Charlie snaps at me if I wake him up ..

[Nikki & Charlie]

Do any of your doods do this?

 

At night, while we are all relaxing on the couch, Charlie often falls asleep tucked away in a corner somewhere. If he's out cold and I go to wake him up for bed, he starts growling at me and will actually snap at me. He's bitten me once. He ONLY ever acts like that when I wake him up, and I don't ever startle him.. I do it very gently. Even if I'm just petting him and hes really really tired, he freaks.

 

Thoughts/suggestions?

[Nikki & Charlie]

That's a great tip thank you

[Cindy and Olive (Ollie)]

Yes but Nikki said that she is already waking him gently, and not startling him.
Perhaps you could wake him verbally instead of physically with a pleasant, "let's go!" command? It's prob best to call him to you, then you know he's compliant and thus safer situation for you/any kids. Then you could treat him for responding to your command...
About the growling, one trainer told me I should correct him for it (he growled two times at my twelve yr old son when he pet him during sleepytime) but then I read that if you correct them for growling they can bypass and go straight to biting. Uh oh. I chose to insist that my son let sleeping dogs lie.
Keep us posted! :-)

[Susan and Bentley]

Cindy that is what my trainer said too.  If you take away the growl, they go straight to biting.  And that's how they express themselves.  What I do now, which took a lot of months and practice, is stand next to him, and say his name and wait for him to come to.  I have a treat in my hand and say let's go to your crate - I point towards the bedroom and he jumps off the couch.  Sometimes he waits for me to throw a treat and then he jumps off the couch.  But at least now, he goes right to his crate.  No more growling.  I think it's a combination of practice, and just getting older - he's almost a year and a half.  And the same routine, night after night. 

[Cindy and Olive (Ollie)]

Great advice, thx...

[Nikki & Charlie]

I will definitely try the verbal command instead of the physical! Thanks so much

[Nikki & Charlie]

Oh I do wake him gently, I never startle him but I guess he doesn't want to be bothered. I spoke to my trainer on how to fix this so hopefully with her help and everyone else's here I can fix it!

[Rosemary (Ro) and Enzo]

Growling is one thing....snapping is carrying a step further.  Warnings are fine....once the snapping begins, it is more of a show of aggression/dominance.  I agree, never take away the growl, BUT accepting the snapping is a whole other issue.  Still haven't seen how old this puppy is.  I have never seen a trainer who accepts a snap.

[Cindy and Olive (Ollie)]

I haven't even seen anything on how to respond to snap/bite - I've only read/heard about prevention. How does one respond in this situ? (Thankfully it has never happened for us, but still curious!)

[Nikki & Charlie]

That's exactly what I'm wondering too lol how to correct the actual biting or snapping

[Nikki & Charlie]

Charlie is 5 months! He generally growls a little bit first but there was on incident where he snapped and that was when he was already in his crate. He went into it by himself and I was excited because it was the first time he did that so I went to pet him to say good job and he snapped. Maybe he felt I was violating his territory? But regardless it's not okay that he did that. I'm wondering how to correct the snapping? Saying "no" loudly?

[MichaelJH2000]

I read all the other posts and don't why anyone is stating the obvious. Your pup sees himself as the pack leader. You cannot allow that or will you will have an even larger problem with your pup grows up. Regardless of being woken up, he should not snap at or bite you. Does he do the same thing with treats and toys? To correct this behavior, I'd start with a professional trainer who can teach you to be the pack leader.

[Cindy and Olive (Ollie)]

Michael, I agree about leadership as a way of daily life (for the record, I did mention that in my first reply) and our family chose to follow doggy dan's five golden rules. They seem to work beautifully and are completely humane. Some on here are skeptical about "pack leadership" as outdated philosophy, inhumane at times, etc., but I have found success with these methods. I've found there is so much conflicting opinion on dog training that it can be hard to know what is right. But, I love this site as everyone's intentions seem helpful and it provides so much input from which we need to sort, then do what we think is best. Good luck, Nikki!