Your dog just growls at you these days? If your dog you growls atthis is natural NEVER a good sign.
After the first shock For your part, the question now arises, why is my dog growling at me?
Growling always means: stop, up to here and no further! If this limit is not noticed, it can end ugly!
Growling is a touchy subject. This is exactly why we wrote this guide.
You can find out all the different ones here causeswhich is why your dog growls at you and we give you simply actionable solutions with you on your way so that your dog will no longer growl at you in the future.
In a nutshell: your dog growls at you
One of the ways dogs communicate is by growling. With this they want to make their conspecifics or even you understand: go away, don’t come too close to me, because I feel uncomfortable or afraid in the current situation.
When your dog growls at you, the previous body signals were either misinterpreted or ignored.
When your dog growls at you, it’s time to shut up act.
However, once the cause has been identified, this can be dealt with relatively easily.
If you are now investigating the cause and you immediately notice another problem that needs to be worked out, then I recommend our dog bible.
Here you will find the most common problems and get easy-to-implement solutions.
Causes – Why is my dog growling at me?
Are you thinking now: My dog growls at me when something doesn’t suit him?
As mentioned earlier, growl is communication. You couldn’t read your dog’s previous signals.
He feels about you now threatened or has Fear and I want to tell you this in such a way that you finally understand it. That’s why your dog growls at you!
Of course, it’s disturbing and frightening when your own dog growls at you.
And exactly NOW the time has come when you YOUR own question behavior must.
Reasons why your dog growls at you are:
resource defense
As resource describes something that the dog possesses at that moment. This can be food, a place to sleep, his toy or even being close to you.
Your dog thinks”what’s mine, that’s mine”. However, does he feel like you want to take his resource away from him and never impulse control learned, he will growl at you at that moment.
stress
Your dog growls at you because he is under strong stress suffers. Nowadays, dogs are bombarded almost every day by different impressions.
Are you unable to do the body signals and the appeasement signals interpreting your dog correctly, this means immense stress for your dog. You don’t understand him and his needs and he has no choice but to convey this to you with a growl.
Pains
But you think my dog growls and snaps at me?
Dogs are masters at hiding pain.
If your dog growls at you and even tries to grab you when you want to touch him, this can be a problem Sign from Pains be.
Especially if this behavior suddenly occurs from scratch, it is advisable to make an appointment with your veterinarian.
Lack of frustration tolerance, lack of impulse control, or anxiety
frustration tolerance and impulse control must be thoroughly trained.
If your dog does not know this, it will become enormous in certain situations stress exposed and this is discharged in so-called skipping actions. Your dog will growl at you or even try to snap at you.
skip is like a Valve: He leaves so his entire tension and his whole stress out at once.
Overwhelmed / underwhelmed or lack of relaxation?
lack or to a lot of utilization can be very stressful for your dog and are often a trigger for growling.
Quiet and Relaxation are a particularly important point.
If your dog cannot find rest or has no protected retreat, he is unbalanced. To convey this to you, your dog growls at you.
My puppy growls at me
Also puppies communicate already with growls. Like an adult dog, you probably didn’t read your puppy’s incoming signals correctly.
However, in puppies there is also the so-called game growl. You usually hear this when you play a tug of war with the little one. This game growl is perfect harmless!
Your puppy is growling at you because he absolutely doesn’t agree with the current situation’
Such situations are usually when the puppy is being held against his will, has something he doesn’t want to give up at that moment, or when you are petting him somewhere he absolutely doesn’t like it.
IMPORTANT! Ban your puppy NEVER the growl. With this you forbid him to communicate and he may just bite you!
Now is the ideal timethat you are with the communication of the puppy and the appeasement signals grapples.
Because: if you can read your puppy and thus act according to his needs, he won’t need more growling at you.
My dog growls at me when I pet it
If your dog growls atif you him stroke want to come two triggers in question:
- You have the tolerance threshold your dog exceeded
- Missing leadership: your dog gives you the command by growling, you should leave it
If your dog growls at you when you want to pet him, this is often a sign that you haven’t figured out how to lead him yet.
This can be done with a consistent, structured leadership fix relatively quickly.
Do you have a family dog where all family members take care of the dog? Then it is very important that you talk to each other and all pulling in the same direction.
My dog growls at me and bares his teeth
The extra Gnash teeth is a level higher than the growl and is already under aggressive behavior classified.
If your dog growls at you with bared teeth, you should urgently deal with the topic of dog communication. This behavior never just happens, but your dog has already told you in advance through his body language that something is wrong.
However, if you are unable to interpret your dog’s behavior, I recommend that you consult a competent one dog trainer before this behavior stabilizes or even increases.
My dog growls at me – how should I react?
When your dog growls at you, it’s always frightening.
It is therefore very important that you rstay uh and proceed as follows:
- react reasonable and quiet
- soft a step or two return, give the dog its space
- check your posture, generate no pressure
- don’t punish your dog for growling
Many dogs feel threatened by an aggressive posture towards the dog. Be careful not to lean over your dog and be mindful of yours body tension.
Possible solutions: How can you stop your dog from growling?
Of course it is the wish of every dog owner to have a friendly and loving dog at their side.
Unfortunately, there is no off switch for the growling, but it must be checked in detail what is causing it.
However, in order for you to be able to successfully investigate the causes, you must first deal with your dog’s body language and calming signals in detail.
You should learn to pet your dog read like an open book. If you can read your dog, not only will you be able to stop your dog from growling at you, but many other problems will simply disappear into thin air.
For what reason? Quite simply: because you will learn to understand your dog. Reading a dog doesn’t mean anything other than that the dog can communicate with you!
If you can read your dog, he will notice that you understand him and, above all, his needs. Growling is canine. Growling is normal. You can now use the fact that your dog growls at you to bring about a positive change.
Learn your dog’s body language
Learn to read your dog! Your dog has already told you in advance what is wrong. You just didn’t understand this.
A dog reacts ALWAYS first with appeasement signals. If you don’t notice them, he goes one step further and growls at you.
But, of course, you can learn to read your dog’s body language, and it’s not that difficult.
With the appeasement signals (calming signals) your dog shows you when something is uncomfortable for him:
- lick your own snout
- squint eyes
- smack
- paws (looks like dancing with front paws(
- yawning
- Avert gaze / turn or lower head
- Turn body away / lie on back
- tail wagging
- Sniff
- Snaking lines / walking in a curve
- slowing down of movements
- To ignore
- urination
If your dog shows you these signals, this is a sign for you that he is not feeling well. It may show several signals together, but often they are separate.
Why is it so important to understand these signals?
Imagine: you are in an uncomfortable situation and want to say to your counterpart, stop, no further, and your counterpart simply does not understand you?
Normally you would then use other means to make it clear to your counterpart that it’s enough, right?
And that’s exactly how it is, or rather, how it has been with you and your dog up until now.
He was in a situation that made him uncomfortable. He has already shown you in advance through his body language. Where something didn’t suit him.
Since you didn’t understand him, he had to go a step further. He growled at you. This is mostly unmistakable.
Now that you know your dog’s signals, it will be easy for you to figure out what triggers your dog to growl at you.
This allows you to react early in the future before the situation of growling occurs.
React instead of act!
And the best part is, if you can read your dog, your life together will improve a lot. You will be better able to respond to his needs and your bond will be strengthened even more.
Please note the following:
Don’t take growling lightly! It’s a sign that you can’t read your dog properly and need to work on yourself.
Well-intentioned old-fashioned advice like putting the dog on its back, the mustache grip, or the neck shake – have absolutely no place in these situations and are counterproductive!
If your dog growls at you, this is not a failure in dog training on your part. Don’t blame yourself, you didn’t do anything wrong! Rather, it’s a way for you and your dog to learn a new way of communicating together.
Explainer video
Conclusion
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