Advice needed with growling puppy

[RubyRoses]

We have a 4 month old JR terrier who is the loveliest puppy with us all at home and at his daycare. However he is obviously a lockdown puppy which I know comes with it's challenges. We have tried hard to socialise him (school gates, doggy daycare, plenty of walks in lots of places etc.) and he is pretty good with other dogs and with people/places where he is familiar, however, he has become very snappy and now growls at people when he is first introduced. This is either when they come to our garden or when we meet people out for a walk. I have tried various distractions etc. but am worried as I don't want this behaviour to continue. My DH isn't really concerned as he feels he is still young so probably just a phase whilst he is feeling anxious in these various situations, but I feel it needs sorting ASAP - I'm not sure which of us is right? Any advice would be really welcomed as I really don't want him growing up and continuing with these behaviours and we all love him to bits so want others to see how lovely he is too! Thank you

I would be very concerned about that.

Find a trainer behaviourist who can help you as this is something you need more help with to decide if it’s a problem or not.

I’d also always have him on lead with other people and do not allow people to approach him or touch him until you’ve had advice from a professional as you could be negatively reinforcing his behaviour. It could be he’s scared of people it could be he’s aggressive but you need to find the cause and manage your/his environment to minimise this behaviour. In the meantime I’d be praising him when he’s good, quiet and well behaved. Try boundary training but do find a good dog behaviourist ASAP. It will cost you (my sister is a dog trainer and behaviourist)

Althougn SirSniffsAlot in this instance classical/respondent conditioning would be used not operant

@PollyRoulson

Althougn SirSniffsAlot in this instance classical/respondent conditioning would be used not operant

Yes, the the pp advising to use a firm tone was describing operant conditioning but claiming it was not punishment. I was explaining why it had to be a punisher.

Absolutrely agree this puppy needs classical conditioning.

We had a JRT and this was how it started with him. Fine at home at first but growled at strangers. Then he started growling at us. Then he started biting us. We had numerous behaviourists and vets try to help us to no avail. As an aside, the quality of behaviourist varied wildly and as someone who knew nothing about dog behaviour, I was really surprised when the behaviourist we ended up using and trusting the most told us how outdated the methods of some of the others were.

The stress was unbelievable as no one could come into our house and I was terrified of my own dog. Just before my son turned 2, in consideration with vet and behaviourist, we had him PTS after he cornered me in the living room like something out of Cujo.

I'm obviously not saying this is where you're heading and I still feel very guilty about the choice we made 2 years on, but growling is definitely something to take seriously. To this day I don't know what was going on in my dog's head but clearly he was deeply unhappy about something. Definitely get a reputable behaviourist to help you and consult with your vet.

I would also never advocate physical chastisement.

Ok so in training my pup, good behaviour was rewarded and bad behaviour wasn't. I think that would sound pretty logical to most people. Maybe some of you need a good dose of commonsense.

@savvy7

I had similar with my dog when he was little - he would growl at my son if picked off my knee.

The only thing that stopped it was a firm no, maybe backed up with a small tap on the nose if that doesn't work.

Really don’t do this please

@savvy7 you don’t have to reward behaviour you don’t want. But you certainly don’t need to punish it with a smack to the nose.
What you suggest is outdated and quite possibly even dangerous.

@savvy7

It's not bad advice - I actually brought a dog expert in when I got my puppy.

A firm tone is not punishing a dog - it is letting the dog know that their behaviour is not acceptable.

A dog expert told you to hit your dog on the nose? Either they were an idiot or you have made this up

@savvy7

Whatever next - a small tap on the nose is hitting a dog!

Well at least you got that right

Bad behaviour should be ignored, not punished.

The other option is to get your dog to do something else and reward that instead.

There's never any need to hit tap any dog on the nose to try and get it to behave.

Bad behaviour should be ignored, not punished.

Much better to prevent the "bad" or unwanted behaviour than to ignore it.

So in this instance keep your distance from people so the puppy is not growling and reward that.

Manage your dogs environment
Keep him on a short lead and ask people not to approach him walk him when it’s very quiet and look at his body language. I can tell by looking at my dogs face if he’s stressed, he yawns and his face looks tense and he shakes a lot. Watch your dog, look at his body language. Can he meet people in the house and be ok? Is it just outside?

He’s growling because he’s scared of people or of something in his environment or he’s just going to be aggressive with people.

Go straight to a behaviourist, ask around the best ones tend to be those who don’t need to advertise. My sister gets most of her work like this.

@PollyRoulson

Bad behaviour should be ignored, not punished.

Much better to prevent the "bad" or unwanted behaviour than to ignore it.

So in this instance keep your distance from people so the puppy is not growling and reward that.

Definitely, but when it's impossible to prevent it, or if the bad behaviour has already happened, then you ignore it, not punish it.