Does your dog ever growl at you?

[Slick]

Does your dog ever growl at you?

Leo growls at me in a very specific circumstance. He will growl if we are lying next to each other and it's late at night, he has had a long day, and my foot gets too close to his foot. In no other circumstances does he growl. It is very confusing to me, because he lets me touch his feet with my hands no problem, and I have no recollection of ever accidentally stepping on him or kicking him. It is also annoying however, because he tries his hardest to lie as close to me as possible, but will then growl at me if I just twitch my foot in his direction as I am absent mindedly reading a book or watching a TV show.

Right now, I deal with it by kicking him off the bed or sending him to his crate. Not in a "How dare you growl at me way" but more of a "If you don't want me to move my foot, then you can't hang out so close to me".

But I don't know how to feel about it. A small part of me gets kind of offended that he will growl at me, even if there is zero other reaction (definitely no snapping, though he has shifted himself away). It also concerns me because he has the same growling reaction (under the same circumstances) with my housemate, but he definitely growls more frequently/louder (basically, he has a higher tolerance for me). He has also muzzle-punched her before (closed mouth growl/lunge) though that one I consider her fault, because she went into rough play mode while being completely oblivious of his calming signals/whale eye.

I guess I am looking for confirmation that other dogs maybe growl at other people, so its not just something wrong with my sweet dog?

 

[GoingPostal]

I can't really think of a time my dogs have growled at me, but they aren't real growly in general although I've heard the youngest and oldest growl at each other but it's so low you'd have to be right on top of them to notice. My male will raise his lip at me for messing with his paws too much which is almost the same though.

 

[BostonBanker]

I don't think Meg has ever growled at me.

Gusto has. He is not a dog who likes handling, and I worked hard to get him to tolerate being picked up. There was growling (although it never went further than that) in the beginning.

I also let him play growl and even mouth me when I'm getting him amped up. I don't know if that counts, though.

 

[Laurelin]

Summer no never. I have never heard her growl at a person ever. Actually all of her growling has been directed at Mia or Beau. lol

Mia has but not regularly. And she bit me once a year or two ago. It was very light though, just a warning. She's a lot more finicky about being moved, etc. So we do a lot of work with her being okay with that. She's only growled a small handful of times.

Nikki growled ALL the time. Even when you'd tell her to go potty and she didn't wanna. She'd chew you out the entire way out the door. Just a very grumbly growly dog and she really meant nothing by it.

 

[Xandra]

Yeah Roman does sometimes, mostly from concentrated rubbing or stroking in one spot for too long, but sometimes if I'm doing his nails or something. It's not a serious growl, sometimes it's almost a humming sound, and if I ignore it, it becomes increasingly high pitched until it's a whine lol.

 

[Ozfozz]

Cobain will "play growl" when playing tug. That's it.

Rigby has never growled, bared her teeth, snapped or lunged at me. However, she is seemingly incapable of growling and instead it comes out as a bizarre gurgling noise (she has done this whilst playing tug).

Oz growls all the time. Coming into the room where someone else is sleeping? Growl. Pick him up? Growl. Go near him with food? Growl. Move while he's in the bed? Growl.
He's not my dog, I no longer care enough to work on that.

Ruby is also very growly. Especially when it comes to dogs coming near her whilst she is on the bed or couch. We used to remove her, however, none of the dogs acknowledge her presence when she does this and proceed to walk over her anyways.

 

[Beanie]

Auggie will growl when he can't see it's me, so I don't think that counts. Pepper also growls when she doesn't know who it is (or if you're my dad) but I also don't think that counts.

The boys both play growl.

I have no idea if I've ever heard Georgie growl, now that I think of it. If she does it's probably pathetic and overly girly. =P


I've only heard Payton growl "for real" one time.

 

[Brattina88]

Nope, never.

Bailey makes this aroooo noise that one little kid thought was a growl when she brings a toy to me, but it's not a growl. Maddie will growl at Bailey when she jumps on her when she's sleeping. Actually, they both do that to eachother :rofl1: but they've never growled at me.

 

[JacksonsMom]

Nope, never.

My dads dog, Lilly growls at us all the time tho, little brat.

 

[ruffiangirl]

Gage tried to when we brought him home at 8 months old, I think his old owners let him, he learned quick that what we say goes and hasn't since.

Neither of the little dogs have growled at me, they had only ever snapped at the brush when I pull a bit too much.

 

[Maxy24]

Tucker is grumpy when he's sleepy. So he growls if you touch him too much while he's resting. Like one time my mom decided to lay her head on him while he was asleep (to cuddle), he said no with a growl. Mom didn't stop for some reason (something about not rewarding growling I'm sure) and he didn't do anything, just the one growl. He goes to sleep with my parents in their bed and sleeps by their feet. If they move and touch him he growls. After a few times he gets up and goes to his own bed. Petting him while he's asleep has never caused a growl but he looks obviously miserable and will show calming/appeasement signals (often lifting his back leg to expose inguinal area, the only other time he's done that is when being overwhelmed by meeting multiple dogs). My brother does this fairly often, he's unaware Tucker dislikes it. I get a little worried about it because my mother insists on hugging him so much, including when he's sleepy and just her face being RIGHT THERE worries me. But he also adores my mother so I'm not sure he'll ever really escalate beyond a growl. Most of the time he doesn't even do that, I think it takes some trigger stacking. Actually I can only think of twice that he's done it out of the many times she's hugged him while he's resting, but I'm not home most of the time so who knows. I don't worry about the growling when they bump him in bed at all, he's just being a grump and complaining, he knows he can move, that's why he does. I don't think he'd escalate.

The other thing that makes him growl at us is if we try to physically move him off of the couch or bed. That I find more problematic because it's obviously resource guarding and he occasionally escalates to a snap. My parents don't train dogs, so right now we just manage it by not physically moving him off of the couch. If we want to sit there we just pretend we're going to sit on him and he moves out of the way. Apparently he doesn't think he can communicate with butts, so it works out. I'm pretty sure my dad physically moves him out of his spot in bed every night though while the dog snarls something awful and he's never escalated in three years. It's something I'd like to work on though. But dad won't do any training so I don't know how much I can do. He has let me move him before (slide him over while he's lying down) without saying anything. He has a very weak bond with my dad so tolerates him less.


He used to growl when he had stolen objects and you tried to take them. That was an easy fix. He regresses a little when I'm not home because I'm sure my parents take things from him while yelling at him, so he'll freeze up a bit, but he soon remembers he has nothing to worry about with me. It's funny how a dog can be freezing and giving you whale eye because he's possessive of something you want to take from him and you simply step back and ask him for it and all of a sudden he's bright and happy and brings it right over for you.


But in any case, I don't consider growling that big of a deal anymore. It's simply a dog complaining or asking you to leave him alone/stop. I don't really consider it a threat unless it's coupled with some other more serious signals (hard eyes and freezing). Snapping is much more concerning to me. A dog can growl about something his whole life and never escalate. Just like most people who don't get their way don't go punching anyone. Not that it can't escalate, of course it can. Some of that is knowing your dog, some of that is knowing how to respond. Obviously if you push back or prolong the thing he dislikes you may see escalation. If it's something you are going to have to do then work on changing how your dog feels about it to eliminate that risk. But I don't think it's the sort of behavior where people need to freak out and start worrying about getting rid of the dog or putting him down like some people make it out to be. People get super offended by it, all he did was complain. I guess it depends on the dog though, I'm sure some might escalate from growl to bite much quicker.


I think teaching him to get up and move when he's annoyed is a good thing, a very useful way of teaching him to handle his emotions, but be careful of how you do it just so you don't put yourself in harm's way if you think he may escalate.

 

[Fran101]

Nope. Not unless we are playing tug and I encourage it.

Honestly, I know they are animals and **** happens but I don't know how I would feel if i had to worry about getting growled at as a warning or bitten by my own dog if I cross the wrong line or something.

Then again, it depends on the kind of growl. I think I took this question to mean more like snarl lol not just like grumble grumble. Either way, No merlin has never growled at me one way or another

 

[Oko]

Wesley is grumpy if he's in a deep sleep, so yeah I've been growled at for jostling him, but when he fully wakes up he's like 'oh whoops, didn't mean that.'

Feist still sometimes has trouble being taken by the collar and led somewhere if she's riled up, so she flips over and attacks my hand (inhibited) and growls...it's a WIP :rofl1:

She also growls when she's really happy? Yes she's weird. And when tugging.

 

[Linds]

Wesley is grumpy if he's in a deep sleep, so yeah I've been growled at for jostling him, but when he fully wakes up he's like 'oh whoops, didn't mean that.'

That's Traveler. To be fair, I manhandle him like crazy all the time and when he does growl at me he then always wakes up, comes over and kisses me like "Totally didn't mean that, still love me?" It's never worried me!

Oh and while tugging and playing. Then it sounds like I'm hosting a dog fighting ring.

 

[Oko]

Oh and while tugging and playing. Then it sounds like I'm hosting a dog fighting ring.

I was walking through a park with Feist one time, and there were a ton of people around. I started tugging with her and was smacking her around and she was growling, and then I looked up and realized people were looking at me...and thinking I was actually trying to get it back from her :rofl1:

 

[crazedACD]

Only Skye. Over laying in bed..once she's settled, she doesn't want to jostled or moved . And she is a groany grumbly dog anyway, it's almost never a serious 'guttural' growl. If she does seriously growl, she gets kicked off the bed.

 

[sassafras]

Oh god, Pip growls about every little thing he doesn't like anyway, but he is a resource guarder. He's never bitten me over anything, though I don't really try to take things away from him without trading up anyway.

Squash play growls when he's really worked up. Well, it's really more like a freight train roar. And Maisy will play growl when we are playing tug. But the youngsters have never "seriously" growled at a person in their lives, though.

 

[Slick]

I think teaching him to get up and move when he's annoyed is a good thing, a very useful way of teaching him to handle his emotions, but be careful of how you do it just so you don't put yourself in harm's way if you think he may escalate.

Luckily, Leo has a rock solid crate command so that is not a problem. I can tell him "in your crate" from anywhere in the house, and he will go straight there. Wish I could've taught him the rest of his commands that well :rofl1:

And I totally agree with you about the bond thing you mentioned. With me, its definitely more of a small grumble (so little it took me a while to realize he was actually growling) whereas with my roommate its definitely an audible growl.
It's also worth noting that I only adopted Leo in November (at 8 months), so I guess there is no knowing what kind of negative experiences (if any) he has had that are associated with feet.

 

[noludoru]

Middie growls all. the. time. When he wants something, to say hi, to exercise his vocal chords. . . all the time. Not in a "don't touch me" way, because lets face it, he loves that.

Oh and while tugging and playing. Then it sounds like I'm hosting a dog fighting ring.

Yeah it's more of a roar then. Kind of funny.

 

[krissy]

Summit growled at me once when we'd only had him for a few months. He was laying on our bed and I went to get him for a walk. He didn't move when I called him, so I kind of reached to touch him and he growled and jumped up and followed me to the door. Only other time was recently when he was hit by a snowmobile and I was right there trying to pull him out of the way. But he didn't really growl at ME. He snarled and snapped as he was going down out of fear and pain. If I had accidentally been in the way he totally would have bitten me by accident, but he wasn't going for me... so I guess that does 't really count.

Kili has grumbled once or twice if she was on the couch with us and we moved or bumped her but honestly, I wasn't really sure if it was a growl or not. It was sort of like "did you say something?". Lol and Kili growls when I play tug with her, which I encourage and will growl back at her. Ad of course, she growls at other dogs when she plays with them.