Growling is good

Found this article and found it very interesting.....

http://www.pawprintsthemagazine.com/?p=14492

Hmmmm. I don't necessarily agree. Yes, you should find out why the dog is growling. But also, you should correct your dog, especially with a bull breed - they get a bad enough press without you allowing it to growl at anything it want to!

I won't have my dog growl at children, but neither do I allow children to run up & grab him!

I don't allow my dog to growl at me, no matter what I've done - I don't care if he likes what I'm doing or not, he doesn't growl at me! The exception would be if he was in pain & by me looking him over I cause him more pain.

I think it's a good article and that this is very important. Your dog will get a whole lot worse reputation if it bites a kid without warning than if it growls.. The point is that you need to accept that your dog is telling you something when it's growling and then adjust your training so you can make sure no bad things happen to either dog or its surroundings.

It's fine to want to make your dog stop growling at certain things, that's what you should do, but you need to do that by making them realize kids or cars or whatever aren't dangerous, or by training away resource guarding not just by correcting it as inappropriate behavior. You can even teach them a different, more appropriate (in human eyes) behavior they can replace the growling with. (It would be better, but not very realistic, to teach humans that growling isn't a Bad Thing.)

I must admit I would never stop mine growling,Meg can resource guard and I don't really see it as a huge issue,she guards the piece of floor by the fire and won't let Tyler near it.
I have no issues with her only her DA,not her fault.

Tyler will occasionally resource guard his food,depending on what he has in his bowl,(usually only does this with meat or leftovers from dinner)again not an issue for us as they are fed seperately in there crates.

I train my dogs so they don't resource guard their stuff from ME (obviously). I encourage Bajas to protect his food from the cats or Gummi as they will try to steal if it I'm not watching. It took him years and years to start doing it and I'm glad he finally does it. I let Gummi growl once if Bajas approaches when he's eating, but not to go all obsessive and growl rather than eat.

I agree to a certain point, dogs can only tell us how they feel in certain ways, growling being one of them. Bit I do not agree with the bit that says you shouldn't correct a snap or a lunge. That's just ridiculous.

the only time i let them growl without correction is when they are playing tug with themselves. they growl at each other but thats them playing they are never allowed to growl any other time. lemmy is very vocal in other ways and will let you know how he feels lottie is still learning to express herself without getting agitated so to allow her to growl is a no no and so lemmy will not be allowed either

I don't allow possession/food agression at all (ie resource guarding, which is just another name for it!). As far as I'm concerned anyone must be able to take food from my dog without getting their arms ripped off.

After seeing first hand what 'resource guarding' can lead to with a toddler, I just won't allow it.

Aniemother wrote:I think it's a good article and that this is very important. Your dog will get a whole lot worse reputation if it bites a kid without warning than if it growls.. The point is that you need to accept that your dog is telling you something when it's growling and then adjust your training so you can make sure no bad things happen to either dog or its surroundings.

It's fine to want to make your dog stop growling at certain things, that's what you should do, but you need to do that by making them realize kids or cars or whatever aren't dangerous, or by training away resource guarding not just by correcting it as inappropriate behavior. You can even teach them a different, more appropriate (in human eyes) behavior they can replace the growling with. (It would be better, but not very realistic, to teach humans that growling isn't a Bad Thing.)

I agree 100% and I think most vets do too

Because of Ju's nervousness I have to let him show his fear, I can't keep it pent up, but nor will I take stick for something my dog is afraid of. I will desensitise him to the "threat" if and when needed.
I do not like children near him and he doesn't either. I will allow him to warn, but then that's where I step in.
People need to realise that dogs are not human, indeed they are something totally different and the sooner they realise that and start listening to the animals, the better for them.
[/endrant]

I agree with said article <3