Control Your Dog’s Growling
It’s usual for a puppy or dog to growl when you play tug of war with him. You must be aware that growling is a sign of aggression and that your dog may attack or bite!
You should know if the growling is appropriate or inappropriate. If your puppy or dog is eating or playing with a toy and growls when you get close, that isn’t behavior you should allow. Your dog is showing all the signs of dominance over you.
If the growling starts with no obvious reason, a visit to the vet is called for to to ascertain if there is a medical cause.
Growling can be a sign of your dog exerting dominance over you. So, the next thing you be sure of is that you position yourself as the pack leader in your home. This is the foundation of solving many dog behavior problems.
To become the pack leader, you should adopt the approach of NILIF (Nothing In Life Is Free). This approach means that you ask your dog to do something before you give him anything. With this approach, you can’t allow your dog to demand attention from you. If you allow him to demand attention, you have just lost your position in the hierarchy. Just ignore him when he demands attention. You choose when to offer him attention. If he tries harder you must not give in or all is lost.
With NILIF all in the house need to be persistent and consistent.
So, for example, you request your dog to sit and wait patiently before you place his meal down or before you let it out of the house. Don’t allow your dog to offer a behavior before you ask for it – that doesn’t count.
Walk through the door before your dog when leaving the house. You can let your dog see you eating a small snack like a biscuit before you put down his food since the alpha dog eats first. You are only required to do this for a couple of weeks to position yourself as the pack leader.
Everyone in the household needs to engage in this process to place them higher in the hierarchy than your puppy or dog.
The leader of the pack goes to higher ground to sleep, so do not allow your dog to rest on your bed if you want to be more dominant.
You should do consistent training sessions with your puppy or dog. Make the training sessions short and fun. This will help in making your dog better behaved in general.
Read more about how to stop your dog growling and other aggression in dogs.
