Mary Allen
Has your dog just been growling at you lately? Of course, if your dog growls at you, this is NEVER a good sign.
After the initial shock on 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.
Here you will find out all the different reasons why your dog growls at you and we will give you easy-to-implement solutions to help you stop your dog from growling 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 fellows or you understand: go away, don’t come too close to me, because I feel uncomfortable or afraid in the current situation.
If your dog growls at you, the previous body signals were either misinterpreted or ignored.
When your dog growls at you, it’s time to 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 previously mentioned, growling is communication. You couldn’t read your dog’s previous signals.
He now feels threatened by you or is afraid and wants 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 NOW is the time to question YOUR own behavior.
Reasons why your dog growls at you are:
Resource defense
A resource is something that the dog has at that moment. This can be food, a place to sleep, his toy or even being close to you.
Your dog believes “what’s mine is mine”. However, if he feels like you’re trying to take away his resource and never learned impulse control, he’ll growl at you at that moment.
Stress
Your dog growls at you because he is under a lot of stress. Nowadays, dogs are bombarded almost every day by different impressions.
If you are not able to interpret your dog’s body signals and calming signals 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 try to touch it, this can be a sign of pain.
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 trained thoroughly.
If your dog doesn’t know this, he will be exposed to enormous stress in certain situations and this will result in so-called skipping actions. Your dog will growl at you or even try to snap at you.
Jumping is like a valve: he lets out all his tension and stress at once.
Overwhelmed / underwhelmed or lack of relaxation?
Too little or too much exercise can be very stressful for your dog and is often a trigger for growling.
Rest 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
Even puppies communicate with growls. Like an adult dog, you probably didn’t read your puppy’s incoming signals correctly.
However, there is also the so-called play growl in puppies. You usually hear this when you play a tug of war with the little one. This game growl is completely safe!
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 away at that moment, or when you are petting him somewhere he absolutely doesn’t like it.
IMPORTANT! NEVER forbid your puppy to growl. With this you forbid him to communicate and he may just bite you!
Now is the ideal time to start looking at the puppy’s communication and reassurance signals.
Because: if you can read your puppy and thus act according to his needs, he will no longer need to growl at you.
My dog growls at me when I pet it
If your dog growls at you when you try to pet him, there are two possible triggers:
You have exceeded your dog’s tolerance level
Lack of guidance: your dog gives you the command by growling that you should leave it alone
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 remedied relatively quickly with consistent, structured management.
Do you have a family dog where all family members take care of the dog? Then it is very important that you coordinate with each other and that you all pull together.
My dog growls at me and bares his teeth
The extra snarl is a tier higher than the growl and is already classified under aggressive behavior.
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 dog trainer before this behavior becomes established or even increased.
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 remain calm and proceed as follows:
- respond sensibly and calmly
- back off a step or two, give the dog space
- check your posture, do not create pressure
- don’t punish your dog for growling
- question yourself
Many dogs feel threatened by an aggressive posture towards the dog. Be careful not to bend over your dog and pay attention to your 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 read your dog 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.
Why? 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 will ALWAYS respond first with calming 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 calming signals (calming signals) your dog shows you when something is unpleasant 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.
Conclusion
Is your dog growling at you? Just like you’re already thinking, something’s up! Your dog doesn’t just growl at you, but you haven’t understood his signals and language until now. Before the growl, your dog has always sent out other signals!
With the growl, your dog makes it clear to you: Stop! Stop! It is enough!
But you have now learned to read your dog. This gives you a very good tool to prevent future growling. Because: now you are able to understand your dog when he feels uncomfortable and he no longer has to growl at you.
Are you thinking now, oh, that’s not so hard? Excellent! Check out our dog bible, we have lots of great easy solutions to lots of problems.