Toby's Growl

[Len]

Greetings and Happy New year to all:

Please forgive me if I should have continued the thread from last year. I thought it best to start a new one. This is my latest post of Toby's peculiar (and sometimes annoying) growl. Each video I've captured is a better example of his behaviour and I'm compelled to post.

Recapping -

Toby is a neutered 3 year old male lab who is extremely friendly to all and very energetic. He's never acted aggressively to anyone. But often when he has a toy or when we wake him up from his bed, he will growl in a very menacing way. Despite this, his ruff is not up, his tail is wagging and he leans into us like a purring cat. He always allows us to take the toy. His growl sounds as if he's guarding but his manner contradicts this.

Is he trying to tell us something? Check:

Once again, thank you -

Len

 

[snowbunny]

Hey Len, great to see you again! It's always fine to start a new thread, or continue the last one. Whichever suits you better.

Sorry, I can't see the video at the moment. It says it's been "removed by the user".If this is the same for everyone, it may be your privacy settings on it?

 

[Selina27]

Hi, @Len, yes, it's saying the same to me !

 

[Len]

Sorry. Try

and let me know if this works.

Len

 

[snowbunny]

Toby is just delicious!! It still looks and sounds really conversational to me. A couple of my dogs growl quite ferociously when they play with each other, but it sounds a lot like this. It's a very different tone to a "real" growl

Love him

 

[kateincornwall]

I honestly dont see this as aggressive in any way, he is talking to you , thats all . His facial expressions are ones of gentleness , I dont see it as anything to cause concern .

 

[Joy]

I agree it sounds like contented 'purring'. His eyes and face look completely relaxed while he's making his sounds and he's not crouching over the toy in a protective way, and in fact let's you take it as soon as you ask.

 

[Cupcase]

First he's gorgeous and I think he's a talker. We had a dog that did that when he was getting tummy rubs. The one I have now seldom barks but uses so many different noises to communicate, my particular favourite is when he wants something, it's mumumumumum.

 

[Candy]

Sorry. Try

and let me know if this works.

Len

Oh, sweet, sweet boy! To me that's not really a growl, it's more what I'd call 'a happy dog grunty noise', particularly accompanied by the body language. My previous Lab made this noise when having belly rubs.
Good to hear from you again!

 

[MrChew]

Agree with the others. My dog does this when snuggling or "chatting" to you or when you find an itchy spot.

 

[Lisa]

I agree with the others. If he was guarding the toy you would know the difference. He would grab it tighter, ears back, face tense, turn his head away, etc etc. Toby isn’t doing any of this. Sounds like happy grunts/vocalizations. I wouldn’t worry. He is so cute!

 

[Oberon]

Nothing to worry about. My dog Obi is exactly the same. He’s just having a chat. Absolutely fine to respond with playing, scratching, general roughing up and big smiles

 

[Rosie]

Love him! Big gentle bear.

 

[Jacqui-S]

He's a happy bunny