Growling at a little dog

Dear all

Took my little one on a walk this morning and this little border terrier (also on the lead) was a little excited on the greeting. Tash was good at first, going all submissive, this little one came bounding up a little excitable and then rolled on his back and went all submissive and my tash growled twice. Not sure if it was because she wanted to play with him or whether agression.

She then met 3 more dogs (albeit bigger) and was absolutely fine, very submissive.

This afternoons walk was even better, she met another dog off the lead and they played happily together (albeit a little roughly) all walk.

Do you think i need to be wary of the hiccup this morning or just get on with things.

julia

I doubt the growl was down to aggression due to her young age she maybe just wanted to initiate play. Dont let it play on your mind just keep taking her out and get her socialised you will be fine.

Growling isn't always aggressive. In this case he was probably just making his feelings known that he wanted to play!

I wouldn't make a big deal out of it.

thanks, just what i wanted to hear. She is a beautiful girl

My Tommy behaves totally different when meeting other dogs if he is on his lead. When I have him on the lead he will bark, snarl and growl like a devil dog. If he's off his lead he'll run around and play without vocalising at all, it's got to the point where I avoid all other dogs when I have him on the lead!

It was most likely an invatation to play and nothing to be concerned over. Here is a link on body language you may find helpfull

http://staffy-bull-terrier.co.uk/dog_body_language

Bacchus has done this a couple of times with smaller submissive dogs/pups. The snarling was quite alarming for both me and the other owners although he didn't actually bite. It seemed, with him, to be a dominance thing??

P.S.
He was about 5 or 6 months at the time.

Marley is very submissive but she gets very excited every time she meets new people.