Sasha growls at people...

As some of you know we "rescued" Sasha of a family who wanted to get rid of her after breeding her.
It's been around a week since my mum has had her, she's starting to come out f her shell and getting naughty...
She's growled at 3 people (all males), never growled at me though, she also has started biting my boy more and more, he use to chase her to play now she's the one chasing him and then starts biting his ear and always jumps on top of him, I'm scared that my boy might snap and hurt her, even though I'm always watching and try not let anything happen it could always happen.

So what's the best way to go about getting her to stop growling at people?

When does she growl? Is it an "I'm being naughty and bossy" growl, or a serious one? What's her body language like when she growls?

When people come in the house, she sees them and growls...
Not sure I wasn't there my mum was telling me about the growling.

It depends on the growl. Logan roars like a Lion when people come to my house but it's a playful growl and he normally runs to get a toy right after. Try to see if you can catch her doing it. If it's an innocent growl let it be because it's part of learning.

However, if she growls out on walks etc, practice the "look at me" technique. By getting her attention with a toy/treat until the person passes. That way she'll learn not to fixate on other people.

Alright, thanks Mat, I haven't catcher her doing it yet because I only go there every so now and often to let my boy play with her, but when I do go in the house she never growls at me.

Ill try see if I can catch her doing it because it could be that she just wants to play or something.

You said yourself the poor girl had never been walked before you got her. So if possible start trying to get her accustomed to different things. Try taking her to places where people are, vehicles driving etc. But of course make sure she is safe and under control.

Could you try going over without your dragon and see how she is? I guess he provides a distraction for her

Since they have all been males it's possible she has had a bad experience or it could also be because of being in the house.

cesca1 wrote:Could you try going over without your dragon and see how she is? I guess he provides a distraction for her

I've been there without my boy a few times and she never growled at me.

I was also thinking she might be protecting the people she loves, she was in a bad home where she was hardly fed and they never payed attention to her, to show you how much they cared about her she didn't even know her own name. Now that she's in a good home she might be trying to protect them from people she doesn't know, which would explain the growling, she knows me as I go there often and play with her, all the people that she growled at are people who go there every so now and often and don't really play with her.

It's still early days. She's probably still quite nervous & unsure of herself. It can take a few months for a badly treated dog to really settle down & enjoy life.

As Mat says, try to distract her attention with "Watch" or something similar, followed by a treat or a fuss. If visitors come in, pop her on a lead and ask the visitors to sit down with a couple of treats in their hands. Then let her approach once she's more confident. If she does approach, the visitor can slowly open his hand to reveal a treat which she can take if she wants. Don't pressure her into accepting them, just let her take her time so that she can start trusting again.

When there are visitors ask them to just come in and sit down and try to be quiet to begin with at least Maybe they could give her a treat too when she is calm and quiet. We have found with Rocky that if we have visitors who are quite noisy he will be a bit excitable, but if people come in and sit down and be quiet he is fine.

Try and ask your mum to look at her body language next time she growls, she might be messing around. If not, it could be that she's just still settling in after being in a bad home, if she was mistreated, she's probably not very trusting of strangers and therefore will be a bit protective of them in her home. I think Caryll's idea of giving the people treats and seeing if she'll go over to them, all very calmly done and everything. Might help her a bit, but if not, you can just distract her or have her go somewhere quiet where she feels safe