Hearing your dog growl can be scary. We love our four-legged best friends as part of the family, but sometimes their communication can be confusing. What does the growl mean — is it a sign of aggression? Did we do something wrong as owners? Is it going to lead to a bite?
We’re here to help! Here’s a look at why your dog might growl in certain situations and how you can keep everyone safe and comfortable.
It’s perfectly normal for your dog to growl on occasion depending on the situation and context at hand. A growl often means your companion is feeling uncomfortable and is trying to let you know right away — before escalating to more extreme aggression displays like lunging, snapping, or actually biting.
Many dogs growl during play when they’re enjoying the game, either while wrestling with another dog or tugging with their owner. A big part of canine play is ritualized expressions of behaviors like running, chasing, barking, and nipping. Play is how puppies learn valuable skills like body awareness and bite inhibition, and it’s how wild wolves start to develop their hunting abilities.
If your dog growls during a play context with loose body language — and if the game seems reciprocal (all dogs or humans involved are taking turns and having a good time) there’s no cause for concern. These playful growls do not mean your dog is aggressive. They don’t mean your pet is dangerous. They just mean your companion is a canine having fun! Their vocalizations are a sign of happiness.
(You can read more about your dog’s body language in this article. If you ever can’t tell if what you’re watching is appropriate play or not, it’s a good idea to call your dog away to be on the safe side and consider getting in touch with a professional trainer who can help you interpret their signals.)
This is especially likely if your dog never used to growl but has started doing it all of a sudden, or if the growls most often occur when your dog moves or is touched in a certain way. Think about a human with a sore muscle saying “ow!” when their partner bumps into them. Your dog might be expressing a similar thing.
If you suspect your dog is growling out of pain, get them in for a full veterinary check as soon as you can. No training plan will be effective if your pet is struggling with their health.
Resource guarding growling typically occurs in the following contexts:
You can learn more about resource guarding in the context of food aggression in this piece.
If your dog growls when other dogs or people approach them quickly, when something startling happens in the environment (like a person on a bicycle riding past without warning), or in other situations that make them nervous, there’s a good chance they’re reacting defensively — even though the vocal communication sounds like an aggressive growl — and are trying to ask for more personal space.
You can learn more about fear aggression in this article. We also have a whole blog article about various types of reactivity in dogs here, depending on your pet's behavior and the contexts it shows up in!
Once everyone has calmed down, you can start thinking about how to prevent the growling (and the discomfort at the root of it) from occurring again.
Here are a few examples to think about:
This might involve:
If your dog growls often, though — or if you’re struggling to identify the cause of their vocalizations — a professional force free trainer can help. They’ll get to know your individual dog, help you understand what situations trigger their negative emotions, and equip you with resources to improve everyone’s comfort in the long run.
This is the trainer that reviewed this article:
Erica Marshall CPDT-ka, CDBC
Owner/Trainer of Wicked Good Dog Training in Christiana TN
Author of "New Puppy, Now What?"
www.wickedgooddogtraining.com
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* All Sniffspot articles are reviewed by certified trainers for quality, please see bottom of article for details *
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