Puppy growling

[daylightforever]

Hello, I’m feeling quite worried and slightly at a loss here and would appreciate any advice on whether I’m over reacting or what to do.

I have a 5 month old cockapoo puppy. He’s y he sweetest thing and has been so easy to train, really affectionate and calm with other dogs, me and children.

However, I’ve noticed recently he’s started growling if he doesn’t want to do something. He’s done this less than a handful of times but it’s worried me. So the instances are: a few weeks ago, I gave him a duck neck to chew for the first time and he was eating it and he moved it to his bed. I went to pick him up and the neck to move him away and he growled.

I haven’t given him once since.

A few days ago, he was lying down and I went to pick him up and he growled because he didn’t want to be disturbed.

Yesterday he was playing with another puppy who was very friendly but much bigger and boisterous and I decided time out. The other owner got hold of her dog and I went to pick mine up and he quietly gave a short growl but she noticed it straight away and said did he growl at you.

The other thing he does, is if he doesn’t like something you’re doing he mouthes you a bit but there’s never any force behind it. It doesn’t hurt or scare me but at the same time I don’t like it and am worried it’s a sign of aggression or future aggression.

Im feeling quite worried. He’s really the sweetest thing and I feel I have let him down or done something wrong.

If there’s any help or advice I’d be very grateful thank you!

Stop picking him up! It's crystal clear that he doesn't like it or want you to do it.

With the duck neck - would you be happy if you were eating a delicious piece of cake and someone 10x your size loomed over and tried to pick you up and take you away from it? You need to get him to drop the neck and come to you voluntarily - the best way is to distract them with a toy or treat.

Again, when he's lying down why do you feel the need to go and pick him up? If you need to move him then call his name and get him to come to you. You could offer a treat or toy for this as a reward.

If he's playing with another dog and it gets rough just call him away. If he won't recall reliably then he shouldn't be off his lead - in which case you can use the lead to get him to come back to you

Honestly - just stop picking your dog up!

Do you need to pick your dog up all the time? You could put a lead on his collar I’m sure he’d prefer that, it might be he feels uncomfortable when you pick him up because he’s bigger than he used to be.

Does he guard food and toys normally? If he doesn’t know a ‘drop it’ or ‘give’ command it’s worth it to google/ YouTube how to teach him this. Like the previous poster said, it’s like your mum giving you cake as a child and you being upset when she took it away. He might just need more communication from your end and a warning that you want the food/toy off him.

Growling is a completely normal way for a dog to communicate, they will have also used body language but it can take a while to learn what that looks like, especially whale eye and stiffening of the body.

If you were eating a lovely bit of cake etc would you sit there silently with positive body language if someone took it off you?

Would you be silent if someone came and picked you up?

Dogs say no thanks as well as humans.

Growling to guard high value resources like the duck neck is quite normal & we'd likely complain if someone came to whip away a tasty meal we'd been enjoying. It's best to offer a good trade for giving something up and learning that it doesn't always result in the object being taken away. Teaching a leave or drop command come in time but you'd start with items of low value that the dogs don't mind giving up. With bones etc I'd always go for a trade up, moving the dog away and remove it after if potential for issues.

You've mentioned the growling was in response to being picked up in other scenario's so that could be pain related or just dislikes being lifted without choice. It's not necessary most of the time as you'd not do it with a large dog.

What sort of things are you doing when he mouths? It seems more asking to be left be rather than aggressive, if it's necessary things like grooming it maybe you need to gain his acceptance gradually over a slower period so is relaxed.

Don't pick your dog up. Why would you?? Would you pick up your dog if it was a Bloodhound or a Husky? I'd growl if someone tried to pick me up and away from my favourite meal.

I had a dog who for the whole 18 years of her life would growl if you picked her up. So we respected that and only did it when it was nessecary. You are annoying the dog by picking it up, it's not a toy and it is setting boundaries with you that you are not respecting.

Thank you! I feel this is all my fault.

Im going to stop picking him up. He doesn’t mind if all the time but it’s clear if he’s relaxing and doesn’t want to be disturbed I shouldn’t do it so I’ll just leave him be and let him come to me.

Thank you for all your advice. He doesn’t guard any of his toys or anything else. He’s quite good at not picking things up on the road but occasionally he’ll pick up tissues or some foil and he doesn’t like dropping it.

Ive tried teaching him the drop cue but we need to do a lot more work with it.

Im just a bit stressed because I went to a puppy class yesterday and mentioned the growling to the trainer and she said it was very worrying and likely a sign or resource guarding. But I’ll just work on it by swapping for high value stuff and giving ample warning time and distractio and stop annoying him by picking him up.

Completely stop picking your dog up. All the time, never do it.

Resource guarding is not the terrible thing you imagine. It's not ideal, certainly. But some breeds/dogs are prone to resource guarding and it's perfectly reasonable to have a loving relationship with a dog who resource guards.

My first tip would be - never disturb your dog where food is involved. Give him a safe place to take his bones/meat/food and once there, leave well alone. Don't stop treating him with yummy food just because he growled. That's unfair on the dog, it was your mistake not the dogs.

You've got good advice in this thread.

Resource guarding comes in degrees, not too uncommon especially with high value items, and hopefully your dog is on lower end of scale.

It often does present in 3 ways.. resource guarding, body handling issues and location guarding. You've seen 1 & 2 so just be aware of possibility of 3 where he might guard sofas, beds, favourite places.

Try to keep him under threshold, so he's not in situations where he feels the need to growl. You're doing this already by not giving him high value items and using commands to get him to move rather than lifting him.

I would keep up with the low level body handling that he is comfortable with...so grooming him, examine paws etc, so that he is in the habit of being touched when necessary. And also keeping up exchanging items he is happy to do he stays in that good habit.

I built up to lifting my dog through use of treats because I didn't want lifting to become entirely impossible in case he was badly injured etc. But yes, try to make it all relaxed, fun and rewarding and just ignore him and move away when he growls - try not to make it into a big deal.

Why are you picking him up all the time? I'd be pissed off and growl too. Also leave him be with a high value treat. Give him it somewhere that it doesn't matter where he takes it (why can't he have it in his bed).

We have exactly the same with our 17 week old. Very sweet and easily trained other than the odd growl like you when I've tried to move her when she's relaxing - I only need to move her because she likes to snooze by my feet in front room early evening but when I go up to bed, I let her out for a last wee and then put her in her crate to sleep. Like you, the growling worried me and upset me and made me fear I had an aggressive pup.... now I've learnt to get her up and out for that last wee I have to get a really high value treat like a small bit of hot dog or cheese and call her out to me in the kitchen and she sleepily gets up and wanders out she won't get up for any old treat though!! She does let me pick her up on other occasions eg getting in the car or if she's not sure of something on a walk and we have no growling then so it is definitely a case of leaving her be when she's relaxing and yes definitely don't just try and take a treasured toy or treat away x

A cockerpoo is half cocker, obviously, and cockers (show type, not so sure about working type) are a very, (very!) vocal breed. Ours has been hugely vocal her whole life, and communicates with us by whining (from the loudly piercing to the barely audible), many tones of growling, ‘woo-woo-ing’, howling/gargling and barking. It has driven us nuts many times over the years, especially now that she’s elderly and completely deaf, and barks more than she ever did. It makes us laugh as well, though, and is an integral part of who she is - she’s extremely skilled at getting us to do exactly what she wants. All the many show-type cocker owners I’ve chatted to over the years have found exactly the same thing, and I’ve observed it in many more when out and about.

She even growls when she’s chosen to go and sunbathe on the roasting hot patio, and then feels too hot. 🙄

That completely normal. Most dogs I know will growl or grunt of you do these things. My dog growls but I just pick him up, show I'm not frightened of him and move him to where I need him to move too.

It's not a good idea to just do it anyway, when they realise a growl isn't working and their communication is being ignored they could well by pass that and go straight for the bite with no warning instead. You need to teach your dog what you do want it to do not what you don't. Teach off, down, leave it etc. When my terrier was a pup she started growl when you attempted to get up if she was on your lap. After it happened more than once, using high value treats I taught a move command so now when you say move she immediately jumps off your lap.

Puppies obviously aren’t people... but...

If he was a toddler/small child - and you picked him up and moved him without explaining while he was halfway through a bar of chocolate or playing at the park with friends... would you now be worried if the child had objected?

Because that’s what that growling is, it’s just him going, WTF? No... I don’t want you to manhandle me just now.

@lotstolose1

That completely normal. Most dogs I know will growl or grunt of you do these things. My dog growls but I just pick him up, show I'm not frightened of him and move him to where I need him to move too.

Please don't do this, it's so irresponsible

All you're doing is teaching your dog that growling isn't enough to get people to listen to you. Which, in turn, will teach him to escalate from a growl to a snarl, snap and eventually, a bite.

It's nothing to do with you being frightened of him

Thank you for all your comments. I’m going ro avoid picking him up or just taking things away.

Can I ask what should I do about the putting the teeth on me? It’s definitely a statement although he doesn’t use any force. But I can’t avoid doing those things that make him do it so easily. Like sometimes I have to move him away or check his paws and he then just will put his teeth on me. He doesn’t do it all the time but he definitely does do it.

Can I ask what should I do about the putting the teeth on me? It’s definitely a statement although he doesn’t use any force. But I can’t avoid doing those things that make him do it so easily. Like sometimes I have to move him away or check his paws and he then just will put his teeth on me. He doesn’t do it all the time but he definitely does do it.

If you need to move him, you need to encourage him away with treats, or have a house-line attached to him so you can move him while keeping your hands away from his mouth :)

If you need to check his paws, have you tried distraction? So using a kong or lick-e-mat so his focus is on the food rather than what you're doing? You just need to do some desensitisation so he associates you touching his paws with good things.

The moving away he's probably interpreting as play, teach a command to move him, other occasions you can redirect to a toy. The paws feed him treats are you're handling paws so this becomes a positive experience for him. Tbh my dog is a year old and can still be mouthy when excited. She's never ever gone too far, as I did re direction as a pup she regulates this herself now and she'll mouth a little then trot off and get herself a toy and bring it back to play tug with. Have tug type toys available in each room

This is the tricky thing in these situations, the dog can generalise and learn that it can apply body language, lip curls, growls etc to a range of scenarios because it 'works' for them in other instances. So the range of behaviours it is happy to apply these behaviours to expands; it starts to control more and more scenarios. And especially around this adolescent phase this is something to be mindful of.

I stand by my original advice that, when the display is happening, especially at the level of growling, I think you do need to distract / ignore, move away etc. The arousal levels are too high to meaningfully achieve positive behavioural results. The real danger with confrontation is of escalation and biting, and then the dog learns it is capable of biting to achieve what it wants at that point in time - people/ other dogs backing away etc.

However, this does not mean the dog has a carte blanche to do whatever it wants. You absolutely double down on the training in other scenarios and establish authority on a general day-to-day basis.

You don't do this in a conflict situation; you do it as part of training. Getting your dog under rigorous control means that you establish the solid relationship of authority over it so that it is less likely to enter that headspace of 'I can control this resource, this location, my body' etc. So to my mind, definitely keep up the reward based training, the commands, the general air that you are in control all the time. And from my experience it doesn't need to be austere, you can have a very affectionate relationship with your dog but you have still put the effort in to train them and establish that authority,

Thanks suggestions! Yes very good advice. I’m feeling a bit less panicked. I think I straightaway went to worst case scenario but I also feel he’s a lovely dog so it’s just about making sure he understands boundaries and that I’m the boss.

Thank you so much everyone!

@daylightforever

Thank you for all your comments. I’m going ro avoid picking him up or just taking things away.

Can I ask what should I do about the putting the teeth on me? It’s definitely a statement although he doesn’t use any force. But I can’t avoid doing those things that make him do it so easily. Like sometimes I have to move him away or check his paws and he then just will put his teeth on me. He doesn’t do it all the time but he definitely does do it.

Tabasco sauce on the fingers. A work colleague used it on her skirting boards, no more chewing