Why does my dog growl?
Hearing your dog growl can be very scary, especially if directed at children , but we need to know why the dog is growling and how best to proceed.
Information from Anne Rogers : " Growling is a normal part of their communication systems and is welcomed from our doggie pals. If we take doggie signalling along a gradient giving a zero to a warm, happy chilled dog right through to a dog that delivers an inhibited bite at 10, growling is about a 6. That means that we need to look for the 5 or 6 missing bits where our dog is signalling their discomfort. We are pushing our dogs into exhibiting escalated discomfort signalling.
What is Canine communication ?
Canine communication is made up of postures, positions, facial expressions, vocalisations, chemical communication
- dog-dog interactions, dog-human interactions, interactions with inanimate objects
- natural canid morphology lends itself well to complex communication displays; selective breeding and modern practices and the effects they have on canine morphology may impact a dog’s ability to read and send signals e.g. docking, a lot of coat on the face, extreme morphologies
- lots of mythology, so take care with interpretations - how do we know?
- concentrate on observable behaviour primarily – what is the dog doing?
- interpretations must only be offered tentatively – at best, canine signalling is ambivalent
- canine signalling is made up of distance increasing signalling (I would like some space and time in an interaction) and distance decreasing signalling (I would like this interaction to continue)
- signalling is fluid and ever-changing
- signalling will be seen on a continuum and never static (Ladder of Aggression, see pic below )
- the main functions of complex communication is to reduce friction and discomfort so signalling may be used to appease an uncomfortable individual to make interaction run smoother
- consider signalling within the entire animal’s body (so not just its eyes or tail or whatever part of the body) and always consider the context in which signalling is seen (where, when, who, how, what, when)
Some Signs :
- Yawning: this is a sign of stress and not just tiredness. Something to keep an eye out for in close interaction.
- Mouth closed: if the dog is happy and relaxed then they will have a slack jaw, mouth slightly open. If they then close their mouth it is a sign they are beginning to feel tense.
- Lip licking: same as humans, if a person becomes stressed they will usually get a feeling of a dry moth and lick their lips. A good sign of tension building.
- Half moon eyes: as if the dog is straining to look at something or just looking like there is somewhere else they need to be right now.
- Shaking of the whole body: as if they are wet and shaking off to dry.
- Turning away: the dog is trying to turn away from the person, the person maybe holding or trying to hug the dog and the dog is trying to reclaim some personal space.
Any one or all or a combination of these signs will be your dog communicating that they are feeling uncomfortable, if you miss the hints then the next stage will most likely be a growl. Please teach you children to take heed of a growl and that it means 'back off I am really unhappy about this' tell them to give space to the dog as this is what he is desperately trying to tell them.
The next step from a growl may be a body freeze, lip lick and then a warning bite, this can happen within a split second and as quick as you have seen the coming bite it may be too late to prevent it. This will most probably not be a full force bite but a physical warning to 'get off' this can be enough to cause injury so it is essential to learn these signs and that way you can prevent a situation ever escalating to this level.
The ability to recognise these signs will prevent a situation escalating into a snap or bite if a dog is feeling threatened. They are quite small signs but can give just enough warning for you to act. All dogs have the ability to bite, they may feel unwell, be in pain or acting just to defend themselves. There are many situations of dogs biting children that can be put down to any of these reasons and can cost a normally loving dog to be put down. The dog will always be blamed for biting, this is why it is unfair to leave animals and children unsupervised.
The important thing in relation to our reactions to growling is to never 'punish' it, correct it or tell the dog off. It’s important to keep the growl so give the growling dog what he wants - distance. This is just management; we now have to work on teaching the dog how to be more comfortable in whatever situation caused the growling and discomfort.
If a dog is biting or snapping, his more subtle discomfort signaling is being ignored. Dogs communicate their discomfort in a social situation using a range of distance increasing signaling as mentioned above.
If the more subtle, earlier signaling is ignored (and therefore effectively punished) the dog won't use it - there is no point, it doesn't work. So instead they use more obvious signaling e.g. the growling, snapping etc. to achieve the distance they want and need.
A dog that doesn't signal is dangerous because we don't have enough time to get out of there should there be a situation from which the dog wishes to escape."
Does you dog growl at you if you approach him when he has a bone, chew or toy? or you try and take something off him etc? this is know as Resource Guarding.
From Anne Rogers:
Resource guarding behaviour is normal, natural and necessary dog behaviour. Nobody likes to have someone take the last morsel from your plate! First thing to understand is that growling and barking is distance increasing signaling. This means that the dog is doing it because they are asking your for space. But if the dog is already growling it is likely that she has been signaling her discomfort at your proximity for quite some time. Imagine a scale of 0 - 10. 0 is the dog comfortable and happy signaling and 10 is the delivery of injurious bites. Growling comes in at about a 6 or 7 on that scale - we just miss the earlier more subtle and polite requests for space. Next thing that is also vital is to ensure that the dog has somewhere to go to be undisturbed and that the rule is that if the dog has something she's to be left alone, especially for children!
If the dog has something that you want to get back or get away from him do so only if it's dangerous to the dog, otherwise it might not be worth the risk. If you wish to proceed use diversion to get the dog away from the item - e.g. throw high value food in the other direction, get the dog's leash, open the door, open the fridge, pretend to go out or whatever gets her moving in the other direction. Move the dog as far away from the item before attempting to retrieve it, ideally with a closed door between the item and you and the dog.
Teach the dog a leave it on cue so that they develop some self control around different items. More here: pawsitivedawgs.wordpress.com/2010/12/27/selfcontrolexercises/
Teach the dog to drop items on cue too. Work on teaching the dog to drop on cue in exchange for access to an item or reward of higher value. There is no need to ask her to drop higher value items unless you really need to and only after a lot of practice with lower value items.
More here: pawsitivedawgs.wordpress.com/2012/08/09/day-4-2/ (scroll down to Teach Your Dog to Play Tug) Teach the dog that it's AWESOME when people are around. Give the dog a bowl of some normal food, or a stuffed food toy with normal food.
Tether the dog securely, have her behind a baby gate or otherwise secure. Approach the dog from as far away as possible. Watch the dog carefully and stop moving as soon as the dog acknowledges your presence in any way. She might make eye contact, eat faster or slower, she might move her tail, or change position slightly, any behaviour that acknowledges your presence. Toss 3-5 pieces of very yummy food treats such as chicken, hotdog, ham etc. Immediately move away again. Repeat. The idea is to teach the dog that when she has something, you approaching = yummy things + distance from you. Yay!
You will soon notice that the dog loves when you approach to that safe, established distance - they are expecting the awesome things to happen. This is what we want. Now you can begin to approach one step closer and repeat.
Because resource guarding is normal to some degree in all dogs we need to do this work with all dogs all the time. It's important not to just grab stuff off dogs, otherwise we teach them that when people are around they lose stuff so better guard - not what we want at all, and not what the dog wants.
What about Cocker rage? is there such a thing?
So-called “Rage Syndrome” or “Rage-Aggression” First thing to understand is that this is rare. It is tricky to diagnose and in my three decades, working on training/behaviour with thousands of dogs (more, if you count remote work with dogs & pet owners, like this), I have had only two cases – one in a Cockapoo and one in a red Cocker – both were referred by veterinary professionals who felt it was behavioural, but after behaviour work-ups and diagnostic testing it was determined to be idiopathic, with a medical/neurological basis.
The behaviour is better referred to as idiopathic aggression, if you want to label it. But, in veterinary and behaviour, there isn’t consistent agreement as to the details about this condition. Idiopathic means there is an unknown cause. A more general label that may sometimes be seen is ‘Sudden Onset Aggression’. For it to be idiopathic, the behaviour needs to be without triggering stimuli that can be easily connected to the behaviour, there will be little to no protracted warning behaviour, sudden or explosive and uninhibited aggressive behaviour, the dog may appear confused and disoriented.
There appears to be a genetic component as the few rare confirmed cases tend to occur in a small number of breeds including Cockers, Springers, Bernese Mountain Dogs, St Bernards, GSDs, Lhasa Apsos, and Dobies etc. Because it is so rare, we don’t have a great deal of reliable research on it, and it can’t (by definition) be induced so is difficult to study. It is possible that there are a number of different things going on; idiopathic being more an umbrella term. It is likely, that these cases (of true idiopathic aggression) have a medical/neurological basis, and probably related to seizure activity, neurological damage and idiopathic epilepsy. Therefore, treatment will be related to diagnosis. However, these cases are difficult to manage so may not have good outcomes.
It was very common to hear talk of ‘Cocker Rage’ or ‘Springer Rage’, particularly in the 1980s, but this was before we had built a good science of behaviour, and a good understanding of domestic dog behaviour. Even among vets then (and to some extent, still) there has been a generally poor understanding of behaviour (they don’t cover it in their initial training, so unless they have extra quals in training/behaviour). The field of professional behaviour consultation has really only got off the ground in the last two or three decades, and with more knowledge, skill and research we are unravelling these mysteries more and more, thankfully.
Although many pet owners will describe their dog’s aggressive responding as being unprovoked, ‘out of the blue’, this is rarely the case. In most situations, the dog’s normal responding has not been observed, or not thought relevant. For the most part, pet owners might not be aware of a dog’s discomfort signalling and aggressive responding until the dog has demonstrated more escalated signalling, e.g. freezing, growling, snarling, snapping, biting. We need to move away from labelling behaviour. Ask instead, “what is the dog doing?”, and analyse the context in which behaviour occurs, so, what just happened, what is happening, what happens after, and so on. To analyse behaviour during history taking with pet owners, one of the tools used is called Functional Analysis, to evaluate the causes of behaviour – triggers for aggressive responding, consequences to aggressive behaviour.
Aggressive responding, like all behaviour, is functional for the dog. They do it for a reason. If aggressive responding is directed toward people, for the most part, it is motivated by wanting distance and relief from the interaction. The dog’s behaviour works for them – snapping, snarling or growling causes a person to immediately recoil, and possibly even retreat. Distance achieved. Aggressive responding itself may be seen in all dogs. Aggression is a normal part of the dog’s behavioural repertoire. The most common types of aggression-related behaviour include resource guarding, handling and proximity discomfort, and on-leash “reactivity”. These behaviour sets are related to achieving distance from the person and involve specific signalling repertoires, referred to as distance increasing signalling. Most dogs will attempt to request space and distance using polite and, often, subtle signals which are ignored or misinterpreted by humans, causing the dog to escalate their signalling so that it is more obvious. If that behaviour works, that’s the signalling the dog will use. It is much more likely that a dog demonstrating aggressive behaviour is motivated by distance seeking.
Idiopathic aggression is diagnosed by a CAAB (Certified Applied Animal Behaviourist) with a veterinary surgeon, and/or a veterinary behaviourist. A trainer, “behaviourist” or regular vet will not be able to diagnose this. It is diagnosed by systematically eliminating all other differentials, so diagnosis itself is a complicated process. Living with a dog who shows normal, but escalated aggressive responding is really difficult. I am sorry to anyone who experiences this with their pet. But, we have a well-formed science of behaviour, and a well established science of canine behaviour and behaviour modification. But we also have an unregulated field of training/behaviour so we won’t always see the best programs put in place for pet owners, and we won’t always see the most accurate information out there.
Help is hard to find, and a true mine-field for pet owners.
Further information
if you feel this is something that requires external professional support have a look for a positive trainer either from APDT or COAPE , both have websites.
For further information on dealing with growling see here. Click on the green writing. :
stephsdogtraining.ie/2017/10/27/the-gift-of-a-growl
www.thespruce.com/dealing-with-a-growling-dog-1118235
Information from Anne Rogers : " Growling is a normal part of their communication systems and is welcomed from our doggie pals. If we take doggie signalling along a gradient giving a zero to a warm, happy chilled dog right through to a dog that delivers an inhibited bite at 10, growling is about a 6. That means that we need to look for the 5 or 6 missing bits where our dog is signalling their discomfort. We are pushing our dogs into exhibiting escalated discomfort signalling.
What is Canine communication ?
Canine communication is made up of postures, positions, facial expressions, vocalisations, chemical communication
- dog-dog interactions, dog-human interactions, interactions with inanimate objects
- natural canid morphology lends itself well to complex communication displays; selective breeding and modern practices and the effects they have on canine morphology may impact a dog’s ability to read and send signals e.g. docking, a lot of coat on the face, extreme morphologies
- lots of mythology, so take care with interpretations - how do we know?
- concentrate on observable behaviour primarily – what is the dog doing?
- interpretations must only be offered tentatively – at best, canine signalling is ambivalent
- canine signalling is made up of distance increasing signalling (I would like some space and time in an interaction) and distance decreasing signalling (I would like this interaction to continue)
- signalling is fluid and ever-changing
- signalling will be seen on a continuum and never static (Ladder of Aggression, see pic below )
- the main functions of complex communication is to reduce friction and discomfort so signalling may be used to appease an uncomfortable individual to make interaction run smoother
- consider signalling within the entire animal’s body (so not just its eyes or tail or whatever part of the body) and always consider the context in which signalling is seen (where, when, who, how, what, when)
Some Signs :
- Yawning: this is a sign of stress and not just tiredness. Something to keep an eye out for in close interaction.
- Mouth closed: if the dog is happy and relaxed then they will have a slack jaw, mouth slightly open. If they then close their mouth it is a sign they are beginning to feel tense.
- Lip licking: same as humans, if a person becomes stressed they will usually get a feeling of a dry moth and lick their lips. A good sign of tension building.
- Half moon eyes: as if the dog is straining to look at something or just looking like there is somewhere else they need to be right now.
- Shaking of the whole body: as if they are wet and shaking off to dry.
- Turning away: the dog is trying to turn away from the person, the person maybe holding or trying to hug the dog and the dog is trying to reclaim some personal space.
Any one or all or a combination of these signs will be your dog communicating that they are feeling uncomfortable, if you miss the hints then the next stage will most likely be a growl. Please teach you children to take heed of a growl and that it means 'back off I am really unhappy about this' tell them to give space to the dog as this is what he is desperately trying to tell them.
The next step from a growl may be a body freeze, lip lick and then a warning bite, this can happen within a split second and as quick as you have seen the coming bite it may be too late to prevent it. This will most probably not be a full force bite but a physical warning to 'get off' this can be enough to cause injury so it is essential to learn these signs and that way you can prevent a situation ever escalating to this level.
The ability to recognise these signs will prevent a situation escalating into a snap or bite if a dog is feeling threatened. They are quite small signs but can give just enough warning for you to act. All dogs have the ability to bite, they may feel unwell, be in pain or acting just to defend themselves. There are many situations of dogs biting children that can be put down to any of these reasons and can cost a normally loving dog to be put down. The dog will always be blamed for biting, this is why it is unfair to leave animals and children unsupervised.
The important thing in relation to our reactions to growling is to never 'punish' it, correct it or tell the dog off. It’s important to keep the growl so give the growling dog what he wants - distance. This is just management; we now have to work on teaching the dog how to be more comfortable in whatever situation caused the growling and discomfort.
If a dog is biting or snapping, his more subtle discomfort signaling is being ignored. Dogs communicate their discomfort in a social situation using a range of distance increasing signaling as mentioned above.
If the more subtle, earlier signaling is ignored (and therefore effectively punished) the dog won't use it - there is no point, it doesn't work. So instead they use more obvious signaling e.g. the growling, snapping etc. to achieve the distance they want and need.
A dog that doesn't signal is dangerous because we don't have enough time to get out of there should there be a situation from which the dog wishes to escape."
Does you dog growl at you if you approach him when he has a bone, chew or toy? or you try and take something off him etc? this is know as Resource Guarding.
From Anne Rogers:
Resource guarding behaviour is normal, natural and necessary dog behaviour. Nobody likes to have someone take the last morsel from your plate! First thing to understand is that growling and barking is distance increasing signaling. This means that the dog is doing it because they are asking your for space. But if the dog is already growling it is likely that she has been signaling her discomfort at your proximity for quite some time. Imagine a scale of 0 - 10. 0 is the dog comfortable and happy signaling and 10 is the delivery of injurious bites. Growling comes in at about a 6 or 7 on that scale - we just miss the earlier more subtle and polite requests for space. Next thing that is also vital is to ensure that the dog has somewhere to go to be undisturbed and that the rule is that if the dog has something she's to be left alone, especially for children!
If the dog has something that you want to get back or get away from him do so only if it's dangerous to the dog, otherwise it might not be worth the risk. If you wish to proceed use diversion to get the dog away from the item - e.g. throw high value food in the other direction, get the dog's leash, open the door, open the fridge, pretend to go out or whatever gets her moving in the other direction. Move the dog as far away from the item before attempting to retrieve it, ideally with a closed door between the item and you and the dog.
Teach the dog a leave it on cue so that they develop some self control around different items. More here: pawsitivedawgs.wordpress.com/2010/12/27/selfcontrolexercises/
Teach the dog to drop items on cue too. Work on teaching the dog to drop on cue in exchange for access to an item or reward of higher value. There is no need to ask her to drop higher value items unless you really need to and only after a lot of practice with lower value items.
More here: pawsitivedawgs.wordpress.com/2012/08/09/day-4-2/ (scroll down to Teach Your Dog to Play Tug) Teach the dog that it's AWESOME when people are around. Give the dog a bowl of some normal food, or a stuffed food toy with normal food.
Tether the dog securely, have her behind a baby gate or otherwise secure. Approach the dog from as far away as possible. Watch the dog carefully and stop moving as soon as the dog acknowledges your presence in any way. She might make eye contact, eat faster or slower, she might move her tail, or change position slightly, any behaviour that acknowledges your presence. Toss 3-5 pieces of very yummy food treats such as chicken, hotdog, ham etc. Immediately move away again. Repeat. The idea is to teach the dog that when she has something, you approaching = yummy things + distance from you. Yay!
You will soon notice that the dog loves when you approach to that safe, established distance - they are expecting the awesome things to happen. This is what we want. Now you can begin to approach one step closer and repeat.
Because resource guarding is normal to some degree in all dogs we need to do this work with all dogs all the time. It's important not to just grab stuff off dogs, otherwise we teach them that when people are around they lose stuff so better guard - not what we want at all, and not what the dog wants.
What about Cocker rage? is there such a thing?
So-called “Rage Syndrome” or “Rage-Aggression” First thing to understand is that this is rare. It is tricky to diagnose and in my three decades, working on training/behaviour with thousands of dogs (more, if you count remote work with dogs & pet owners, like this), I have had only two cases – one in a Cockapoo and one in a red Cocker – both were referred by veterinary professionals who felt it was behavioural, but after behaviour work-ups and diagnostic testing it was determined to be idiopathic, with a medical/neurological basis.
The behaviour is better referred to as idiopathic aggression, if you want to label it. But, in veterinary and behaviour, there isn’t consistent agreement as to the details about this condition. Idiopathic means there is an unknown cause. A more general label that may sometimes be seen is ‘Sudden Onset Aggression’. For it to be idiopathic, the behaviour needs to be without triggering stimuli that can be easily connected to the behaviour, there will be little to no protracted warning behaviour, sudden or explosive and uninhibited aggressive behaviour, the dog may appear confused and disoriented.
There appears to be a genetic component as the few rare confirmed cases tend to occur in a small number of breeds including Cockers, Springers, Bernese Mountain Dogs, St Bernards, GSDs, Lhasa Apsos, and Dobies etc. Because it is so rare, we don’t have a great deal of reliable research on it, and it can’t (by definition) be induced so is difficult to study. It is possible that there are a number of different things going on; idiopathic being more an umbrella term. It is likely, that these cases (of true idiopathic aggression) have a medical/neurological basis, and probably related to seizure activity, neurological damage and idiopathic epilepsy. Therefore, treatment will be related to diagnosis. However, these cases are difficult to manage so may not have good outcomes.
It was very common to hear talk of ‘Cocker Rage’ or ‘Springer Rage’, particularly in the 1980s, but this was before we had built a good science of behaviour, and a good understanding of domestic dog behaviour. Even among vets then (and to some extent, still) there has been a generally poor understanding of behaviour (they don’t cover it in their initial training, so unless they have extra quals in training/behaviour). The field of professional behaviour consultation has really only got off the ground in the last two or three decades, and with more knowledge, skill and research we are unravelling these mysteries more and more, thankfully.
Although many pet owners will describe their dog’s aggressive responding as being unprovoked, ‘out of the blue’, this is rarely the case. In most situations, the dog’s normal responding has not been observed, or not thought relevant. For the most part, pet owners might not be aware of a dog’s discomfort signalling and aggressive responding until the dog has demonstrated more escalated signalling, e.g. freezing, growling, snarling, snapping, biting. We need to move away from labelling behaviour. Ask instead, “what is the dog doing?”, and analyse the context in which behaviour occurs, so, what just happened, what is happening, what happens after, and so on. To analyse behaviour during history taking with pet owners, one of the tools used is called Functional Analysis, to evaluate the causes of behaviour – triggers for aggressive responding, consequences to aggressive behaviour.
Aggressive responding, like all behaviour, is functional for the dog. They do it for a reason. If aggressive responding is directed toward people, for the most part, it is motivated by wanting distance and relief from the interaction. The dog’s behaviour works for them – snapping, snarling or growling causes a person to immediately recoil, and possibly even retreat. Distance achieved. Aggressive responding itself may be seen in all dogs. Aggression is a normal part of the dog’s behavioural repertoire. The most common types of aggression-related behaviour include resource guarding, handling and proximity discomfort, and on-leash “reactivity”. These behaviour sets are related to achieving distance from the person and involve specific signalling repertoires, referred to as distance increasing signalling. Most dogs will attempt to request space and distance using polite and, often, subtle signals which are ignored or misinterpreted by humans, causing the dog to escalate their signalling so that it is more obvious. If that behaviour works, that’s the signalling the dog will use. It is much more likely that a dog demonstrating aggressive behaviour is motivated by distance seeking.
Idiopathic aggression is diagnosed by a CAAB (Certified Applied Animal Behaviourist) with a veterinary surgeon, and/or a veterinary behaviourist. A trainer, “behaviourist” or regular vet will not be able to diagnose this. It is diagnosed by systematically eliminating all other differentials, so diagnosis itself is a complicated process. Living with a dog who shows normal, but escalated aggressive responding is really difficult. I am sorry to anyone who experiences this with their pet. But, we have a well-formed science of behaviour, and a well established science of canine behaviour and behaviour modification. But we also have an unregulated field of training/behaviour so we won’t always see the best programs put in place for pet owners, and we won’t always see the most accurate information out there.
Help is hard to find, and a true mine-field for pet owners.
Further information
if you feel this is something that requires external professional support have a look for a positive trainer either from APDT or COAPE , both have websites.
For further information on dealing with growling see here. Click on the green writing. :
stephsdogtraining.ie/2017/10/27/the-gift-of-a-growl
www.thespruce.com/dealing-with-a-growling-dog-1118235