Growling?

Rosie

Rosie

Location
South Wales
On the growling, I can't offer any better advice than you've got already. Until a few months ago, Pongo never growled (except in his sleep - he has very vocal dreams!). He is six years old now.
Then for the last few months it is as if he has discovered that he has a voice - he has started making growly noises every now and then, always when apparently quite happy and waggy-tailed. He also sometimes growls with excitement when he is doing that backward-scratching thing with his back feet after having a wee in the woods. I don't think it is aggression, but it is quite weird. Confusing things, dogs...!
 
Candy

Candy

Biscuit Tin Guardian
Location
West Yorkshire, UK
Rosie said:
On the growling, I can't offer any better advice than you've got already. Until a few months ago, Pongo never growled (except in his sleep - he has very vocal dreams!). He is six years old now.
Then for the last few months it is as if he has discovered that he has a voice - he has started making growly noises every now and then, always when apparently quite happy and waggy-tailed. He also sometimes growls with excitement when he is doing that backward-scratching thing with his back feet after having a wee in the woods. I don't think it is aggression, but it is quite weird. Confusing things, dogs...!
Click to expand...
I'm sure they think we're confusing!:hearteyesdog:
 
Emily_Babbelhund

Emily_Babbelhund

Mama Red HOT Pepper
Location
Regensburg, Germany
Welcome @Len and big handsome Toby! I'm a fellow Californian (SF Bay Area) but usually live in Germany. I have a young Spanish Gentleman dog named Carbón who is quite petite: Toby could probably literally walk over him. :D

I would want to defer to our behaviour experts here (of which I am not one). But I will say that my dog before Carbon, my Rottweiler boy Brogan, was quite the growler when we played. That was his "thing": I'd rub his belly or get on the floor and play with him and he'd growl and growl. It had nothing to do with aggression, some Rotties are just very talky and that's how they talk. Again, not sure how that applies to Toby if at all, just to share that growling can mean lots of things...
 
snowbunny

snowbunny

Location
Andorra and Spain
Toby is super handsome! By all mans, post a video if you can get one. As @Shaz82 said, you have to use a service such as YouTube, Flickr, Instagram, Twitter, Vimeo etc, and then paste the link in here- it should then render it so that the video displays inline.
If you need any help, just shout :)
 
HAH

HAH

Moderator
Location
Devon, UK
Welcome to you @Len and your fabulous Toby - he looks and sounds like a super fellow.
I have Kipper who is a yellow lab just over 2 yrs, and interestingly he’s never been growly but recently has started giving a little growl when we towel him off in the back of the car after a walk. Knowing him as we do (and ruling out physical reasons like pain), this was quite clearly him saying “actually, could you not?” So now we do a very light wiping in the car which Kipper is okay with and save our thorough toweling for when we get home.
It sounds like you might have a sense of Toby’s intentions already? But I think one important thing I’ve learned is that growling is a really useful way for our dogs to talk to us, so doesn’t need to be discouraged - more used as a handy indicator.
 
Joy

Joy

Location
East Sussex
Welcome - Toby looks gorgeous. Good advice from Snowbunny near the start of your thread. Some while ago my dog Molly had started to growl when I wanted her to get up and go out for a wee before bed. This was clearly her saying, 'no' but on the other hand she did need to go out. She ignored being called so I started to drop a treat right next to her. Sometimes it takes a few minutes wait but eventually she can't resist it and then gets up and goes outside. I've more recently started to let her out a bit earlier before she's really settled and very recently accidentally squeaked a ball which got her up like a shot so that's now another tool! I suppose I'm saying that if Toby is objecting to getting up try and find a way to make it more pleasurable for him and only disturb him if you need to.
 
Stacia

Stacia

Location
Malvern Worcestershire
Welcome Len and handsome boy Toby. A growl usually means, please stop doing that, or go away, but sometimes can be something totally different. Do you fear he might follow the growl with a bite? Does he show any inclination to bite after the growl? From what you say so far, it does seem as if he has no intent to bite, but only you can know that as we cannot see the behaviour yet.
 
Lab_adore

Lab_adore

Moderator
Staff member
Location
Sydney, Australia
Hi and welcome from Maxx the mad 2 year old yellow lab and I from Sydney, Australia. The only times that he growls is when we are playing tug and occasionally when he thinks someone is coming to the front door he alternates loud barking with some growls. The first we are pretty sure is just playing but the second we do worry that he is actually fearful or being protective

I hope you get to the bottom of it
 
  • Like
Reactions: HAH
Len

Len

All -

Thanks again for the welcomes and advice. When we get back from our trip, I'll post a video to YouTube and supply a link. I'll either post it to this thread or start a new one, whichever works best for the group.

I tried to record him this morning and (Murphy's Law), he refused to growl. I think he heard me telling my wife that I would post it and he is now refusing to give me the satisfaction of allowing me to record him. I hate lying to Toby, but I may have to trick him into believing that no video will be posted. I'll work on this when we return. Hopefully I'll get it done by the end of next week.

Thanks again -

LenToby.JPG
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top