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/

[Rosemary (Ro) and Enzo]

Safe to say, that all " growls " are not created equal. ;)

[Jane, Guinness and Murphy]

I'm glad that the author clarified by saying she wasn't suggesting that it was good for a dog to growl at the owner.  When Murph was at his most dominant stage he thought that might work with me.....he had to know that that just wasn't going to accept that behavior from him.

[Jane, Guinness and Murphy]

I need to proofread...."that I just wasn't going to accept that behavior from him".

[Jess & Stewart]

I'm assuming that Stewart's growls when we come inside from a walk and he attacks my rubber boots, that it's just playful, or puppy nipping. He sometimes growls when he's nipping like crazy and I pick him up, since he usually doesn't want to be picked up and put behind the baby gate. I haven't heard a very low growl or 'warning growl" yet though.

[Stephanie and Ragley]

Ragley does those little growls too when she gets all "revved up". They are playful little growls and are actually kinda cute! I try not to encourage the growling, but I don't punish her for it. She is just playing and it sounds like that's what Stewart is doing also. I always tell Ragley what a "vicious puppy" she is when she starts attacking inanimate objects and grumbling at them hah puppies have quite the active imaginations!

[Laurie, Fudge, and Vern]

One of my biggest concerns on DK when people get new puppies is many times they post, a short while later, that their dog is aggressive. In reality, mostly it is a puppy going through a puppy stage and yet we hear of corrections that seem extreme for this behavior. Or people want to give up their puppy because they just don't understand puppy behavior.  I think this is part of what Joanne is talking about and people should educate themselves about dog behavior and get a clue sometimes.

Dogs do speak. Vern is a growler. Never at any of us, but he alerts me all the time to dangers he perceives and he does it with a growl. If someone walks too closely to my car when we are stopped, he will growl.  A stranger approaches, he growls. Do I think Vern is a mean or aggressive dog? No way, but he is making it clear he is not happy about something happening nearby. Do I think he needs to stop this behavior. No, I do not, because to me he is letting me know what is making him uncomfortable and then we can address this behavior and move on.

I have never heard Fudge growl, except in dog play. If I didn't know better, I would think my two are killing each other when they play.

We adopted our Honey from a rescue. The second day we had her, she got a tick in her ear and as I went to remove it, she bared her teeth at me and growled. Scared the bejesus out of me. I backed off, found a way to remove the tick, and from that day on went about getting her to accept me working on her ears. It took a long time, but we got there. She also resource guarded and I have no doubt would have bit me in a heartbeat if I took something away from her. We had to hire a trainer.  Her growl meant business and we took it very seriously. Much different than Vern's growl of warning.

So, yes, I agree we need to know our dog's talk and recognize their body language.

I also will never forget the woman who posted on here about her dog that was aggressive. Two people (no longer on DK) told her to get right in that dog's face and let the dog know she was the boss. One person even mentioned a hanging technique that horrified me.  Turns out the woman had the dog evaluated and it did have some serious problems and those techniques could have landed her in the hospital.  The family stuck with the dog and last update, things were going great, but it was a good lesson to learn that not all dogs can be handled with a "this is how you do it" technique. Many need far more help than we know.

[Donna Bay & Buzz]

We went through this with the adopted Golden I mentioned earlier. We had him evaluated by a dog therapist and had many pricey tests run by our Vet. Sadly both concluded he had a severe temperament issue and most likely could not be properly retrained to the point it would be safe for me. If I had ever put my face in his face and yelled I am completely convinced I would not be here to type this. It was that bad. Vet suggested inbreeding although that was never confirmed. He growled a very low mean aggressive growl. Never playful.

[DJ & Chance]

Interesting and important discussion.  Chance is very vocal and has both a play growl and warning growl.  

[Lori, Quincy & Frankie]

I am trying to think of if/when Quincy growls.  I can only recall his play growl when we are playing tug.  We were taught in puppy class to touch the dog all over on a daily basis.  I did this, and I remember my DH saying to me that I could do anything to Quincy since he trusts me so much.  I love that, and I know I am a lucky DM.  

Interesting discussion-thanks for raising the topic, Joanne! 

[Leslie J]

When Cocoa was a puppy, she made a soft growling sound (not showing teeth or anything) when I would pick her up from her crate to take her outside. I would ignore the growl and continue what I was doing, as I didn't want her to use a growl to boss me around.
After a few times, I also figured out she really didn't like being picked up from inside her crate, so I stopped doing it. Instead I started using a treat to take her out when I was in a hurry. She's never growled at anyone (except while playing tug of war) again.
I think we can learn from our dogs' growls what their preferences are, but we also shouldn't let them boss us around. In the example of a dog on leash growling at a dog off leash, I think the dog on leash has every right to growl at the other dog!

[Nancy, Ned, Clancy, and Charlie]

None of our dogs would growl at us no matter how unhappy they were. It has never ever been an issue.  If it occurred when they were pups, I guess we simply squelched it (lucky us) when they were young and impressionable.  But they are dogs and do have some growling behaviors.  Clancy is very vocal and growls and moans all the time, especially when playing or when he is quite excited.  This is quite acceptable to us. He  has occasionally growled at people and he gets a major correction. It isn't acceptable to us.   When he first came to us, he and Gordie had person- and high-value toy guarding problems which began with growling and escalated to physical disagreements.  They eventually settled it amicably, but now it is happening (3 years later)  with his black lab cousin (who were both adopted as adults at the same time) and they actually had a fight last time our dd dog-sat.  We are working on this, but because cousin isn't coming over that often, we haven't made much progress.  Gordie, our anxious Springer, now growls at Clancy when he (Gordie) has a bone or Nylabone and Clancy comes near.  There is absolutely NO bite connected to this warning.  Ned protects his pack - he growls before barking - he does this when he hears something - usually in the middle of the night  :-{    He has growled (with a bark and a lunge) at certain dogs ( i.e. boxers) once in a while.  Neither of these is acceptable to us.  Ned has never made a sound when he is without the pack.

[Jennifer Tramell]

There have been times that my dogs have grumbled and complained about something.  There is something in their body language that makes it clear that they are in no way showing aggression or challenging - they are just disagreeing.  Some dogs are more vocal than others, and I think that vocalization includes complaining.

My golden retriever/collie mix would carry on quite a conversation - to many people it sounded like growling.  One time he did growl at me - he had gathered some shoes under my bed and was guarding them.  I corrected that behavior and it never happened again (he was a mild mannered boy). 

I have seen a mother dog growl at her puppies - it is how she communicates her displeasure and teaches respect.  My older dogs have growled at the new puppy of the family - I allow it because it is how they communicate hierarchy.  My Shepherd mix, Dixie, was at a dog park one day when a little-bitty fluffy white dog kept bothering her (Dixie was minding her own business when this new dog came and started to annoy).  Dixie growled and started backing up, the fluffball kept advancing.  This continued until the white dog was literally in Dixie's face and Dixie was backed into a corner - the growl became a snap.  As I fastened the leash (I had been on my way to intervene), I noticed a tuft of white hair hanging from Dixie's muzzle.  Obviously this dog had not learned what a growl meant or proper canine manners.  Dixie did have a fear aggression issue, but that would occur without warning - a reaction rather than a warning.  A growl would have been an improvement (never had a problem with our immediate family, only strangers).

A person who doesn't understand dog body language and the nuances of canine verbalization may assume that my dogs are/were being aggressive.  I agree with much of the article and I appreciate the value of a growl, but I also would not allow my dogs to growl aggressively at people in my home.