

[Susan and Bentley]

that doesn't sound aggressive.   Bentley is very vocal.  I just think they're so smart that they try to talk back to us!

[Linda Jansing]

If he is down on his front legs with his butt up in the air, he just wants to play. If you are telling him "no" when he does this, he knows he has your attention and he may just think it's playtime.

[Kaitlin and Ludo]

Ludo was growly as a puppy and he is not at all aggressive, he's actually quite talkative, still, at 10 months-- he'll grumble at me but it's (this sounds silly) conversational-- just telling me what he wants/doesn't want.  At the time, I also was really worried that he was aggressive. 

I got the advice here to not use the word "no" so much but to instead show them what you DO want through praise and positive reinforcement. One thing that helped with the growliness as a puppy and generally teaching good behavior is to keep him on a leash or tethered to me.  I found that keeping him on a leash 100% of the time (except when sleeping), I was able to better remove him from temptations and keep a close eye on what he's doing. Of course, keep the focus on socialization and introducing him to as many new situations and people as you can while he's young.

Good luck :)

[Judith and Addie]

May I suggest that you remove, "No" from your training vocabulary. If your cutie is like mine, he may be sensitive, and he is becoming afraid of you. Look into positive only training. Rather than say no, redirect him to the behavior you want and reward that behavior. I believe Doggy Dan that you can access from this site shows positive training techniques.

BTW, if you have any training info from Cesar Milan, throw it out. That approach has been shown to not be good for your pup and it is based on old and wrong information.

[Susan and Bentley]

I agree 100%.  We were also taught to never say no, which is very hard to do.  Redirect and positive reinforcement!

[Jane, Guinness and Murphy]

He is a puppy and he's taking a lot of his queues from you.  So often when we tell a puppy "NO" we do it in an excited and loud tone of voice.  Excitement generates excitement....because we aren't calm they won't be either.  I would try your best to find another "word" and then always calmly redirect your puppy to what you want them to do instead.  The other option is to calmly leash them...walk them to their crate...and give them a little time out.  I really don't think it's aggressive behavior at all.  With puppies my favorite saying is "stay calm and redirect".

[Nancy, Ned, Clancy, and Charlie]

Your tone of voice is very important.  A calm, low timber of voice in short commands i.e. "NO" or whatever word you use rather than an excited timber is more effective. Using the dog's name before the command is also a good idea - for example, "Yeti, off." when he jumps on you or something not to be jumped on,  rather than "NO, don't to that! No. NO! I said NO. Get down."