good information to know- A Growl is a Good Thing

A Growl is a Good Thing | Cold Nose College

www.coldnosecollege.com

 

Has your dog ever growled?  If so, you’re not alone.  Whether it’s in one of our group classes or in an in-home behav­ior con­sul­ta­tion, peo­ple seem to be either embar­rassed or angry because their dog has growled.  Just as it’s unre­al­is­tic for a per­son to go through their entire life and never raise their voice, it’s also unre­al­is­tic to expect your dog never to growl.
In real­ity, a growl is a good thing!  A growl is your dog’s way of say­ing they’re not com­fort­able with what­ever it is that’s occur­ring at the moment they growled.  Whether it’s growl­ing at another dog, a per­son or per­haps you’re not even sure exactly what the dog is react­ing to, from the dog’s point of view, there “is” a reason.
Unfor­tu­nately, in response to the dog say­ing “Help! I’m not com­fort­able with this sit­u­a­tion,” most often, the owner’s response is to shout at the dog or put their hands over the dog’s muz­zle in an attempt to keep them quiet, adding an addi­tional layer of stress on top of an already stressed dog. Think about it.  If you were already uncom­fort­able with a spe­cific sit­u­a­tion and were try­ing to let your friend know by rais­ing your voice and your friend slapped their hand over your mouth in an attempt to quiet you, would that make you more com­fort­able?  I doubt it.
Here are five things you can do if your dog growls:

• Embrace the sit­u­a­tion.  Real­ize your dog’s vocal­iza­tion is a sign your dog is uncom­fort­able.  Don’t be embarrassed.
• Assess the sit­u­a­tion.  Look around and attempt to deter­mine what the trig­ger (the stim­u­lus) was that caused your dog to growl.
• Increase dis­tance between your dog and the stim­u­lus.  Some­times dis­tance alone will help your dog become more comfortable.
• Be pre­pared to remove your dog from the sit­u­a­tion if increas­ing dis­tance didn’t help. Don’t be tempted to make the dog endure an already uncom­fort­able envi­ron­ment which can increase stress and also exac­er­bate the dog’s behavior.
• Change your dog’s opin­ion about the thing that made them growl.  Per­haps it’s a small child and the dog hasn’t been around chil­dren.  Instead of a dog think­ing “child = bad thing!” you want them to think “child = good thing!”  Counter con­di­tion­ing and desen­si­ti­za­tion is the appro­pri­ate way to accom­plish this and very effec­tive when imple­mented slowly and con­sis­tently over time. If you feel you’re over your head, call in the help of a dog trainer who uses pos­i­tive tech­niques and who is also skilled in behav­ior mod­i­fi­ca­tion.  Here’s info on how to choose a dog trainer.

And a final note of cau­tion:  Never, ever pun­ish your dog for growl­ing.  Pun­ish­ment might make the dog stop growl­ing, but the under­ly­ing emo­tional stress is still there.  If you use pun­ish­ment, you’re merely tak­ing away the “warn­ing signal…..the growl” which is your dog’s way of say­ing, “I’m uncom­fort­able!” and the dog may go straight to a bite.
So, if your dog growls, con­sider it a good thing and do the work nec­es­sary to help your furry friend in the midst of a stress­ful situation.