Skip to main content

What if your dog growls at people who are moving about

 Dogs growl as a means of communication and it is important to realise that this can mean many things. It may mean another dog, or a person, is behaving in a way that it causing them stress or annoyance. Although they can’t speak the way we do, they have their own vocal language to communicate.

One specific use of growling 

This blog is going to look at just one specific use of growling - a dog growling when people they aren’t familiar with (or maybe people they aren’t particularly close to) move about the room, stand in a doorway, stand in the room talking etc. All of these scenarios could also happen outside in the garden, or anywhere really.

The dog is showing their anxiety 

Ok, so you’re sitting with your dog in the company of people the dog isn’t really used to. Someone gets up and starts to move about to do something. Not something to do with the dog, just some business of the person’s own. 

Some nervous dogs can really struggle with this. A nervous dog lacks confidence and might start growling.

"Why? The person isn’t going to do anything that concerns the dog!"

You know that and everyone there knows that, but the nervous dog doesn’t.  Dogs monitor everything that is going on.  A confident, relaxed dog may notice that someone is standing up, moving about etc. and they won’t care.  The anxious dog, however, will see this as something they have to worry about. Growling in this context can be the dog’s way of trying to prevent the person approaching them. They might even take it further and rush at the person in an attempt to keep them away. This more overt behaviour in this context is still fear based, even though it may not look like it.

These scared dogs are not being ‘nasty’ in any way. 

People often misinterpret this growling. They might think the dog is being ‘bad’. They might get embarrassed and wonder why their dog is behaving in this way. My own little dog does it in certain circumstances. He gets scared if someone he isn’t used to comes in and stands in the doorway to the room or stands in the room talking. He growls out of worry.

What should we do?

In the short term, if circumstances allow, the person could sit down so they are not looming large over the dog or in the dog’s line of sight.

However, these ‘issues’ aren’t fixed overnight. We are talking about the way a dog processes things and their feelings of fear. The dog’s mind is processing something harmless (someone moving about) as something to be afraid of. As with any behaviour we can see, it is an underlying emotion that is causing it. 

Don’t tell your dog off for growling. If you do, one of the consequences is they may well think that the person they rely on (you!) is also scary. We want to help give the dog confidence. You could try reassuring your dog and maybe give them little bits of tasty food to help form good associations with people moving about. Ultimately, if it’s just all too much for your dog, just take them away from the situation.

"What’s everyone going to think if I walk off with my dog?"

You could say something like, “he gets scared by people moving about/people standing about. I’ll just take him into the other room to let him relax.”

Longer term measures 

If you want to work on this issue to help your dog, think about getting professional advice from a force-free behaviourist to help your dog with their worries and grow their confidence in these and other situations.

Enjoy your dog and look into ways of helping them. We all get scared.


Ursula Linton



Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Dog Play - Part 1

 Dog play is a big topic so I am going to discuss it in two parts, like I did with 'Petting Dogs'. In addition, I will suggest some further reading in case you are really interested in this topic. Let's start by looking at what  isn't play Play between dogs has to be fun for each dog involved. It has to be voluntarily entered into and a dog has to be able to leave any time they want to . A dog won't play unless they feel safe,  both mentally and physically. They won't play if, for instance, they are afraid or if they are ill or in pain. This is really important and helps us to identify situations that might look like play, but may be something else entirely.  So when we think of a dog's need to feel safe as being an essential prerequisite for play, we can see that those 'play' episodes we sometimes see are not actually play. For example, one dog is bouncing happily round another dog and, although the other dog is responding, they are doing so...
Post a Comment
Read more

Why do reactive dogs behave like that anyway?

 If you live with a reactive dog you'll know how their reactivity limits the things you and your dog can do together, the places you can go together and the times of the day you can go there. It's not easy and the chances are you may have experienced stress, frustration and annoyance at how your dog behaves. It can also be very upsetting to see your dog distressed over things others take for granted. You'll also know their reactivity is only a part of who they are. Reacting to things is inbuilt Reacting to things, whether it is a real threat or a perceived threat is inbuilt. It's a fear response which is essential for survival. Think of that involuntary reaction when you jump at something before you've even registered what it is you've been scared by. Why is the dog 'going mad' at things that are just normal, everyday things to the rest of us? It's an issue of how the dog processes things, explains dog behaviour practitioner Andrew Hale*, who d...
Post a Comment
Read more

Dogs Sniffing - it's even more important than I thought

 The first blog I wrote was 'The Importance of Sniffing on a Dog Walk' . Please check it out if you haven't seen it already. I've been inspired to write this further blog on sniffing because of information I've learned recently from an online talk 1  by  Shay Kelly BSc   (Canine Behaviour Consultant and author) and a webinar 2  by  Katrien Lismont   (International Pet Dog Behaviour Trainer). I knew that through their sniffing, dogs get interesting information about the other dogs that have passed that way – things like their age, health and so on. Generally interesting stuff for dogs. They also love investigating non-dog related stuff of course – things like discarded food wrappers for example! What I had never considered before Shay Kelly's talk is that dogs can smell the emotional state of other dogs 3  (and people). They can smell stress chemicals, for example. This will form part of the information dogs are assessing when they are out...
2 comments
Read more