If you hear your dog growling, you can use it as a warning signal of sorts. Before trying to get your pooch to stop growling, give these four aspects a thought. You'll be surprised at what you learn!
Here are four things you need to know about dog growling:
1. Dog growling serves as a warning signal
It tells you that your dog is unhappy or uncomfortable. Something is wrong. Think of it as an early warning system.2. Punishing a dog for growling takes away your early warning system
Dogs who are punished for growling oftentimes learn not to growl.3. All dogs warn
If your dog doesn’t warn before he bites, it’s either because you’re missing his precursor signals or because he no longer feels safe displaying them. Either way, the fault here lies at the other end of the leash.Dogs who go straight to biting without displaying lots and lots of precursors are much more difficult to treat. I would much rather work with a dog who stiffens up, displays whale eyes, hard-stares me, curls his lip, growls, freezes and then (finally) bites, than a dog who goes straight from a freeze to a bite. It will be much easier to keep the situation safe with the first dog. The latter case is much riskier.
4. If your dog growls, he believes he has a valid reason to do so
The little dog was understandably worried by what he perceived was a giant dog, frozen and staring at him (both confrontational and potentially aggressive behaviors) from across the room.
Now that you have a better understanding of your pooch, you can learn why he's growling. It's usually always for a good reason and you should take that into account before chastising him.
For more on dog growling, check out Dogster.
